MANSFIELD — Brayden DeVito’s mid-range mastery made all the difference Tuesday night.

Shelby’s All-Ohio senior guard, DeVito scored seven fourth-quarter points and made a critical defensive stop in the closing seconds as the second-seeded Whippets knocked of No. 1 Ontario 43-41 in the Division IV boys district basketball semifinals at Mansfield Senior’s Pete Henry Gym.

The Whippets (16-7) trailed 31-30 to start the fourth period before DeVito took over. He connected on back-to-back jumpers in the 15-foot range to open the quarter and give Shelby a 34-31 lead.

“We just tried to give him some actions to free him up and get to his mid-range,” Shelby coach Greg Gallaway said. “That’s a shot that a lot of kids in high school don’t have.

“He feels really comfortable taking that shot off the dribble and after he sees one goes through, he’s confident to keep shooting.”

DeVito scored a team-high 13 points despite misfiring on all four of his 3-point attempts.

“The fourth quarter was either going to be my last quarter of basketball or I could play another game,” DeVito said. “That was the mindset. Fourth quarter is go-time.”

Defense

Shelby led 36-31 after a Michael Shepherd layup with 6:20 remaining but the Warriors (15-8) refused to go quietly. Trindon Flenoury hit a pair of huge 3-pointers in the fourth stanza, the first to cut Ontario’s lead to 36-34 and the second to trim it to 42-41 with 19 second left.

DeVito split a pair of free throws to make it 43-41 with 15 seconds to play.

Ontario had a chance to tie or take the lead, but DeVito forced a tie-up with 2.8 seconds remaining. The possession arrow favored the Warriors, but DeVito forced Cardae Brown into a tough shot and the attempt bounded off the backboard as time expired.

“I saw him start to post me up and I knew what they were going to do,” DeVito said. “He was gong to try to spin back (to his) left and I was going to try to contest.”

It was the shot the Warriors were looking for, Ontario coach Jerry Moton said.

“We got the shot we wanted,” Moton said. “We just didn’t make it.”

Double-Double

Shepherd backed DeVito with 10 points and grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds. Five of his boards came on the offensive glass.

“I thought he was a man on the glass tonight,” Gallaway said. “If we’re face-guarding on the perimeter, we’re taking some guys out of rebounding (position). We knew ‘Shep’ was going to have to be big on the glass.”