And McKay did something Bellbrook didn’t expect. He scored 16 points (10 more than his average), found ways to penetrate the defense for assists and was the designated free-throw shooter down the stretch to lead the Cougars to a 59-43 victory in the second round of the Division II sectional at Springfield High School.
»RELATED: Tuesday’s high school roundup
The fourth-seeded Cougars (18-6) will play for a trip to the district finals at 7 p.m. Friday at Springfield against No. 2 Alter, a 91-64 winner over Ponitz.
The Cougars have won two tournament games for the first time in many years and last played in a district final in 2005. Since before the season, Cougars’ star senior Tyler Eberhart has talked about making a tournament run and playing for a district title in Cincinnati. He’s not satisfied with two wins.
“Definitely looking for that third one,” he said. “And once the third one comes hopefully, getting to UC would be a really good time.”
Bellbrook’s strategy was effective until the Cougars outscored the Eagles 10-6 in the third quarter to build a seven-point lead. Late in the third McKay decided to prove the Eagles had made a mistake. He made a 3-pointer from the left wing for only his fourth of the season. That put the Cougars up 35-26 and they controlled the game from there.
“I was just believing,” McKay said. “I know I can hit those shots any time, it just depends on if I’m feeling it or not. And I was feeling it.”
The new-found respect opened up lanes for McKay and others in the fourth quarter. During one stretch the Cougars had assists on five of seven shots and all of them were layups.
“The ball’s in his hands and he did a nice job there at the end distributing it and handling pressure,” Cougars coach Kris Spriggs said of McKay. “Tonight he made great decisions and got guys layups. That’s what you want a point guard to do. When he scores it’s just a bonus for us.”
Eberhart scored 19 points and Perkins 17. McKay and Perkins each scored nine points in the fourth quarter. The patience to get the shots they wanted and to let McKay run the offense had paid off.
“When you take something away you’re saying, ‘Hey, you need to beat us,’” Spriggs said. “And he stepped up tonight.”
Alter (20-4) knew it was in for a fast-paced game with a young Ponitz (10-14) team. That’s out of Knights’ coach Eric Coulter’s comfort zone, but his team showed it can play that style as well as the deliberate, grind-it-out style they’re used to in the GCL.
“When they’re giving you fast breaks and they’re selling out, it’s hard not to take layups and opportunities when you can score,” Coulter said. “I want to score if we can, and then if we can’t bring it out and show some patience. But tonight patience was a hard thing to come by.”
Conor Stolly led the Knights with 27 points and Jack Smith had 20. Brady Uhl scored 15 and surpassed 1,000 career points.
Despite the final score, Ponitz cut Alter’s lead to 51-46 on freshman guard Dayjuan Anderson’s long 3-pointer. He hit another with 3:16 left to make it 56-49. Coulter called time out and changed his defense to deal with Anderson (19 points, five 3-pointers) and his hot-shooting backcourt mates Peyton Lyons and Devon Perdue.
“My fear was that they were going to wear us down,” Coulter said. “When their guards started hitting we went triangle-and-two just to make them work.”
From there, the Knights outscored the Panthers 35-15 to set up Friday’s game with Kenton Ridge.
“They’re a very good team,” Coulter said. “It’s a good matchup for them, it’s a good matchup for us. They’re more of a GCL-style team. Their personnel is really good.”
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