The Indian-Raider war wages on amidst the storm
Gary Franklin
SPORTS EDITOR
Temps may have been on the cool side outside the gym on Friday night at South Ripley High School, but on the inside, they were quite toasty as Hoosier Hysteria at its finest waged on. The hosting Coach Travis Wrightsman South Ripley Raiders appeared to have figured out the necessary attack to contain Coach Josh Blankinship and his visiting Milan Indians early on, but as we all familiarly know…til the final horn sounds, the outcome is not warranted. Such would be the case of the hard fought varsity boys basketball battle of Friday, January 24.
Playing to a 14-14 tie at the end of the first period’s action, the Raiders were able to take an eight-point lead to the locker room at the half. Ironically, the top-scoring producers for the two teams, Logan Alloway for Milan and Austin Halcomb of the Raiders, had two points and on point respectively with foul trouble looming that hindered both team's normal floor efforts. At 6'5", Indian sophomore center Kyle Meyer remained seated on the tribe’s bench for a large part of the opening half in foul trouble and eventually wound up scoreless on the evening when the final horn sounded. Stepping up to take some of the slack for the tribe was senior Logan Karsteter, with a 15-point night in the paint. Raider senior Joe Dicken picked up on the Halcomb scoring slack with four treys in first-half action and finished his night’s efforts with 16 points.
Second half tells the story
During second half action, the Raiders quickly found themselves in a horse race, as the tribe ate up SR’s lead rather quickly as the net-singeing pace of Indian senior Alloway heated up. Although the pace had become frantic at times, Milan knotted the score at 36. South Ripley managed to keep a two-point lead, as quarter three ended 38-36 off a strong move in traffic over Indian senior Cooper Wade to score a basket with four seconds remaining by Raider sophomore Ty Tucker.
An enthusiastic Coach Blankinship rallied his crew at the time-out, reminding them how far they had come and what was needed from each player to make the night a success. There could only be success with victory. Playing hard and coming up short was of little or no value at this point.
Off the Milan bench, as fourth period action began, junior Travis Butte drove and scored a lay-up to knot the game at 38. Senior teammate Cooper Wade delivered on a three-pointer to give Milan a 41-38 edge at 7:15. A Raider score later, Indian senior Logan Alloway netted a lay-up and added a FT to put the tribe up 44-40 at the 6:21 mark. At 5:29, Milan led by six at 46-40. Following a pair of Indian senior Logan Karsteter FT deliveries at 4:43, the tribe held a 48-42 lead. Despite losing senior Austin Halcomb with five fouls, no white flag from the Raider bench would be waving, as they collected intensity and delivered a 46-50 deficit at the 3:28 mark and were just a basket shy at 48-50 at the 2:47 mark. Milan managed to advance by one and added a pair to lead by five at the 1:11 mark, 55-50. South Ripley pulled back to within three at 52-55 before a single FT shot score by Indian Alloway at the 48.3 second mark, 56-52. New life for the Raiders, as senior Caleb Huntington delivered on a deep-in-the-corner trey that rippled the net as sliding through to pull SR to a one-point deficit at 29.4 remaining. A miss by Indian Alloway on the charity stripe and a loose ball picked up inside the paint with an ensuing delivery by Raider senior Caleb Huntington at 8.7, “walla,” SR re-gains the lead at 57-56.
Tension at a maximum, anticipation running wild, a mere six seconds remaining on the scoreboard and Milan has a time-out under their basket to set up a play. Realizing it is taking too long to develop, Coach Blankinship signals a time-out from the bench to stop the officials out-of-bound count. Resuming action, Indian Alloway is fouled with 4.4 remaining. Alloway toes the charity stripe and delivers one for the tie at 57 and a second for the 58-57 victor; heartbreak and ecstasy.
Read all the stats from this amazing game in today's The Versailles Republican.