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St. Henry's Bennett Gels defends Marion Local's Peyton Otte in the Asset Allocation Associates Holiday Classic championship game at the Palace on Thursday. Gels hit the winning shot with 30 seconds left to give the Redskins a 52-49 victory.
COLDWATER - St. Henry senior Sam Koesters got the Asset Allocation Associates Holiday Classic MVP, but it was teammate Bennett Gels who hit the biggest shot of the tournament.
After seven lead changes and three ties in the fourth quarter, Gels drained a three with 30.2 seconds left that proved to be the game-winner as St. Henry escaped with a thrilling 52-49 victory over Marion Local in the championship game of the A.A.A. Holiday Classic at the Palace on Thursday.
Earlier in the night, Celina took an early lead and held off a Coldwater charge for a 49-36 win in the consolation game. Celina's Braylon Gabes and Josh Rasawehr were named to the all-tournament team with Gels and Koesters, as well as Marion's Brady Ronnebaum and Jack Knapke.
St. Henry 52, Marion Local 49
With the score tied at 36, Marion (4-1) struck the first blow with a Knapke free throw that gave the Flyers a one-point lead 42 seconds into the fourth. Koesters answered a minute later with a pair of free throws and the lead ping-ponged from there.
Gels hit a trey with three minutes left to make it 46-44, only for Brady Ronnebaum to tie it from the foul line on the next possession. Koesters converted a hoop-and-harm to make it 49-46, but Jadyn Mescher got open behind the arc and hit the Flyers' first three of the game to tie it up with 1:25 left.
After a pair of timeouts, Koesters got the ball on the right side and passed the ball over a pair of Marion defenders to Gels, who was all alone in the right corner.
"I totally knew that I was gambling by going to the 1-3-1 (zone)," Marion coach Kurt Goettemoeller said. "I knew they'd probably get a shot in the corner. Didn't love to see that it was Bennett Gels in the corner, but as soon as he caught the ball, I knew it was going down."
Gels nailed the three, leaving the Flyers just 30 seconds to respond.
Marion Local's Jack Knapke shoots a layup over St. Henry's Luke Gels in the A.A.A. Holiday Classic at the Palace on Thursday.
"They were crashing on a trap, we got an open look," St. Henry coach Eric Rosenbeck said. "We trust Bennett to knock that down, he's done it many times, he did it tonight. That's why he's a big-time player."
Marion got into the half-court but got out of position, forcing Goettemoeller to call timeout with 15.2 seconds left. Hudson Rose took a leaping three with four seconds left that bounced off the rim, off a St. Henry defender and out of bounds with a tick left.
Ronnebaum got the inbounds pass in the left corner and got a shot off, but it glanced off the arm of a Redskins defender and fell well short.
"I don't like to call timeouts in those situations, I like to let us play, but we got disoriented," Goettemoeller said. "We forgot what we had called in the huddle coming down, so we had to call timeout, and that allowed them to set their defense.
"And then, we got a decent look at the rim, Tate threw one up there, and the last play, they know you need a three and there's just one second. There's not a whole lot in the playbook you can do for that."
Marion fell behind 27-18 late in the second quarter before a 12-2 run bleeding into the start of the third put the Flyers back on top. Ronnebaum hit a layup and Peyton Otte added a breakaway layup to make it 27-22 heading into the half.
At the start of the third, Ronnebaum hit a pair of free throws, Koesters answered on the other end, and Marion scored the next six points, with Otte and Austin Niekamp contributing buckets before Mescher got another breakaway basket to make it 30-29.
Knapke hit a layup under the basket to make it 36-33 Flyers with 2:32 left in the third, but Koesters hit a three 20 seconds later to tie it up.
The Redskins (4-3) took the lead in the second quarter as their offense came to life with 18 points. After Niekamp cut it to 19-18 with a bucket, Koesters hit a three and pulled down a rebound on the other end, and Gels drew a foul against Niekamp driving down the baseline. As Goettemoeller protested, he was assessed a technical foul, the third of his career.
Gels hit three of the four free throws to make it a six-point lead.
"(The ref) just said I stomped my feet," Goettemoeller said. "I was saying, we were getting mugged on one end and it was ticky-tack on the other. But it was a quick whistle. I would like for him to at least warn me, and he just said, 'You stomped your feet, I'm giving you a T.' "
Koesters finished with 20 points, giving him 37 for the tournament. Gels scored 18 on Thursday and 26 total, while Knapke led the Flyers with 17 points in the game and 27 total.
Celina's Jacob Ray dribbles around Coldwater's Blade Buschur in the Asset Allocation Associates Holiday Classic consolation game at the Palace on Thursday.
Celina 49, Coldwater 36
The Bulldogs led by nine after the first quarter before the Cavaliers started making up ground. Five points in the first 1:11 of the second made it 16-12, and after a Jacob Ray three that bounced high off the backboard and in with 5:43 left in the half, Celina's offense fell silent.
Fortunately, its defense kept fighting, limiting the Cavaliers to six points the rest of the half to escape into the locker room with a one-point lead.
"Defensive rebounding for us was really good," Celina coach Adam Johns said. "There were a couple instances where they got offensive rebounds, but it didn't lead directly to points. Those are just as bad as a live-ball turnover that leads to a layup. So that was big for us."
Rasawehr extended the lead with a bucket on the first possession of the third, but Evan Harlamert hit a three for the Cavs to tie it at 21 with 5:45 left in the quarter.
That was all Dylan Feister needed to see. Feister hit a three from the left side, then stole the ball and hit a breakaway layup to put Celina up 26-21.
"As a group, that can get you going, when you get a turnover and a real easy layup," Johns said. "I think we had two or three of those in the second half, and then Josh took the ball strong to the basket and got to the foul lines."
Coldwater's Kevin Fisher shoots over Celina's Quinn Andrew in the A.A.A. Holiday Classic at the Palace on Thursday.
Rasawehr added four free throws and a layup to stretch the lead to 11-0 before Kevin Fisher hit a deep three to get the margin back into single digits heading into the fourth.
With Coldwater (1-6) still within eight, Ray took a pass at the right elbow and hit a three as he was falling down to make it 38-26 with 5:52, and the Cavaliers never got closer than 10 the rest of the way.
"They changed defenses and we turned the ball over a few times in the third," Coldwater coach Nick Fisher said. "Obviously, in a close game, that's something that can either extend the lead or lose the lead. I think that's where it turned, that third quarter. We turned the ball over and they were able to put a little distance between us and them."
The Bulldogs got an early lead thanks to hot shooting from Gabes, who hit threes on their first two possessions to make it 6-0 less than 90 seconds in. Gabes added another three two minutes later and rattled home a fourth with 1:43 left in the first.
Gabes added four more points the rest of the way, finishing with 16. Rasawehr led the Bulldogs with 17 and pulled down 11 rebounds.
Fisher and Luke Schwieterman each scored eight points for the Cavaliers.
St. Henry returns to the Palace to take on Coldwater on Jan. 7, while Marion Local travels to Botkins this afternoon and goes to Versailles next Friday to open conference play. Celina travels to Kenton on Jan. 7 for a Western Buckeye League matchup before heading to the Hoosiers Gym in Knightstown, Indiana, to play a varsity girls/boys doubleheader with Coldwater on Jan. 8.
