In a game that can sometimes come down to a bounce here or there, the bounces certainly didn’t go ADM boys’ basketball team’s way in the last minute of the game and that was the difference as they dropped a heartbreaker to Winterset 69-67 on Tuesday, January 8th.
ADM lead for most of the game taking 36-25 lead into the half and were up 54-49 going into the fourth quarter despite Winterset’s Trae Gilliland shooting four 3-pointers in the third quarter alone. The score was tied at 60, 62, 63, and 65 when Winterset had the ball with under a minute remaining. Gilliland made a 3-pointer and momentarily it looked like Ben Larson had answered with a 3 but his shot rang off the inside of both the left and right side of the rim before falling out and while Grant Gayden’s putback cut the lead to one, Winterset playing their next possession ahead instead of tied truly changed the complexion of the game.
With seconds remaining Gilliland went to the line for two with his team up 68-67 but missed both opportunities. Gayden pulled down the rebound and hit Logan Essy who streaked up the court but momentarily lost control of the ball and Gilliland pounced and turned it back the other way. By the time ADM was able to foul Gilliland, just eight-tenths of a second remained.
We asked head coach Aaron Mager if he would share his thoughts with the chaotic finish to the game in the closing seconds. “Yeah that’s a scramble play, kid(Essy)’s trying to make a play with less than 4 seconds to go and you tend to rush, that’s human nature,” Mager explained. “He had Blake Heiman open on the baseline, he saw him, he was gonna throw it, (Essy) kinda slipped and he was gonna go over the top with it rather than ball fake. Had he been able to jump-stop I think he could have ball faked and bounced it in and Blake score and from there it’s a different story. But unfortunately the kid from Winterset (Gilliland) made a nice defensive play and they had the ball.”
ADM was lead offensively by Ben Larson with 25 points, Logan Essy had 10 and Robbie Sloss chipped in 7 points. The Huskies were lead by Gilliland’s 27 points, Lucas Nolan had 12 and Noah Kaldenberg, Corey Briney and CJ Caudle each had 8. ADM falls to 2-9 on the season, 1-4 in Raccoon River Conference play.