ALTOONA — A clutch three by Gavin Klos to give Ellsworth the lead by one with 10 seconds to play seemingly went to waste, with Altoona coming out of a timeout and finding an open man in the …
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ALTOONA — A clutch three by Gavin Klos to give Ellsworth the lead by one with 10 seconds to play seemingly went to waste, with Altoona coming out of a timeout and finding an open man in the corner to win it on a buzzer-beater.
Just as the Altoona players and students looked to flood the court in celebration, the refs put 0.8 seconds back on the clock. The problem for Ellsworth was that they called a timeout, but were still on the far end of the court in need of a bucket.
“The last play was something we’ve never run before. We drew it up in 30 seconds,” Head Coach Derek Staley said. “It’s fun stuff.”
A full court bullet of a pass to George Rohl gave him a chance from about 30 feet out and smothered near the sideline, throwing one up that rattled in for the win. The Panther players rushed to midcourt to swarm Rohl and the absolute masterpiece of a game came to an end 67-66 Thursday.
“I was thinking you never know what’s going to happen,” Rohl said. “It was halfway there and I was like oh, that might go in. And then it did and I blacked out from there.”
The pass from Nash Kuhl down the court also did not go unnoticed by Rohl.
Staley said they were trying to draw a foul on a screening action for the inbounder, which went uncalled prior to the shot.
The game was balanced early on, with both teams starting off hot and cooling off after the first few minutes. Altoona built up a 10-point lead in the final minutes of the half, and Ellsworth found a way to trim it back to 32-28 at the break.
“Our strength is our pace and our size, so we just kept kind of grinding on them with our pace, tried to wear them out and we kind of did at the end of the first half,” Staley said.
Coming out of the half, Ellsworth tied the game up in a hurry, and over time, the Railroaders again swelled their lead to double digits.
“We’re just a little inconsistent defensively right now,” Staley said. “We need to lock in in practice a little bit better. Credit to their kids, they made plays.”
Ellsworth mounted a comeback all over again, including a layup and an inbounds pass steal into another layup for Rohl to cut the lead to three with seven minutes to go.
Klos and Parker Peterson each knocked down some shots down the stretch to set up the Panthers to strike in the final seconds. Peterson finished with 16 points and Klos with nine. Rohl landed between the two with 14.
“Just battling through adversity,” Staley said. “That was our theme for the game today because we had some adversity last Friday. I think if we carry that through and learn to embrace that and battle through adversity, we’ll be in good shape.”
There is no such thing as an easy win in Middle Border Conference play, and that is especially true on the road. Moving to 1-1 in conference completely changed the momentum for the Panthers after a loss to St. Croix Central previously.
“If you can steal a couple road games, you’re in good shape,” Staley said. “This is a big momentum swing for us. Tough one last Friday at St. Croix Central, the guys had a good week of practice and it showed on the floor today.”
For Rohl, this game felt like a step in the right direction of where the team wants to go this season.
“We’re looking to win conference, we’re looking to go as far as we possibly can,” Rohl said. “The end goal is obviously to go to the Kohl Center, so expectations are high for ourselves, and I think that’s good because it pushes us to work every day.”