After coming back from an early deficit to take a one-point halftime, the Grove Ridgerunners were undone by the mother of all shooting slumps.
Leading 19-18 at the half, the Ridgerunners (3-5) scored just three points, getting one field goal, over the next 17:34 of game time until freshman Joe Crosslin hit a three with 1:26 left in the game.
Crosslin would knock down another one 30 seconds later, kicking off an 11-1 run that nearly pulled out a miraculous win. The Bulldogs (3-7) helped things along with a pair of turnovers and by hitting 1-of-3 free throws.
A tip-in by Jake Spychalski and a three by Ty Phillips got the Ridgerunners within one, but after a missed free throw with five seconds left, Phillips’s desperation three at the buzzer just missed, sending the Ridgerunners to their third straight loss.
“Teams have kind of figures out where our offense comes from with Jake and Spence [Londagin],” head coach Zach Trimble said. “So we’re seeing a lot of triangle-and-two and diamond-and-one [zones]. We kind of expected that coming in and we got the shots we wanted through our offense, a lot of easy ones, and just couldn’t get them to fall.”
Early on it was the Bulldogs who were knocking everything down, as Wagoner hit four threes to take a 14-6 first quarter lead.
But Londagin knocked down a pair from behind the arc and Phillips added another as Grove clawed back to take the lead late in the second quarter.
Then the slump came, lasting the final three minutes of the first half and for nearly all of the second, before Crosslin sparked the near-comeback.
“He’s someone we’ve talked about coming in and being a zonebuster,” Trimble said of the freshman. “He came in tonight a little nervous, but he ended up knocking down a couple of big shots for us.”
Phillips and Spychalski led Grove with 9 points each, with Spychalski adding 13 rebounds. Londagin and Crosslin had 6 points each.
“Ty’s really been coming on and shooting the ball well,” Trimble said. “That last one looked like it was going in as well, it just didn’t fall for us tonight.”
Kyle Curry led Wagoner with 9 points, while YaAquoob King and Anthony Ashley had 8 and 7 points, respectively. King and Ashley each hit double-digits in rebounds, as the Bulldogs took advantage of their height to outrebound Grove 39-31.
The Ridgerunners stayed in the game by forcing 22 Wagoner turnovers, 10 of those coming in the fourth quarter. Grove turned the ball over just seven times.
“Except for a couple of games we’re holding teams to around 38 points a game,” Trimble said. “If you do that, you should win. We’ve just got to figure out what’s going on on offense and put the ball in the hole.”
Grove will open the Port City Classic in Catoosa on Thursday at 2:30 p.m. against Skiatook.
