HOPE
Hauser and Edinburgh fans got their money’s worth.
It took an extra session to decide Friday night’s Mid-Hoosier Conference matchup, and it was a 3-pointer from Stryker Gill with 1:48 left in overtime that gave the Jets a late lead and a 67-66 upset win over Class A No. 5 Edinburgh.
With the game tied at 59-59 and 17 seconds left in regulation, Edinburgh’s Keegan Smith had a chance to put the Lancers up but missed both free throws. The Jets’ own game-winning shot attempt with 1.8 seconds left was off the mark.
In the overtime period, a 3-pointer from Hauser’s Gavin Keller tied the game at 62-62, setting up Stryker’s go-ahead shot.
“The word we talked about at halftime was toughness. If you want to beat a team like Edinburgh, you’ve got to get tougher,” Hauser coach Trent Moorhead said. “We’ve got so many young guys figuring out what that means, and it was showed and exemplified that whole second half.”
A big difference in the game down the stretch was free throws. Edinburgh converted only 3 of 10 foul shots during the final minutes of regulation and overtime. They also blew a double-digit halftime lead.
“When you go like that in fourth quarter and overtime, unfortunately, you don’t deserve to win the game,” Edinburgh coach Keith Witty said. “It wasn’t just one guy that missed them; we had four different guys in that fourth quarter or overtime. When you go 3 for 10 and lose the game by one, there’s a lot of things you can do to pinpoint. It’s one that we need to be better at. We do them all the time. We need some guys to step and make tough shots in tough situations.”
Both teams pushed the tempo to start the game. Hauser jumped ahead of Edinburgh 10-5, but the Lancers found their stride out on the perimeter by knocking down four 3-pointers to close out the first quarter and take a 17-16 lead.
Edinburgh grew the lead to double digits by hitting a couple more 3-pointers, and by getting to the free throw line during an 11-0 run that made it 28-16. The Jets stopped the run with a 3 from Ledger Gelfius to spark a 7-3 run of their own, but Connor Ramey scored in the lane in the final few seconds to give the Lancers a 33-23 halftime lead.
After Caleb Dewey gave Edinburgh a 35-23 lead, Hauser then went on an 11-0 run to cut the deficit to 35-34 and put themselves back into the fight.
For Hauser, Gelfius, Gill and Owen McIntyre all finished with 15 points apiece.
“I can’t say enough about the job that we did across the board,” Moorhead said. “We got great senior leadership from Owen McIntyre hitting big shots and making free throws when we need them. We got multiple guys in double-digit scoring, and even having Ledger Gelfius and Alex Cord play their butts off the whole game, then fouling out at the end of the game and overtime, and we still have guys like Gavin Keller, Kameron Blair and Taeshaun Tungate coming off the bench and scoring nine. Guys were stepping up. It was a total team effort tonight.”
For Edinburgh, Caleb Dewey scored a game-high 26 points, Connor Ramey finished with 14 and Jarrett Turner added 12, all coming behind the arc.
“When adversity hits, we didn’t handle it very well, and that’s obviously something we need to get better at,” Witty said. “Anytime when you go on the road, it’s going to be difficult. I felt like we self-destruct more than necessary.”