Boys Basketball: O-G falls short against Harvest Prep

Mar. 23—DAYTON — It was the end of a game, the end of the season, and the end of an era.

When Ottawa-Glandorf's last-second shot fell short, allowing Harvest Prep to escape with a 61-59 win in a Division III boys basketball state semifinal on Friday, it brought down the curtain on the careers of a senior class that reached the state tournament four years in a row.

Obviously, it was not the outcome they were looking for, but it is still an impressive body of work.

"The agony of defeat is not something that is easy but the four-year run these guys have had is something I'll take with me forever," Ottawa-Glandorf coach Tyson McGlaughlin said.

O-G (24-4) spent much of the first half playing catch-up with Harvest Prep (24-4) and found itself 10 points down at halftime. The Warriors expanded that lead by another point in the third quarter and took a 46-35 advantage into the fourth quarter.

But Ottawa-Glandorf came almost all the way back in the fourth quarter when it cut Harvest Prep's lead to one point in the final minute of the game.

Colin White, who finished with 32 points and 13 rebounds and went over 2,000 points in his career in the game, started it with a dunk early in the fourth quarter. His offensive rebound of his own miss made it 60-59 with 13 seconds to play.

"You've got to give Harvest Prep a lot of credit. They were very good, especially in that first half, at disrupting our rhythm and pushing us out of the areas where we needed to be. I thought we played a little bit passive," McGlaughlin said.

"We talked to our guys at halftime about just getting back to playing O-G basketball and being the aggressors and kind of coming at them. They just laid it out there for 16 minutes."

White said the Titans responding to Harvest Prep's physicality with an equal level of physical play was a big reason for O-G's comeback.

"I thought we did that in the second half. We just struggled with it in the first half," he said.

After White's bucket brought Ottawa-Glandorf to within one point, Harvest Prep's Ephraim Campbell hit 1 of 2 free throws with four seconds left on the clock for a 61-59 lead.

O-G got the ball into the frontcourt and called timeout with two seconds to play and set up a play which hopefully would tie or win the game.

The in-bounds pass went to White, who put up a 3-pointer which came up short just before time ran out with defensive pressure on him.

It was the same play the Titans used to beat Harvest Prep on a game-winning shot in a regular-season game two years ago, something both McGlaughlin and Harvest Prep coach David Dennis talked about after Friday's game.

"With two seconds our options were kind of limited as far as ways we could get Colin the ball. The most important thing that we tell our guys every single day when we work on the execution of these plays is we want to get a shot off. They did a good job of defending it and pushing a little farther out than we wanted," McGlaughlin said.

"I don't think there were too many people in the stands who didn't think 22 (White) was getting the ball but I'll go that route every day," he said.

White, who received his Mr. Basketball trophy during the second Division III semifinal on Friday at the University of Dayton Arena, summed up his high school career this way: "These four years have been the best years of my life. Playing the sport I love with the guys I love, you wouldn't trade that for the world, especially with a group of seniors who it feels like we've been playing basketball together all the years of our lives.

"We've been together for a long time and it was just cool to go out there and go at it with these guys and go to battle with these guys. It was a great feeling all year. I'm just really sad it's coming to an end now but I can always look back and have these memories of what a great season our senior year was."

Harvest Prep 61, Ottawa-Glandorf 59

Score by quarters:

Ottawa-Glandorf 14 7 14 24 — 59

Harvest Prep 19 12 15 15 — 61

OTTAWA-GLANDORF

Grant Schroeder 7, Grady Toumazos 6, Colin White 32, Caden Erford 12, Brody Fortman 2. Totals: 22-12-59.

HARVEST PREP

Adonus Abrams 26, London Foggie 5, Kahlil Daniels 10, Brandon Roddy 7, Ephraim Campbell 6, Jamarcus Jones 3, Alan Chiles 2, Jaylen Sims 2. Totals: 24-7-61.

Three-pointers: OG — Erford 2, White 1; HP — Arbams 3, Foggie 1, Daniels 1, Jones 1.

Records: Ottawa-Glandorf 24-4; Harvest Prep 24-4.