The mentality in the past month was, in their coach’s words, “a back-to-the-wall mode,” and for good reason with matchups against familiar names atop the rankings such as Hartville, Crane and so forth.
So, for senior Andrew Huckaby and the Conway Bears boys basketball team, it was easy to stay on point in recent days and not fall into the daydream trap – the one of reaching the senior class’ first trip to a district basketball championship.
Not even a little looking ahead?
“Well,” Huckaby said with a sheepish grin, “we just wanted to play has hard as we could.”
Huckaby delivered in the Class 3 District 11 semifinals, scoring 18 points – including on a four-point play early in the fourth quarter that provided just enough elbow room for Conway to hold off the Clever Blue Jays 55-42 at a packed Fair Grove High School.
With it, Conway advanced to a 6 p.m. Saturday district championship against Fair Grove, a 64-60 winner against Strafford in the other semifinal.
Conway led 28-20 going into the halftime break thanks to Cody Delcour’s buzzer-beating 3-pointer, but the Bears were ice cold until Huckaby’s four-point play on the far wing.
The sequence allowed Conway to build a seven-point cushion, and the Bears stiff-armed every Clever rally down the stretch, despite the Blue Jays pulling with 37-36 with 5:17 left and 44-42 with 1:37 to go.
“A seven-point lead with those guys is like a 12-point lead,” Clever coach Luke Brosius said. “We just couldn’t get over the hump.”
That Huckaby delivered the game’s biggest shot was a fitting reminder that hard work pays off. That was his coach’s assessment. But there was a good reason for it, Huckaby said.
“We haven’t taken any breaks all year, especially these past few weeks,” Huckaby said. “We couldn’t slack off.”
Thursday’s finish was a complete reversal of the game’s opening minutes, when Clever raced to a 7-2 advantage. Yet the Bears buckled down with a zone defense and stayed alert on the perimeter, the usual firing range of Clever’s 6-foot-6 Jakob Partee.
Partee finished with 18 points, but he scored only two buckets after halftime. Every shot of his was contested, and it was clear that Conway controlled the pace – a distinct advantage against a Clever team known for its uptempo offense.
“Our heart won it more than anything,” Conway coach Jeffrey Cope said after offering this: “I told our kids in practice we’ve been in back-against-the-wall mode for the better part of a month. … Starting with Strafford in the finals of our tournament, we knew we were playing juggernaughts coming down the schedule – Hartville, Mansfield, Crane. We’ve been in desperation mode for about four weeks. This was just another game.”
Conway got healthy after the holiday break as Chris Vavruska returned from an injury, and center Austin Chastain worked his way back into more playing time. The Bears toughened up from there on the schedule, and it helped them down the stretch Thursday. Chastain finished with 12 points
Derek Sopak finished with 12 points, including a pair of 3-pointers that fueled Clever’s mad-dash in the fourth quarter. But Conway scored on its final six possessions, making nine of 10 free throws.
“We didn’t do a very good job of meeting passes. We didn’t do a very good job of attacking. And that’s something we’ve done well all year long,” Brosius said. “Especially with eight kids, we feel like we can wear teams out. … We just weren’t aggressive enough.”
Conway 55, Clever 42
Conway 15 13 5 22 – 55
Clever 11 9 6 16 — 42
Conway: Andrew Huckaby 18, Austin Chastain 12, Taylor Simpson 8, Cody Delcour 8, RC Shockley 4.
Clever: Jakob Partee 18, Derek Sopok 12, Mark Christoffer 3, Dawson Little 3, Jakob Albright 5.
