South writes another fairy tale ending against Castle

More than once this season, Zach Sims and Gavin Wisley have had the ball in their hands in the final minute with the game on the line.

It hasn't always worked out, but Sims, the junior guard, and Wisley, the senior forward, have proven to be the best options in crunch time for a Bloomington South squad that's still a bit wet behind the ears. Castle took advantage of that, harassing the Panthers into a messy second half of missed shots and too many turnovers.

A 17-0 run wiped out what had been a 16-point deficit, forcing the Panthers to respond. Wisley and Sims did just that with the play of the game, resulting in another thriller between the two foes and a 74-64 overtime win for South.

Down three, Sims got to the line with 32 seconds left. He made the first and missed the second, but also got his own rebound. He took an 18-footer that missed, but Wisley was there to grab the miss and hit a reverse layup as he was bumped with 20.4 left to tie it at 58, after South trailed 56-51 just a minute before.

"I've always had a tendency, even when I was younger, to get inside the lane when the game is close and get a foul," Sims said. "At Edgewood, I really didn't get the opportunity to do that, but here, they trust me to have the ball in my hands in the last second. But I get nervous because everybody's counting on you."

The reliable Wisley (24-of-27 at the line coming in), had his only miss of the night but South escaped when Wes Aigner's step back 3 was well short on a night he had to work hard to get anywhere near his 25.7 per game average.

In overtime, Sims was 6-of-6 and Wisley 4-of-4 at the line as South jumped up by 10 and finished it off.

"They're a really good team," Wisley said. "I'm glad we all fought through it and all the pressure. It was a real pressure game. It was a crazy one."

Wisley led the way with a career best 27 points and nine rebounds and Sims added a season best 22. Combined they were 7-of-11 on 3-pointers, 15-of-24 overall and 12-of-14 at the line. Add in a tough assignment of hounding Aigner, who managed to score 24 points after scoring just one in the first 12 minutes.

"Zach plays physical defense," Wisley said. "That's what he does."

Fourth quarter flurry

Some of the fourth quarter chaos was set up by South's struggles in the third. The offense was off-kilter as the Panthers, coming off a blistering shooting performance in the first half, went just 3-of-12. A big 3 by Wisley with 55 seconds left built what looked to be a still comfortable 49-35 lead.

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And it should have been, but whether it was sophomores, juniors or seniors, South started giving the ball away against the press and the traps and Castle started scoring in a hurry, with Aigner posting nine points in just 2:23 to double his output on the night.

South had seven turnovers in the period, after having just five prior, and a string of missed shots kept South scoreless for 5:13. In the meantime, Brady Reiter came off the bench and canned two 3s in quick succession to put the Knights up, 52-49, with 3:06 left.

"Sophomores playing against seniors. They start trapping and pressing and we made errors at the wrong times," South coach J.R. Holmes said. "I said, boys, our half-court defense was pretty good. But you can't guard transition layups after steals. That's how they got back in the game.

"We did some really good things. But like I told them, I'm really disappointed in our inability to handle the pressure when you've got a 14-point lead."

Sims finally scored to end the skid, but Reiter answered with a jumper and a 1-and-1 to seemingly cement his hero status for the night, Castle now leading 56-51 with 1:20 to go and South looking exacerbated.

"We turned the ball over, I turned the ball over, we were all a part of turning it over," Sims said. "But what makes us a hard team to beat is that the young guys didn't give up. They kept coming back."

Sims hit a bucket at 1:03, Aigner missed the front end with 57 seconds left and Sims scored on another drive with 46 seconds left. Reiter got loose for a layup against the South press before Sims came back down and helped tie it up.

"We played really poorly from the six-minute mark to about the two-minute mark," Holmes said. "Then we played great to come back from down five."

OT reset for Panthers

The break between the fourth and the overtime seemed to do South good.

