Down to the Wire

MINSTER - After a back-and-forth game, Minster had rallied one last time to close the gap to 51-50 with just over a minute left.

That last point proved too much for the Wildcats.

Parkway's Caden Slusher stepped to the line four times in the final minute and shot 6-of-7 to secure a wild 57-56 win in a Midwest Athletic Conference boys basketball game at Wildcat Gymnasium on Friday.

"We battled them, that's probably the biggest thing," Minster coach Michael McClurg said. "I felt like we're a player or two stepping up away."

Minster (2-9, 0-4 MAC) led 42-40 after the third quarter, but Slusher tied it in the first 40 seconds of the fourth with a jumper that rolled around the rim and fell in.

Devan Wuebker's shot on the other side was blocked by Trent Rollins, and after two more Wildcat misses, Parkway (3-9, 1-1 MAC) went ahead as Fletcher Smith heaved a shot through traffic in front of the net to make it 44-42.

"It's just making sure we're getting the right shots at the right times, you know?" McClurg said. "But also defensively, we've got to make sure that we're getting stops, and we weren't."

Johnny Nixon missed on the other end, Rollins grabbed the rebound, and after a timeout, Gabe Schaaf hit a bucket to make it 46-42 Panthers with 4:37 to go.

"We had talked during the timeout about getting the motion offense through, getting (Slusher) to work," Parkway coach Doug Hughes said. "And then we were able to get Gabe low for a layup. I thought that was a crucial possession of the game."

Parkway drained the clock before Smith drove the lane and added on to give the Panthers a six-point lead. But Minster freshman Brogan Stephey came back on the other side and drained a three to cut it to 48-45 with just over two minutes remaining.

Parkway answered right away, as Slusher found Riley Samples open under the basket and Stephey was called for a foul, allowing Samples to finish a hoop-and-harm and make it 51-45 with 1:48 to play. But Samples was whistled for a foul on the other end, and Stephey went to the line and cut the lead to five.

From there, Stephey stole two Parkway passes in the backcourt, including an inbounds pass, and turned them into short jumpers to make it 51-50 as Hughes called timeout with 1:04 remaining.

"What we talked about at halftime was that defense, getting defensive rebounds and getting loose balls are going to win or lose the basketball game for us," Hughes said. "We went back to that at the quarter break and talked about how important getting defensive stops was going to be. Kids stepped up and made plays."

With the Panthers looking to run out the rest of the clock, Stephey came flying back to the baseline to foul Slusher, stopping the clock but picking up his fifth foul of the game. Slusher calmly drained both free throws to give Parkway a three-point lead.

On the other end, the Wildcats passed the ball around until Devan Wuebker got a 3-point look behind a screen at the top of the arc. The ball bounced off the back of the rim, Slusher grabbed the rebound as Nixon flew in to contest, and the refs called Nixon for a foul as he tried to advocate for a jump ball.

Slusher, an 83.8% free throw shooter coming in, missed the first half of the and-one and Nixon grabbed it, giving the Wildcats another chance to tie. This time, Wuebker drove to the hoop and drew a foul from Slusher before he could throw a shot up, but he missed the front end of the and-one. Fletcher Smith grabbed the rebound and passed it to Slusher, who drew a foul and sank both shots to make it 55-50 with 18 seconds left.

"Whenever they had to foul us with a minute to go, I thought back over the years and asked myself, 'Is there any other player I'd want on the line right now, with the game on the line?' " Hughes said. "If he misses those free throws, there's a good chance we lose. And you know what that answer was? No way. I want Caden Slusher on the line for those free throws."

Even from there, Minster wasn't quite done. Freshman James Niemeyer hit a three from the right corner with 12.1 seconds left and quickly fouled Slusher, who went back to the line and hit two more shots to stretch the lead back to four. Wuebker hit a three with five seconds left, but Slusher took the inbounds pass and raced up the court, and the buzzer sounded before the Wildcats could foul him.

Slusher, who finished with 21 points in his first game back after missing three games with an ankle injury, collapsed to the baseline in exhaustion as his teammates mobbed him.

"Caden's our leader, and I thought he did a great job leading us tonight," Hughes said. "That was a huge spark, getting him back."

Minster started out on fire, with Stephey hitting a three to open the game before Niemeyer came back down for a hoop-and-harm after the Panthers gave up a jump ball. Hughes, incensed about the call on the jump ball, barked at one of the refs and earned a technical foul 93 seconds into the game, tethering him to the bench as Stephey sank the extra two free throws to extend the lead to 8-0.

"I said one too many words, I guess, and got the technical," Hughes said. "I was upset because I thought he missed the call, but we're all human, we all miss calls. He's a good official."

Schaaf cut the lead to six late in the first, and the Panthers revved into gear. Trent Rollins kicked off a 15-0 run with a three from at the top of the key and hit the final points with an open look under the basket before the stunned Wildcats recovered.

Zach Fortman hit a layup and a three from the right corner to defibrillate the Minster offense, and Stephey added a hoop-and-harm as the half wound down to make it 29-25 Parkway at the break.

"We took bad shots, and then we panicked," McClurg said. "We panicked offensively, we missed reads. I don't know what it is. These stretches have been happening to us in a lot of games."

It only took 1:13 into the third quarter before Niemeyer got a bucket Stephey had another hoop-and-harm to put Minster back in front, and from there the two teams were off to the races.

Schaaf scored 14 points for the Panthers and Niemeyer put up 11 for the Wildcats. Stephey finished with a game-high 30 points.

"The Stephey kid, wow," Hughes said. "He had a great game, and it's going to be an interesting battle, because the kids we had guarding him were a sophomore and a freshman. I thought our kids did a nice job, he just rose up and made some plays. He was a heck of a player for them tonight."

Parkway travels to Versailles tonight for another MAC game, while Minster looks to get back in the win column with a trip south to Fort Loramie.