He shoots, he scores! Lex senior nails winner at the OT buzzer to nip Shelby

ASHLAND — Alex Depperschmidt was an All-Ohio soccer player for Lexington, a passer whose vision on the pitch made him one of the school’s all-time assists leaders.

The senior point guard used that same vision on the court Thursday night to score easily the biggest bucket of his basketball career.

Taking a pass from freshman Joe Caudill, Depperschmidt raced down the court and split two Shelby defenders before hitting hit a driving, winning layup just before the buzzer to give the Minutemen (20-4) a thrilling 76-74 overtime win in a Division II district semifinal.

The game-winner before a packed house at Ashland High School triggered a wild celebratory pile of Lexington players along the baseline at Ashland High School.

It didn’t end until Minutemen coach Scott Hamilton arrived to lift his senior off his feet with a grateful and proud bearhug. Alex is the youngest of three Depperschmidt brothers Hamilton has coached in his 11 years at LHS.

In the locker room afterward, while his players headed to the bus, Hamilton praised a player who has come off the bench most of the season.

Depperschmidt, who slid into a starting role due to the late-season absence of fellow senor A.J. Young, played all 36 minutes against the Whippets.

“We’ve talked about that all year long. We’ve seen him in practice and it’s really the family. I’ve had all three boys … mom and dad … it’s just a great family,” Hamilton said.

“They do things the right way. It doesn’t matter if it’s soccer, basketball, baseball, whatever they play. They are just great teammates and great guys to coach and have on your roster,” the coach said.

THE BIG FINISH: The game-winning play capped an improbable comeback by Lexington, which trailed 51-40 late in the third quarter to Shelby (20-4).

The Whippets got an amazing 37 points and 11 rebounds from All-Ohioan Alex Bruskotter, who time and time again made clutch shots for Shelby.

Bruskotter, a junior, fouled out with 2:07 left in OT after putting his team ahead, 70-68.

With their leader on the bench, Shelby turned to senior Max Hess, who scored twice in about a 30-second span to keep the Whippets on top, 72-70 and 74-72.

Those baskets were answered by two free throws and a field goal by Lexington senior Hudson Moore, the latter tying the game at 74 with 37 seconds left.

That set the stage for last-second heroics.

Shelby ran its halfcourt offense and whittled down the clock. Hess, who nailed six triples among his 28 points in the regular-season finale, had a great look from the corner with 7.7 seconds remaining.

The shot bounced off the rim. Caudill grabbed the contested rebound, finally gaining control of it with 4.4 seconds left. Depperschmidt raced ahead and took Caudill’s pass just past midcourt with about 2.2 seconds to play.

The speedy guard split between Hess and Shelby senior Carson Baker at the foul line and released his layup with 0.5 seconds left on the clock, winning the game and launching bedlam.

In the hallway outside the locker room, Depperschmidt said he had no doubt he could cover the distance to the basket as time drained away.

“(Assistant coach Mason) Willeke always talks about it. How many seconds left is how may dribbles you get. Joe got a great rebound and I just ran. The ball kind of came to me. I just drove and threw it up there,” Depperschmidt said.

It’s the second time Depperschmidt authored last-second heroics at Ashland’s gym. On Jan. 13, he hit a winning layup against the Arrows with four seconds left in a 55-53 victory.

He had no answers for his good fortune at AHS. His winner in January was his only basket. The clincher against Shelby was his second field goal of the night.

“I don’t know. It’s something weird. I kind of thought about it before the game. That’s kind of the first thing I remembered when I walked in here. So it was nice for it to happen again,” he said with a smile.

Depperschmidt, who led Lexington with eight assists and only one turnover, said the Minutemen felt no panic when they trailed in the second half.

“We were really just trying to stay motivated. We didn’t feel like we had any energy out there. We kind of felt like we were just lollygagging around,” Depperschmidt said, crediting his teammates with rallying together.

“Everyone really chipped in and helped us help us get the win. It’s unbelievable. It means so much to everyone here. I feel like it’s for everyone, all the coaches, all the fans. It’s great,” he said.

Hamilton said his team discussed different last-second scenarios during the final timeout, none of which involved calling timeout if the Minutemen got the ball back.

“We actually had a couple of different scenarios that we talked about and the ball went into our seniors’ hands. We were gonna put Hudson in a position. We had Alex in a position.

“And then if we were coming off some action, we told Baden (Forup) that you had to get your guy, whatever it took, you had to get your guy on the back and we were gonna get it into you.

“We really were just putting the ball in our seniors’ hands at that point,” Hamilton said.

Shelby coach Greg Gallaway, whose team lost at home to Lexington, 66-59, on Feb. 14, knew Lexington would make a run down the stretch. 

“Good teams make runs. To hold (onto) a 9-point lead against a great team like Lexington, I think that’s a lot easier said than done. That’s what they do. They make runs and we knew they were gonna make runs.

“But we just had to do our best to fight back and to battle those runs and our guys did,” he said.

“I’m extremely proud of our guys’ effort. I thought we left it all out there. There’s nothing that we regretted. Our guys are leaving here, but their heads are high.

“We’re not letting one game define our season. We accomplished a lot this year (including a fourth-straight Mid-Ohio Athletic Conference title) and I’m just really proud of our guys,” Gallaway said.

“At the end there, our best player goes out and our five guys on the floor keep fighting. It was awesome to see. That’s just the kind of guys we have at Shelby and I’m lucky to coach those guys,” he said.

Lexington-Shelby box score

STATISTICALLY SPEAKING: The stars for both Richland County heavyweights stepped up Thursday night.

Lexington freshman Brayden Fogle had 22 points, three rebounds and three assists before fouling out with 2:37 left in overtime. The 6-7 Forup had 18 points and 11 rebounds. Junior Elijah Hudson (6-8) had 16 points and four rebounds. Moore (6-3) finished with 13 points and nine rebounds.

In addition to the remarkable performance by Bruskotter, Shelby got 18 points, seven rebounds and four assists from 6-5 junior Casey Lantz. Hess finished with 12 points and seven rebounds.

Lexington shot 46 percent from the field (32-of-70), including 4-of-16 treys. Shelby connected on 43 percent of its shots (25-of-58), including 5-of-15 triples.

Lexington had a slight edge in rebounding, 39-37, and committed four less turnovers than Shelby, 8 to 12.

UP NEXT: Lexington advances to a district championship game Saturday at 4 p.m. against top-seeded Sandusky (23-1). The Blue Streaks defeated Mansfeld Senior, 84-75, in the first game Thursday evening.

The title game will be back at Ashland High School with the winner advancing to the regional semifinals March 9 at Bowling Green State University.

Lex-Shelby tourney box