"I think we were all, we thought we lost it when we got down five points," Sims said. "We were all bummed and you could probably see it on our faces. But they gave us chance to win the game. When it comes down to it, it depends on who hits their free throws and who doesn't."

The Panthers ran a play after winning the tip and found Wisley for an easy layup 12 seconds in. Castle missed another free throw and South worked for another layup by Tucker Simpson, who finished with eight points.

It was 64-60 when Castle's Dylan Watson was called for a foul and bounced the ball back to an official a bit too hard in frustration, drawing a technical. Wisley sank all four shots and Sims got to the line 16 seconds later and made two more for a 70-60 lead with 1:26 left.

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South was 12-of-12 at the line in the OT, Castle 2-of-6.

"The overtime, we just opened it up and started playing better defense," Sims said. "We stopped (Reiter) from getting wide open 3s. We stopped (Aigner) from getting to the rim the whole game really. So overall, it's a good game for the younger players to see so they can be prepared for the next time."

History of nail-biters

South had it rolling in the first half, jumping up 14-5 and 32-16 early in the second after hitting its seventh 3. Aiden Schmitz sank another with no time left on the clock as the Panthers walked off the floor 10-of-18 from the arc and up, 41-25.

Given the history between these two squads, no way was it going to be that easy over the next 16 minutes. And it wasn't. Let's recap:

2022 at Castle: South trailed all night until Coleman Oliphant hit two 3s in the final minute, including the game winner at the horn in a 49-48 victory.

2021 at South: Castle, led by 32 points from Southern Indiana-bound guard Isaiah Swope, bolted out to a 15-point lead before South stormed back and forced overtime (sound familiar?). Swope, looking for his fourth buzzer-beater of the night, came up short and South prevailed, 68-65.

2020 at Castle: The undefeated and No. 2 ranked Panthers came in cold and trailed 16-3 before gathering themselves and winning, 65-58.

2019 at South: The balloons and cake were all ready to go but Castle was set to spoil the party. South grabbed a 56-54 lead late and celebrated as the Knights missed a 3 at the horn, handing Holmes his 800th career win.

Contact Jim Gordillo at jgordillo@heraldt.com or 812-331-4381 and follow on Twitter @JimGordillo.

BLOOMINGTON SOUTH 74, CASTLE 64

Castle (64): Ay.McAtee f 2-4 0-0 5, Aigner f 9-21 5-9 24, Watson c 1-1 0-0 2, Bishop g 4-11 2-3 13, Niehaus g 2-8 0-2 6, Reiter 4-9 2-2 12, Daines 1-1 0-0 2, Lambert 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 23-55 9-16 64.

Bloomington South (74): Wisley f 9-13 4-5 27, Johnson f 3-8 0-0 7, Schmitz g 1-8 0-0 3, Sims g 6-111 8-9 22, Spears g 2-5 2-4 7, Moutardier 0-3 0-0 0, Simpson 3-3 0-0 8, Sanchez 0-0 0-0 0, Gillard 0-0 0-0 0, Hedrick 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 24-51 14-18 74.

Castle (8-6) 13 | 12 | 10 | 23 | 6 — 64

Bloomington South (10-5) 18 | 23 | 8 | 9 | 16 — 74

3-point goals: Castle 9-26 (Bishop 3-8, Reiter 2-5, Niehaus 2-6, Ay.McAtee 1-2, Aigner 1-5), Bloomington South (12-26 (Wisley 5-8, Simpson 2-2, Sims 2-3, Johnson 1-2, Spears 1-3, Schmitz 1-5, Moutardier 0-3). Rebounds: Castle 29 (Niehaus 6, Bishop 5), Bloomington South 35 (Wisley 9, Johnson 7). Total fouls: Castle 16, Bloomington South 16. Fouled out: Johnson. Technical foul: Watson. Turnovers: Castle 7, Bloomington South 16. JV result: Bloomington South, 51-43.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: South writes another fairy tale ending against Castle