A thrilled contest came down to the final seconds Jan. 4 between the Chagrin Falls Tigers and their cross-county rival Chardon Hilltoppers.
A thrilled contest came down to the final seconds Jan. 4 between the Chagrin Falls Tigers and their cross-county rival Chardon Hilltoppers.
With 1:03 left in the game, senior Spencer Kaas connected from beyond the arc to bring the Tigers within three points of the Hilltoppers, 62-59.
Then a furious pace of play — loose balls, diving on the floor and steals — encapsulated the dramatic final minute, both squads offering all-out effort.
With 27.2 seconds left, and trailing 62-61, the Tigers ran a play that involved all five players touching the ball.
First, Jacob Kay inbounded the ball and found Kaas open at the top of the key.
Kass then passed right to Brad Russell, who quickly found Ryan Curtiss open at midcourt.
Curtiss handed the dribble off to Kay, who then passed quickly to Evan Castelluccio.
Castelluccio alertly found Russell open beyond the arc on the right corner of the baseline for a catch-and shoot-three point attempt.
With less than 15 seconds left, Russell’s game-winning shot hit “nothing but the bottom of the net” to make the final score 64-62 Tigers.
Afterwards, Russell said he had no doubt he would make it.
“Right when Coach put me in with the last 20 seconds, I had immediate confidence that I could hit the shot for us,” Russell said.
Chagrin Falls Head Coach Dave Bargar also expressed his confidence in Russell’s abilities.
“He’s our best 3-point shooter,” Coach Bargar said. “Last year he shot close to 40 percent (from beyond the arc). “It was great to see him hit a big shot. Of anybody that wants it, there is not anybody on our team that wants it more than Brad Russell.”
In addition to their amazing and intense final play, the Tigers played with a high level of intensity the entire time.
Kaas, who had seven crucial points in the final 1:30, referred to their effort as being focused on “making winning plays.”
“Coach always talks about making winning plays,” Kaas said. “It’s diving on the floor like we did. In time-outs, he was always saying ‘make the winning plays,’ and we ended up doing that and came out with the W.”
Coach Bargar expounded on this philosophy. He said this style of play emphasizes playing hard with great effort throughout the game.
“We want those guys to go out with a sense of urgency from the very beginning,” he said. “You got to have that sense where every possession matters.
“And if you play like that, you’re going to be a hard team to beat.”
Leading the Tigers offensively were Kaas (25 points), Curtiss (13), Russell (10), Jacob Kay (6), Robby Mignogna (6) and Quin Bargar (4).
Although the Hilltoppers lost by two points, Chardon Hilltoppers Head Coach Chad Murawski felt really proud of how his team played.
“That’s a great high school basketball game of two teams that played really hard, that are very well coached and well prepared,” Murawski said. “In a game like tonight, no team deserves to lose because both teams played to their capabilities. So,I am not disappointed — we’re going to learn from it, we’re going to get better.”
Leading all scorers for the game was the Hilltoppers’ Luke Galfidi, who scored 36 points. Also leading Chardon offensively were Stone Fawcett (11 points), Rocco Tarantino (9 points), Bailey Mann (4) and A.J. Petrella (2).
