BARBERTON – The biggest assist in Lowen Ferguson’s career came not on the basketball court, but in a huddle on the sideline.
Playing Heartland Christian for a Division VII regional championship Friday night at Barberton, Hillsdale had possession in a tie game with 21 seconds left.
Ferguson, the sophomore point guard for the Falcons, suggested the ball be in the hands of Troy Bennett.
The senior guard drove the right side of the lane and dropped in a layup with 7.5 seconds left. When the Lions split a pair of free throws at the other end, Hillsdale was on its way to the first Final Four in program history, 58-57.
“I just put myself in their heads,” Ferguson said. “They were probably saying, ‘Hey, they’re gonna get the ball to (Ferguson) and he’s gonna get downhill.’ So I thought we could use me as a distraction and get it to Troy; he’s one of the most clutch players I’ve played with.”
“Lowen usually runs that play, but he told Coach, ‘Hey, give Troy the ball,’” Bennett said. “Right when I faked the pass to Lowen and I turned that corner, I knew I was doing nothing but making that layup.”
Hillsdale junior wing Kael Lewis fouled Heartland Christian’s standout guard Collin Kalaher while blocking the would-be game-tying shot at the other end.
But Kalaher missed his second free throw with 0.6 seconds left and the ball was tipped away – sending the Falcons and their fans into hysteria.
Hillsdale (20-7) advances to play in the state semifinals at 2 p.m. next Friday at Wright State University’s Nutter Center. The Falcons will face the winner of Saturday’s game between No. 3-ranked Montpelier (24-2) and No. 7 Kalida (15-11) at Bowling Green.
It is the first trip to the state tournament in boys basketball for an Ashland-area team since Loudonville made the Final Four in 2005.
Ferguson finished with seven assists on the court – six of them coming in the final 11 minutes of the game – and every single Hillsdale starter played a critical role.
“It’s truly a dream come true,” Ferguson said. “I always thought this was a possibility but really never thought it would come true. This is probably the best feeling I’ve ever had in my life.”
The Falcons got double-doubles from both Lewis (game-high 21 points, 10 rebounds) and senior Hayden McFadden (11 points, 10 rebounds). Junior Knox Lewis was a bucket away from one himself (8 points, 12 rebounds).
Hillsdale needed everything it got, too.
Heartland Christian (22-5) grabbed its first lead of the second half with less than three minutes to play when senior Isaiah Matthews buried a 3-pointer from the left corner to make it 52-51.
Lions’ senior Corban Seutia also hit a pair of treys earlier in the fourth quarter, turning a 46-36 Falcons lead into a 46-44 edge with six minutes to go.
“I kinda had that feeling that if we didn’t see the ball go through the net early that they might be able to get out on us a little bit,” said Heartland Christian head coach Josh Scott, whose squad trailed 19-4 out of the gate before clawing back into it. “But as soon as we started making some shots, we knew we were capable of being in it.
“We could definitely feel the momentum coming (with the fourth-quarter 3-pointers).”
The 11th-ranked Lions were carrying the confidence of a team that had set the school record for single-season wins — and was playing in its first regional tournament.
Behind Kalaher, a returning All-Ohioan who cleared 1,000 career points earlier in the season, they entered the night on a 12-game win streak and seemed to be positioning themselves for a late comeback victory.
The junior, who finished with 16 points, hit a spinning shot in the lane with 54 seconds left that made it 56-54, and the Heartland Christian fans were at a fever pitch.
“I knew it was gonna be a tough one and I knew they’d get hot,” Hillsdale head coach Ben Ferguson said. “We have a lot of respect for them; they all shoot the ball really well, so we knew it was just a matter of time.
“That’s how a regional final should be.”
But Ferguson found Kael Lewis for a layup with 40 seconds left to tie it, and then Bennett stole a Heartland Christian inbounds pass under the Hillsdale basket with 21 seconds to play, putting the ball back in the Falcons’ claws.
That set up the senior’s heroics at the other end.
