Whiteoak wins sectional championship with OT win over Green

MCDERMOTT — “Big Cat Nation!”

Those words yelled by Whiteoak head coach Blake Kibler never sounded so good to the Whiteoak faithful on Wednesday night, as he stood above them on the ladder after he cut down the net in celebration with his Wildcats becoming sectional champions.

It took until the final seconds of overtime, but the Wildcats fended off a strong surge by the Green Bobcats for a 59-56 Division IV SE District Sectional Final win, at Northwest High School, stamping their ticket to the Ohio University Convocation Center this Sunday and a spot in the district semifinals. This is the first time Whiteoak has been to the district round since the 2010-11 season, and this is their 14th sectional title.

"We haven’t been to the Convo since 2011, and that was our goal from day one, to get to the Convo, and the kids really bought into it,” Kibler told The Highland County Press. “We got down by five, but we didn’t get rattled and kept hammering away, kept getting the ball inside and (Bradley) Ashbaugh made some big shots. They are just phenomenal kids.

"These kids are as tough as nails. They wanted it, and we are telling them to hang in there. Basketball is a game of runs, and we finished with the last run and won the ballgame."

The game for the Wildcats resembled their season as there were some very good moments of dominance, while the sectional final game also included some moments where they lost the lead and trailed in the second half. All of the adversity the Wildcats faced throughout the season set them up perfectly to fend off a strong Green team that made the comeback, but the Wildcats were the ones who were able to stand tall when the final buzzer sounded in overtime.

Whiteoak and Green were tied in at the end of regulation as Bradley Ashbaugh tied the game at 52 with the freshman sinking a 3-pointer with 1:29 left on the clock. After both teams didn’t score in the remainder of the regulation, the four-minute period opened with an alley-oop of sorts for the Wildcats with Traeten Hamilton making a basket while in mid-air off a pass by Ryan Roberts for a 54-52 lead.

Green came back and tied the score 20 seconds later with a basket by Gage Simpson, but this time the Wildcats had help from Zach Rand, who was on target from the free-throw line with two made shots to put WHS back in front at 56-54 with 3:10 left in overtime.

The overtime period continued with Hunter Ruckel sinking two free throws for Whiteoak, increasing their lead to four points, but Green’s Tayte Carver scored two points in the paint, making it a two-point differential with 26.1 left on the clock. Carver led all scorers with 24 points, while teammate Simpson totaled 14 points.

Green was forced to foul, where Rand made one-of-two free throw attempts for what became the final three-point lead with 18.2 left in OT. The Bobcats had one last chance to tie the score, but a final 3-pointer attempt bounced out of the hoop and off the rim to send the Wildcats to Athens.

The Wildcats were led by Ruckel with 19 points, followed by Ashbaugh with 11 points and Rand with 10 points. Also for the Wildcats, Hamilton finished with seven points, Roberts totaled six points, and Deavin Cumberland and Carr each had three points.

As for Hamilton, he battled an injury throughout the regular season, not getting a lot of time on the court, but Kibler spoke about his senior and was proud of how he played on Wednesday in the sectional finals.

"It was wonderful," Kibler said of Hamilton gaining a lot of playing time in the sectional final game. "He is our quarterback on the court, and I think when he is on the court it relaxes (Hunter) Ruckel and (Zach) Rand. He is a gamer in baseball and basketball. He'll take charges, go to the floor when he needs to, get offensive and defensive rebounds. He does things that don't show up in the scorebook, and that is what we need, so he did a fantastic job tonight."

Whiteoak and Green battled close in the first frame, beginning with Whiteoak’s Atlee Carr sinking a 3-pointer for the early lead, and even after Green scored a bucket the Wildcats kept the advantage for most of the opening frame.

WHS added to their lead with a basket by Rand, but four straight points by the Bobcats the Wildcats trailed 6-5 with 2:13 left in the the first frame. From that point on, though, the quarter basically belonged to the Wildcats of Whiteoak, with the No. 7 seed outscoring Green — a No. 2 seed — 7-2 in the final 1:51 of the first.

That string of points began with a 3-pointer from Ruckel, and after Green tied the score at 8-8, the Wildcats and the frame with a jumper from Ruckel and a steal and layup by Roberts for a 12-8 lead.

WHS kept that scoring outburst in the second, winning the frame 15-9 and taking a halftime lead of 27-17, even with Green scoring the first four points of the second. From there, with the score tied at 12, Ruckel woke up the Wildcats with a strong three-point play, followed with Roberts scoring two points on a put-back basket for a 17-12 lead with around 6:00 left in the second frame.

Green answered with a 3-pointer by Carver, only to see the Wildcats score the next seven points with a bucket by Roberts, followed by a jumper by Ruckel, and later with 54 seconds left in the frame, a 3-pointer that swished though the hoop for a 24-15 Wildcat lead as Ruckel had 13 points in the first half.

Green came back with two free throws, but for the second straight quarter WHS had the last laugh with a 3-pointer at the buzzer from Cumberland for the 27-17 halftime lead.

The third frame wasn’t the greatest for Whiteoak as they were outscored, 23-13 by Green with the shot of the quarter coming from Ashbaugh with a 3-pointer at the buzzer to push the Wildcats back in front at 42-40. The third frame for WHS also included points from Hamilton, Ruckel and Rand.

Whiteoak was outscored 12-10 in the fourth but what a quarter it became for both squads. Green began the fourth by scoring first, tying the score at 42, and eventually took a six-point lead with 5:19 left in regulation. Hamilton brought WHS a tad closer with a free-throw make, and that was followed at the 3:10 mark with a 3-pointer from Ashbaugh to get WHS back to within two points of the Green lead.

Green made two free throws off shots by Simpson, only to see Ashbaugh sink the aforementioned trey that tied the score at 52 with 1:29 left in the fourth quarter, which were also the final points of regulation.

"We knew that he (Bradley) could make threes. I remember seeing him in eighth grade last year, and he made seven or eight threes against Lynchburg and a game-winner, and I knew that kid was going to be special," Kibler said. "He wanted to be varsity right away, and I kept telling him he had to go through the ropes and he just hung in there. He just put in so much time into his game, and hats off to him. He did a wonderful job tonight."

Kibler — who played at the Convo as a player for Whiteoak — spoke about coaching his alma mater back to the district round of the postseason tournament and what that is like for him.

"I was at the Convo as a player four times, and now I'm going there as a coach ... there is no better feeling," Kibler said. "I think it is a better feeling as a coach because there is a lot more work that goes into it on this end. The biggest difference is that I coach K-12, and we are running a program and not just running a varsity team. I have to thank my wife — she's 'Coach K Jr.' — and it takes a whole team and family to achieve success. Also, thanks to our fans and how they traveled here to support us. I bet there will be even more on Sunday."