Chew on this: Tygers trip Bellevue to win sectional title

BUCYRUS – One of the nice things about cutting down the net after winning a sectional basketball championship is then getting to eat it.

At least that’s what it looked like Nathan “Chunky” Haney was trying to do as he chomped down on the twine in the center of Mansfield Senior’s celebratory team picture Friday night at Bucyrus High School.

So how did it taste?

Haney thought about it for a moment and then broke into a smile as he paraphrased the famous line from the movie Apocalypse Now.

“It tastes like victory.”

Victory No. 17, to be exact.

The fifth-seeded Tygers, with Haney as the only senior contributor, never trailed in beating No. 4 seed Bellevue 64-59 for a Division II sectional title.

It was their sixth straight victory and eighth in the last 10 games, setting up a rematch between the 17-7 Tygers and the district’s No. 1 seed, Sandusky, next Thursday in a 6 p.m. district semifinal at Ashland High School.

The 22-1 Blue Streaks, a 67-60 winner over Sandusky Perkins in Friday’s first game, handed Senior High its last loss back on Feb. 4, 79-74 inside Pete Henry Gym.

“We’ve got to lock in; we’ve got to do everything right if we’re going to beat them,” Haney said. “We did a couple of things wrong down the stretch the first time and we can’t let that happen again.”

If not for Haney’s one-man barrage in the first half Friday, it’s probably Bellevue taking scissors – and maybe teeth - to the net after the game.

Haney scored the Tygers’ first five points, including a 3-pointer, but was just getting warmed up. He capped the quarter with another triple from beyond NBA distance to make it 20-12 and then opened the second quarter with two more bombs, his back-to-back-to-back attack ending with a bank shot from the left wing – just like he called it.

Just kidding.

“I thought I was going to airball that, in all honesty,” Haney said, “... but shooter’s touch.”

Bellevue coach Ed Rich was not amused, especially since Haney ended up with his best half of the season, scoring 16 points to stake Senior High to a 38-32 lead at the intermission.

“We knew (Haney) was a shooter, but we’re not going to guard him from 25 feet,” Rich said, alluding to the deep 3. “And then he banks one in … there’s nothing you can do about it. If we extend our defense, they just go right by us. It’s pick your poison.

“He played extremely well. He’s a nice player. He’s a freak of an athlete … and shot it well, too.”

It wasn’t anything teammate Duke Reese hadn’t seen before.

“I grew up with Chunky. He’s been doing that his whole life,” Reese said. “He was a little lucky (on that bank shot), but it went in.”

Haney finished with a game-high 23 points and even though he spent a good portion of crunch time on the bench because of some nagging ailments, he was summoned with 25.9 seconds left and the Tygers clinging to a 62-59 lead.

After the ball went out of bounds to Senior High with 19 seconds left, Haney retreated all the way to the other end of the court to make a nice over-the-shoulder catch of a long inbounds pass, drawing a foul. Even though he had gone nearly seven minutes without scoring, he calmly converted both free throws to all but seal the victory.

Watching Haney turn into Ja’Marr Chase on his inbounds “reception” probably had Reese wishing he had Chunky to throw to when he quarterbacked the Tygers in the fall.

“Football’s not really my forte,” Haney said. “It hurt a little bit. I used to play in middle school and pee-wee, but once I got in high school and two-a-days … ooh, I can’t handle that.”

Even though the Redmen (16-7) couldn’t handle Haney, they opened the second half with back-to-back threes, and just like that the game was tied at 38-all. They would pull even three times – the last time at 59-59 with 50 seconds left – but could never get over the hump.

With Haney watching from the bench for most of the stretch run, the 6-4 Reese and sophomore Kyevi Roane stepped up after going scoreless for the first 29 minutes. Reese notched his first points on a putback with 2:48 left, making it 57-54. Roane took a feed from Karion Lindsay to make it 59-56 at the 1:20 mark and then Reese scored again to make it 61-59 with 39.8 seconds left to break the tie for good.

“In situations like that,” Roane said, “the bucket’s going to come to us.”

Although largely quiet offensively, Roane did have a team-high nine rebounds. And Reese, one of the heroes in the sectional semifinal win over Norwalk, added five rebounds, two assists and a blocked shot despite just the two baskets.

“I started slow and was a little bit in my head after getting in foul trouble again,” said Reese, who did most of his damage against Norwalk after picking up his third foul. “But at the end, when I got my points, I knew my team needed it.

“I wasn’t going to go away from it. I knew (my shot) was going to fall eventually. I just had to play my game.”

Tyger coach Marquis Sykes knew that Reese and Roane would stay engaged offensively, even if they didn’t make much noise the first three and a half quarters.

“They made plays. That’s the kind of guys they are,” Sykes said. “They stick to the script. They don’t stray away from the team concept and they do the things they need to do to make plays at the end of the game.”

After a rough 2021-22 season, Sykes had to be soaking up the moment as Haney and junior guard Ja’Ontay O’Bryant took care of social media responsibilities during the net-cutting ceremony.

O’Bryant gathered everyone around for a panoramic selfie, while Haney propped his cell phone against the bleachers and danced in front of the camera with the cheerleaders.

“At the start of the year, our initial goal was to win the OCC (Ohio Cardinal Conference),” Sykes said. “We came up a little short, by one game. Our second goal was a sectional championship. That’s what I talked about with the guys, and we accomplished that. We should be happy, proud and excited about that achievement, but then it’s back to the drawing board for Sandusky.”

Last year’s 7-16 finish has to seem like eons ago. But the Tygers did win three of their last four to carry some momentum into this season.

“Everyone was disappointed after last season,” Sykes said. “We felt like we let way too many games slip away. But that happens when you’re playing as many freshmen and sophomores as we were playing.

“We did have a good ending to our season. A lot of guys were motivated by that and put in a lot of work during the offseason. Some of the young guys played meaningful minutes last year and are now major contributors and playing with a lot of poise.”

Eleven Tygers saw playing time Friday and there were contributions SSup and down the roster. O’Bryant was 4 of 5 from the field and finished with 10 points, two assists and a blocked shot. Lindsay also had 10 points, adding four assists. Freshman Rashad Reed had four points and three assists off the bench and 6-5 junior Elias Owens had six points, five rebounds, a blocked shot and a backdoor dunk in 17 minutes.

Tyler Ray and Ashton Martin led Bellevue with 16 and 15 points, respectively.

“We’re a young team,” Roane said, “but a lot of us have been playing together for a long time. We have a lot of chemistry.”

They have five days to concoct something special in the lab to beat Sandusky.

“We’ve got to handle their pressure and we’ve got to rebound,” Sykes said. “It’s a simple concept, but hard to execute.”

This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Chew on this: Tygers trip Bellevue to win sectional title