'We showed great resilience': Dalton basketball rallies, snaps Mogadore 20-game win streak
STRUTHERS — It's called March Madness for a reason.
Down by nine points multiple times in the second and third quarters and by four in the final minute, Dalton rallied to force overtime and snap Mogadore's 20-game win streak with a 58-47 Division IV district semifinal victory Monday.
"It was a very gritty, tough win for our boys," Bulldogs coach Cody Huth said. "The number of times that we got knocked down and we just got right back up and kept fighting was very impressive by our boys."
Every time the Wildcats (20-4) threatened to pull away for good, the Bulldogs (15-9) had an answer. Their biggest response came after Mogadore's Lucas Butler rode a screen from Corey Lehner and kicked the ball out to a third senior, Tanner Buso, for a 3-pointer and a four-point lead with 1:10 left.
Seconds later, Dalton's Sammy Tomlinson found fellow junior Matthew Heatwole driving to the bucket to get back within two. The Bulldogs tied it on two free throws by junior Brady Hignight, who was fouled chasing an offensive rebound with 23.2 seconds left.
"Obviously, there's a lot on the line," Hignight said. "You just got to think you're just in the gym shooting by yourself, and we put a lot of practice on pressure free throws."
Dalton senior forward Jace Eberly then shook off a tough shooting night to drain a baseline jumper on the Bulldogs' opening possession of overtime to give them their first lead since midway through the first quarter.
"It was huge," Eberly said. "Just coming out and getting a quick one, that gave us all the momentum for the rest of the overtime period. It was just huge."
A couple of minutes later, Hignight found senior Keller McFerren on a drive-and-dish with 1:05 remaining to push Dalton's lead to five (51-46).
Six different players scored in the second half for the Bulldogs, including Coy Wenger, who had 12 points and shot 4 of 7 from deep; Hignight, who had 10 of his team-leading 16 points after halftime; and Heatwole, who scored all five of his points over the final 12 minutes.
"We got the weapons," Hignight said. "Our whole bench can score. We don't have just one or two players. We got four or five or six people that can score double digits any game."
With the upset, the 12th-seeded Bulldogs advanced to Friday's district championship to face the winner of Tuesday's semifinal between No. 19 Open Door Christian and No. 8 Lake Center Christian.
As for the Wildcats, their season came to an abrupt end.
Mogadore coach Russ Swartz wasn't thrilled with the 10-2 free-throw discrepancy (8-0 after halftime).
Still, Swartz stressed the fury and upset of one Monday didn't outweigh months of joy for the Wildcats.
"That's what we just told them in there. I mean, it doesn't feel like it now, but you know they're going to look back and have a lot to be proud of and I think they'll have a lot of good memories from all this," Swartz said. "It's hard. I mean, they deserve better, whether that's one more game, two more games or whatever. But every year, you want one or two or three more games. Everybody does."
Dalton refuses to let Mogadore pull away
The Wildcats nearly overcame a tough shooting night.
Lehner (16 points, six steals) provided an early spark, just as he did in Mogadore's league championship-clinching win over LCC. Over and over, the Wildcats senior guard poked the ball free and finished on the other end.
Despite struggling with their shots all game, the Wildcats hit 3-pointers at critical times, including senior Layne Miller (14 points, four 3-pointers) breaking two ties — at 21-21 two minutes into the second quarter and at 32-32 twenty seconds in the fourth — with corner 3s.
Buso added the first of his two fourth-quarter 3s to push Mogadore's lead to 38-34 with 5:10 remaining. Dalton answered 12 seconds later with a McFerren 3.
That was the theme for the rest of the night. The Wildcats pushed ahead and the Bulldogs hung tight.
With 4:35 left, Lehner turned defense into offense again with a block and fast-break layup to make it 41-37. Again, Dalton answered with a 3-pointer, this time by Wenger.
At the 2:30 mark, Mogadore again threatened to pull away, with Miller picking off a pass up top and finishing the break with a tricky off-balance layup for a 43-40 lead.
But no deficit could deter the Bulldogs.
"We haven't played a ton this year from behind, at least not in close games," Huth said. "Some of our losses were a little bit of a wider margin, so to be in that situation for only a handful of times this season, we showed great resilience and battled adversity the whole way."
This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: Dalton rallies to top Mogadore in boys basketball district semifinal
