Keith stunned by one-win Akron; season over

Published 12:43 am Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Keith’s John Pettway throws a pass to an open teammate in the Bears’ loss to Akron Tuesday. --Daniel Evans

Keith’s John Pettway throws a pass to an open teammate in the Bears’ loss to Akron Tuesday. –Daniel Evans

ORRVILLE — In an upset that will send shockwaves through the 1A playoff bracket, Keith’s boys fell to Akron 50-46 Tuesday.

The Bears spent the majority of the season ranked No. 1 in the ASWA rankings, but fell victim to one-win Akron Tuesday in the first round of the class 1A, area 5 tournament. Although Keith was able to pull even late in the game, Akron did not trail the entire way.

“A loss is a loss. This just happens to be a loss you can’t recover from. This was a great group of seniors, and I can’t say enough about them. They’ve answered the bell, they’ve worked and they’ve done what I asked for,” Keith head coach Tommy Tisdale said. “To watch them have to end it like this, that part makes me want to cry — to have them finish it here knowing the opportunity we had.”

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A Keith team that had scored 77, 62 and 57 points in three wins against Akron this season couldn’t find any rhythm on offense Tuesday. The Bears struggled to find consistency in half court sets and couldn’t force enough Rams turnovers to speed up the tempo. Akron limited the Bears to one shot on the majority of possessions and controlled the pace, which kept the score down.

“The first couple of times we played them, they got a lot of second chance shots. [Our plan] was mostly box out and rebound,” Akron coach Barry Ward said. “Go down and rebound, get the rebound and slow the game down and play our tempo. We had to play our basketball game because if we got in a rat race with them, they were going to run and they can run you out of the gym.”

Keith turned the ball over eight times in the first five minutes of the game, mostly by wayward passes. All the mistakes allowed Akron to take a 6-5 lead after the first quarter.

The Rams’ offense started clicking as Akron scored 10 of the first 12 points of the second quarter. Keith closed the quarter with shots by Kent James and John Pettway, but still trailed 20-16 at the half.

The Rams’ James Lee hit three shots in the third and helped the Rams take the biggest lead of the game at 27-17 with 3:03 left in the quarter. Keith gradually starting to cut into the gap and a Pettway steal and layup with 1:05 left in the third brought the Bears to within 29-26.

Akron recovered to lead 33-28 after three quarters, but the Bears still had two more good runs in them.

Keith’s Jaequan Simmons knocked in his third three-pointer with 5:50 left to make it 37-35 Akron. Pettway stole the ball on Akron’s next possession and went the other way for a dunk, tying the score and giving the Bears’ crowd a reason to celebrate for one of the first times all night.

Akron never let the momentum completely swing though. Lee nailed a three-pointer on the ensuing possession to give the Rams the lead for good.

Back-to-back layups for Akron forward Jamerson Pasteur made it 46-39 and a layup by Hobson made it a nine-point game with a minute to go. Tisdale called timeout, urging his team to stop looking at the scoreboard.

The Bears responded with one final stand and nearly pulled off a miraculous comeback to save their season. James made a layup and Pettway turned two steals into layups to pull the Bears within two with 40 seconds left. An Akron turnover gave the Bears a chance to tie, but Pettway’s shot came up short. The Rams beat the Bears back down the court for a layup to put it away.

“In the fourth quarter, we started watching the scoreboard,” Tisdale said. “We started playing the scoreboard. We tied it up at 37 and then we leave a kid wide open and when you are wide open you make shots.”

It doesn’t get any easier for Akron, who will move on to face No. 1 Sunshine in Friday’s championship game.

Keith’s season is over, well short of the championship aspirations the Bears had in mind.

“I’d be crazy if I told you that I wanted to lose tonight,” Tisdale said. “I’d be insane if I told you that. Did I think Akron was capable? I really did.”