By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Nevada coach Shaun Gray said his players were never worried, and senior guard Lane McNeley insisted there was never any doubt.
It would have been understandable if the Tigers weren’t exactly optimistic in the fourth quarter of Tuesday’s Class 5 sectional basketball game.
Nevada trailed visiting Logan-Rogersville by 10 points with less than three minutes remaining and hadn’t led for more than two quarters. But then McNeley hit a three pointer and the Tigers finished the game on a remarkable 17-2 run to pull out a thrilling 51-46 victory in front of a packed home crowd.
The Tigers, who won their first district championship since 1998 on Friday night, now head to the quarterfinal round for the first time since 1991 when they finished as a state runner up.
“The feeling was we just need a couple breaks,” Gray said. “We need a couple turnovers, a couple shots to fall because with this crowd and this atmosphere – if you can get that momentum, if you can get that tide shifted just a little bit – get it down to a two score game, five or six, then all of a sudden they hear the footsteps coming. The atmosphere here, can’t say enough about it. It was a big reason why when we got a little bit of momentum we were able to get more and more and keep it going.”
Nevada (22-5) hadn’t led since the opening minute of the second quarter and went into the half down 22-14 after being outscored 11-1 in the second period. The deficit grew to 10 in the third and even reached 12 a minute into the fourth.
After a free throw by Rogersville junior JJ O’Neal with 5:32 remaining, the Wildcats led 44-34 and things were suddenly very quiet inside Wynn Gymnasium.
The Tigers came up empty their next three possessions, too. Finally, with 2:46 on the clock, McNeley connected from three-point range to bring his team within seven. Then the Wildcats had a shot blocked, then they committed an offensive foul.
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With 2:08 on the clock McNeley struck again after senior Ben Hines assisted from the paint. Ten seconds later, another Rogersville turnover.
Senior Logan Applegate missed a deep three but got his own rebound and scored at the 1:43 mark to make it 44-42.
McNeley got a quick steal and scored a few seconds later to tie the game. He picked up another steal on Rogersville’s next possession that led to his third three pointer of the quarter, giving Nevada a 47-44 lead with 1:06 left to play.
Wildcat senior Jonathon Dunn tried to stop the bleeding with a driving layup, but the Tigers then erased more than 40 seconds from the clock by playing keep away.
Applegate made two free throws with 11.7 seconds remaining to make it a three-point game. After Rogersville’s sixth turnover of the quarter Applegate made two more with 1.5 seconds to go to seal it.
“Once a couple of them fall you just feel like the next one’s going in,” Gray said. “As a shooter when that electricity in the gym is running through your veins you can throw them in from anywhere.”
“One thing we said, we’ve got to stick true to the game plan,” McNeley said. “Never quit. That was one of our mottos. Every time, no matter what the score is, until the end of the fourth quarter and the buzzer goes off we’re going to give it everything we’ve got.”
He scored 11 points in the fourth and finished with a team-high 20, while Applegate added 17.
“We knew we had to speed the game up so we went to an extended zone and luckily some guys made some huge plays,” Gray said. “Some blocks at the rim by Ben Hines, some steals by Applegate and the McNeley’s and then guys stepped up and hit shots offensively in the fourth quarter.
“Throughout the game they did as good a job as anybody we’ve played at taking Logan Applegate away so we finally in the fourth quarter said okay let’s get the ball to the high post, to (Case) Sanderson, to Hines and if they’ve got one-on-one let’s see if they can go make a play but then what happened is guys lost track of Logan (McNeley), Lane and Applegate when the ball went to the middle and guys knocked down big time shots.”
Rogersville coach John Schaefer said the atmosphere had a big effect on his team in the game’s final minutes.
“They made shots,” he said. “This place is packed and it’s loud and when one fell it sounded like an earthquake. Our kids got a little shook but we stopped guarding. I think our guys thought that the game was over. I think typically we close those out. Got a few calls didn’t go our way. You’ve got two dunks at the rim with contact and no calls and I mean that’s playoff basketball, I’m not complaining about the calls I’m just saying if those go down we probably win the game.”
“People who are composed usually come out ahead,” he said. “It’s not always the best team, it’s which kids are going to grind it out. Tonight they out-grinded us and that doesn’t happen very often. I was proud of our kids. I thought they competed and played hard. Applegate’s extremely hard to guard and especially when he’s playing at home.”
Dunn led the Wildcats with 15 and senior Max Goff added 11. Rogersville finishes 20-6.
Nevada will play at Bolivar at 6 p.m. Friday in the quarterfinals.
“We talked about it last week how 23 years since we’d won a district and I think, if I am reading the walls correctly, 1991 when we went to the Final Four would have been the last time we’ve advanced this far,” Gray said. “A long, long time. A long time coming.”
