Living the Hiland life: Hawks rally from 16 down to win 13th OHSAA regional title
ATHENS — Hiland's epic 52-50 comeback victory in the Div. IV Athens Regional over Northside Christian inspired some classic literature to describe the events. To paraphrase Charles Dickens from "A Tale of Two Cities": "It was the worst of halves, it was the best of halves."
After shooting a woeful 4 of 24 in the first half, and getting manhandled on the boards 25-9, Hiland found itself on the short end of a 27-11 score after 16 minutes of action.
Sharpshooting guard Sammy Detweiler was 0 of 9 from the floor and was held scoreless in the opening half, and the prospects of a return trip to Dayton for the state semis looked grim for the 20-8 Hawks.
But in the third quarter the Hawks began their long uphill climb, chug-chugging along like "The Little Engine that Could."
Shots began to fall and Hiland's defensive pressure began getting to the Lions, who missed four of their first five shots of the second half.
Detweiler, meanwhile, began finding his rhythm, dropping in a jumper from the foul line, a driving layup and another short jumper.
But the Hawks still trailed 31-18 as 6-foot-7 sophomore Landon Vanderwarker continued to wreak havoc on Hiland. He hit two free throws for his 13th and 14th points, to go with 10 rebounds he had by early in the third quarter.
"Vanderwarker's a pretty big player," Hiland senior Phin Killy said. "I've had to cover big guys before. He was a pretty hard guard. I just tried to do everything I could to keep him out of the paint. We practiced all week against taller guys like Seger Bonifant."
The 5-9 Killy, along with 5-9 Connor Beachy drew the unenviable task of trying to contain the Lions' giant.
"Vanderwalker was a really tough opponent," senior Carson Haberger agreed. "He's so tall, and he's a great shooter, great driver. He can do it all at both ends of the floor. Our goal was to keep him from scoring, and I think we did a pretty good job of that.
"And we started scoring in the second half," Habeger continued. "We didn't hit any shots in the first half, and in the second, we showed we were ready to go. We were ice cold from the 3. You just never know what's going to happen. But who needs 3s? We want layups."
A steal and a coast-to-coast layup by Habeger pulled Hiland within 11, but Vanderwalker scored twice around another Habeger bucket to give Northside Christian a 37-24 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
Habeger (10 points, 5 steals, 4 rebounds) felt the Hawks played timidly in the first half, going against Vanderwalker and 6-5 Carter Jury.
"Those guys were massive inside, with some long arms," he said. "In the second half we started going stronger to the hoop, got some calls, and turned them over. The rest is history."
The fourth quarter started with an Alex Yoder bucket inside and, after a steal on the inbounds, Yoder struck again, this time for a three-point play, trimming the Lions' lead to 37-29.
Diamauntee Jackson (10 points) got free for a bucket inside to briefly quell the Hiland charge, but Yoder struck again.
"The first quarter, first half, I really wasn't a factor on the boards, and at halftime I realized I really need to step up," Yoder said. "The coaches basically told us at halftime we've got to step up and be men and believe that it's not over. We had to go out and play to the final horn, and that's exactly what we did."
"We've been in situations like this before, and we knew not to panic, because the game wasn't over."
The Hawks 6-7 junior had five points and one rebound at intermission but finished with a team-high 20 points and five rebounds.
After a misfire by the Lions, Detweiler drove the length of the floor and was fouled on a layup, turning it into a three-point play, pulling the Hawks within 39-34 with more than six minutes left in the game.
"That first half, we played about as bad as we could play," Detweiler said. "That second half, we had a lot of faith, if we came out and pressured them, we'd get a lot of steals."
Another steal by the Hawks, and a feed to Yoder put him on the line, where he knocked down two shots to pull the Hawks within 39-36 with 6:10 on the clock.
Devontrel Jackson (11 points) swished two free throws and Yoder answered with a bucket. Vanderwarker hit two from the line and Alex Miller answered for the Hawks with a layup to pull Hiland back to within 43-40.
After timeout with 4:41 remaining, both teams came up empty on consecutive trips before Vanderwarker hit a jumper for a 45-40 lead with three minutes left.
Yoder stuck back an errant 3-point attempt to cut the lead to three. The Hiland defense forced a wide shot that led to two Detweiler free throws with 2:12 to play, trimming the lead to one.
Coming out of a timeout, the Lions threw a pass out of bounds for a turnover that led to a Habeger layup to give Hiland its first lead of the game at 46-45 with 1:40 to play.
"We led for 29:20," Lions coach Ryan Vanderwarker said. "Our message was to let that 1:40 that Hiland led sting a little bit, and then get back to work and use it as motivation for next year. We kind of got away from what we were doing in the first half. We just didn't do a good job of adjusting. We didn't stick to the game plan."
A misfire by the Lions led to a foul, and another trip to the foul line for Detweiler, who deftly drilled two shots to put the Hawks ahead 48-45. The junior finished 7 of 7 from the free-throw line, netting 15 points.
Northside Christian's fifth turnover of the fourth quarter led to two free throws by the freshman Miller to give the Hawks a 50-45 lead with 38 seconds left.
A Jackson jumper 10 seconds later trimmed Hiland's lead to three, but Detweiler delivered the fatal blow, burying two more free throws with 21 seconds to give Hiland a 52-47 advantage.
Vanderwarker connected on a 3-pointer as time expired, capping off his brilliant game 25 points and 13 rebounds.
His father and coach said he was proud of his son's effort, as well as that of his team, which finished their season 24-4.
"I'm his biggest critic, but I'm also his greatest cheerleader," Vanderwarker said. "He works hard. He's going to play basketball somewhere when he's done here. This is an opportunity for him to grow and mature as a young man and as a basketball player. He's got a bright future. He'll be back in the gym tomorrow getting ready for the AAU season."
Hiland will embark on its 13th trip to state despite shooting 0 of 12 from beyond the arc and finishing 18 of 50 from the floor. Hiland coach Mark Schlabach felt his team would have to hit about 10 3-pointers to win this one.
"Shows what I know," Schlabach said with a smile. "I really thought we'd have to hit a bunch of them because of how they play defensively. In the first half we had a lot of wide open looks. We just didn't make them."
Schlabach credits Hiland's tough schedule for its success in tight games like this one turned out to be.
"This year's team, a month ago, you'd have never dreamt we'd be here," he said. "How far this team has come, their resiliency, their toughness we preach as part of our program, to see it all come out in the end is really neat.
"We really challenged Alex at halftime because we didn't think he'd had his best half," the coach continued. "He just responded. That's why I'm most proud of him. He took the challenge the coaches gave him and played a bigger game. He showed emotion tonight, was competing for rebounds. I was just super proud of him."
The coach was proud of the efforts of his whole team.
"Phin and Connor both did a great job defensively. We feel really good about Phin guarding anyone. He guarded the 5-7 guard from Federal Hocking the other night and the 6-7 kid tonight. It just shows his versatility, and how far he has come as a defensive player."
And now here the Hawks are, improbably headed back to Dayton.
"It's the most amazing feeling to get to go back to state," Habeger said. "Last year I didn't get to play much, and I worked all summer to get here, and I'm filled with emotions. I just can't explain."
This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: Boys Basketball: Hiland rallies to win 13th regional title