“We were gonna run a whole different play and Lowen said, ‘Run ‘Houston’ for Troy and they’re gonna jump to me,’” coach Ferguson said of Hillsdale’s final possession. “And they did and it worked out. It was incredible.”
“All we wanted to do was to just get to that next step,” Bennett said. “We’ll see what happens.”
Tournament rematch
The meeting actually was a rematch of a district championship game from one season earlier.
In that contest, Hillsdale built a 38-30 halftime lead, then ran away with a 73-54 blowout on the back of then-senior post Bradey Krichbaum, who had 26 points and set a school record with 26 rebounds.
He now plays at Ashland University. So, both teams knew Friday’s rematch would have a completely different tone, despite most of the starters returning from a year ago.
“I think our kids believed a little bit more because they knew if they got to the rim tonight they wouldn’t have someone there who was six or seven inches taller than them,” Scott said.
“But kudos to Hillsdale. They made plays, they did the right things down the stretch.”
The Lewis brothers both were assigned to create an inside presence on Friday night.
“Me and Knox, we love that contact down low,” said Kael Lewis, who had nine points and four rebounds in the first quarter alone. “The farther we get into these playoffs, the more the refs let stuff go, so we love that.”
“Losing a big senior like (Krichbaum), we knew there were shoes to fill,” Knox Lewis said. “Me and Kael have always been the ones to step in when needed.
“It’s kind of a competition – iron sharpens iron. He wants to get 10 rebounds and I want to get 11. We’re built for the big game, in my opinion, and so is the rest of this team.”
A game of runs
It looked like the Falcons would run away with at the start, with Kael Lewis pushing the squad out to a 19-4 lead through the first five minutes.
The Lions missed all six 3-point attempts in the first quarter, but they cobbled together a few buckets late to send it to the second quarter at 21-10.
Heartland junior Brody Conaway then scored eight of his team-high 17 points in the second period as the Lions pressured Ferguson and the Falcons into eight second-quarter turnovers.
That led to a 14-0 Heartland run and their first lead of the game at 24-23.
Hillsdale made just one field goal in the first five-plus minutes of the frame before Ferguson (11 points) hit a 3-pointer from deep beyond the left wing to make it 26-24.
The Falcons had 14 turnovers at the half – more than twice as many as the Lions – and yet own a 28-25 edge.
In the third quarter, Hillsdale pushed out to a 44-32 lead behind a 10-1 run that featured three assists and another 3-pointer for Ferguson. That came along with some big rebounds from McFadden, who also hit a massive 3-pointer late in the fourth quarter.
“I had a lot of turnovers in the first half, so I just took a deep breath, calmed down and thought about how hard I worked in the offseason to get to this point.” Ferguson said. “I just started to see the court a lot better in that second half.”
The game was tied on four occasions in the final stanza as the Lions found their offensive rhythm, but they couldn’t hold on long enough.
It was the third-lowest-scoring game of the season for Heartland Christian, which entered averaging 72.4 points per contest.
“It was one of those games where, if one more shot falls, one less turnover,” Scott said. “It’s probably gonna haunt me for a few months, but I’m gonna try to find the joy in the fact that we made it this far.”
On to the next
It’s the first time Hillsdale has reached 20 wins in a season since its 23-1 campaign in 2000-01.
The only other time the Falcons had ever made it to a regional final was in 1990.
Coach Ferguson remembered that game well, having gone to Hillsdale and followed that squad closely as a youngster.
“It always stuck with me, what an amazing thing it was for (the 1989-90 team) to get there,” he said. “And now, here I am, coaching my son in my hometown and making it to the state tournament – it’s a big deal.”
Like Hillsdale, Montpelier has never made the state tournament. But if the Falcons face Kalida, they’ll go up against a program that has made five Final Fours (most recently in 2009) and won the state title in 1981.
“I’m really, really excited,” coach Ferguson said. “We might take the boys down a day early and stay the night, and we’re definitely staying the night (after the game), win or lose.
“It’s a big deal for the boys – they’ve worked hard this season.”
Photos below are courtesy of Diane Bemiller.
