SHELBYVILLE — Two weeks prior to Wednesday night’s first-round sectional matchup, Oldenburg Academy handed Hauser a 66-34 defeat.
Nothing that happened in Wednesday’s rematch resembled what happened in that earlier contest. In a game that featured 14 lead changes, the Jets stood toe-to-toe with sectional favorites for 32 minutes before coming away with a 42-39 loss in the Southwestern (Shelby) Sectional.
“We had to try some different things both offensively and defensively, I thought, to give ourselves a chance to win,” Hauser coach Joe Sibbitt said. “I’ve never been prouder of a group of kids to get beat by (32) a couple weeks ago by a team that probably could have beat us worse, to battle through some of the adversity that these kids have had to battle through, we did everything we could to win the game. It’s never going to be 100 percent perfect, but that’s as close to perfect as our kids have played all year.”
Sibbitt went to a spread offense to try to bring the Twisters (16-7) out of their zone defense. The ploy worked. When Oldenburg came out to guard Hauser guards Brock Thalls and Landon Asher, they usually got the ball to Jackson Paradise in the corner or Bryce Bates or Trey Johnson in the lane.
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“I thought that the way Oldenburg plays, they traditionally like to play just a half-court zone, so forcing them to trap and go man-to-man is a little bit out of their comfort zone, and that’s what we were trying to get done,” Sibbitt said. “Then, we had to do our stuff once we got them out of that. All the credit goes to the kids. I don’t know that I’ve ever had a group execute a game plan that needed to execute a game plan that well to give themselves a chance to win.”
The Jets (17-7) led 38-34 with 3:40 left in the game before Oldenburg got two free throws and a basket from Zach Wegman to tie it with 2:47 remaining. Hauser went back on top on a free throw by Johnson, but Wil Freeland scored to give the Twisters a 40-39 advantage with 1:56 left.
After the Jets missed a 3-pointer with 47 seconds remaining, Thalls came up with a steal. Hauser missed another 3 with 15 seconds left before Oldenburg’s Jake Johnson converted a one-and-one with 9.7 seconds remaining to make it a three-point game.
The Twisters still had a foul to give, and after that and a timeout, the Jets got the ball on the wing to Trey Johnson, whose contested 3-pointer went in and out just before the buzzer sounded.
“It felt pretty good when it left the hands,” Johnson said. “I saw it roll in and out, and that was the game.”
Trey Johnson scored 15 points, and Bates added 14 to lead Hauser. Both grabbed a team-high six rebounds.
“I think we couldn’t have executed our game plan any better than we did tonight,” Johnson said. “We had a great group of guys to do it with. Coach drew it up and told us what to do, and we executed it perfectly, I thought.”
Sibbitt said he has had the Jets working on the spread offense on and off in practice for more than a month. He used it for part of last week’s regular-season finale against Triton Central.
“We got a new coach this year, and we didn’t know what to expect in the beginning,” Johnson said. “We went through a rough patch, but I thought the guys listened well and adjusted well, and all in all, I thought it was a pretty good season.”
The game was the final one as Hauser coach for Sibbitt, who announced his resignation Tuesday after pleading guilty to a reckless driving charge in Clark County.
“This is one that hurts because you lose, but this is one that you can forever be proud of as a coach and as a player,” Sibbitt said. “They represented themselves, our school, our community to the highest degree tonight, and for that, I’m very thankful and proud of them.”
