OBETZ — Trailing by 13 points three minutes into the second half, Teays Valley came out of a timeout and scored 13 of the next 17 points in the quarter on the way to ending a five-game losing skid 62-57 in overtime at Hamilton Township.

“From that point on, defensively we were more connected,” TV coach Doug Etzler said. “We’ve been really concerned with guarding our guy. And if we’re going to be successful, it’s all five guys stopping the ball — not one guy stopping the ball, but all five guys. I thought we did a much better job of that down the stretch.”

Double-doubles from a pair of seniors led the Vikings as Max Young scored 17 points while grabbing 15 rebounds and Ryan Wolfe had 13 with 10, with each grabbing six offensive rebounds.

Down 43-30 with 5:27 left in the third quarter, the Vikings (5-6, 4-3) came out of their timeout and got baskets from Davis Gothard, Young and Wolfe to close to 43-36. Those three also combined for another seven points in the closing minutes of the period to narrow the gap to 47-43.

TV kept chipping away in the fourth quarter, aided by eight points from Tanner Kendig. His last two points of the quarter came with 12 seconds to go and tied the game at 55-55.

The Rangers had a good chance to grab the win, but Wolfe was able to block a shot by HT’s Marquis Moore with two seconds left to send the game to OT.

 

Young got the first basket of the extra period a few seconds in for TV and Moore quickly answered for the Rangers (8-4, 5-2), but his points were the last HT would get.

Brodie Booth put TV up on top for good with a basket off a rebound with 3:20 to go.

“We knew that this game was our MSL life,” Young said. “If we lose this game, we’re three games behind, if we come back and win we’re only one game behind. We wanted to keep ourselves in it the whole time. They’re a tough team and we pulled it out.”

Young’s effort helped the Vikings to a 45-24 rebounding edge and also gave him the opportunity for some of his points on put-backs.

“I just wanted it more, I think. I just battled as hard as I could and went all out because I knew what this game meant to us and it paid off,” Young said. “One thing I’ve been working on a lot recently is finishing, just keeping my eyes up on the rim and I think I did a pretty good job of that tonight. That’s been a struggle for me the past few games.”

Along with Young’s 17 and Wolfe’s 13, Kendig also put in 13 (eight rebounds) while Gothard had nine, Brodie Booth had eight and Riely Weiss added two.

“Offensively, we’ve got to shoot the ball – it doesn’t matter who scores it,” Etzler said. “We’ve got to get that mentality – don’t take tough shots, be patient enough to get a great shot. When we move the ball, we do that.”

After dropping their last five, getting back into the win column was important for TV as they wrap up the first half of the Mid-State League Buckeye Division schedule.

“We’re at a tough spot in the second half and we battled through and got the ‘W,’” Etzler said. “I’m hoping they understand, confidence wise, we haven’t been playing terrible but we haven’t been playing well enough to win. But all those games were winnable games.

“We can’t lose our confidence because every game we step into, we’ve got to believe we’ve got a chance.”

Moore led the Rangers with 20 points and Block put in 17.

Both teams return to the hardwood in non-league action Tuesday as the Rangers go to Canal Winchester while the Vikings host Grove City.

• Teays Valley was a 52-51 winner in the JV game.
  Adam Benschoter led the Vikings with 23 points, Eli Burnett had nine, Garrett Meddock had six, Peyton Weiler and Cole Sauerbrun each had five and Clayton Knox chipped in four.

Teays Valley 62, Hamilton Township 57 OT

Teays Valley —  Young 8-1-17, Kendig 5-0-13, Booth 3-1-8, Gothard 3-3-9, Weiss 1-0-2, Wolfe 5-3-13. Three-point goals— Kendig (3), Booth. Total— 25-67 8-18 62.

Hamilton Twp — Hundley 1-0-2, Block 7-1-17, Crallie 1-0-2, Moore 8-2-20, Forson 1-0-2, Tucker 3-0-9, Hise 2-0-5. Three-point goals— Block (2), Moore (2), Tucker (3), Hise. Total— 22-50 5-16 57.

Quarter scores 1 2 3 4 OT F

Teays Valley 24 5 14 12 7; 2

Hamilton Twp 22 14 11 8 2 57