ONTARIO — The play was called ‘Laettner’ after Christian Laettner’s memorable shot more than two decades ago and Cameron Mack did a compelling impersonation of the former Duke star Saturday at the O-Rena.
Ontario’s athletic 6-foot-2 forward connected on a circus shot at the buzzer to force overtime Saturday night and Ontario remained unbeaten with a wildly entertaining 84-79 non-conference win.
Clear Fork’s Kadin Chrastina scored on a driving layup over Mack to give the Colts a 67-65 lead with 3.3 seconds showing on the fourth quarter clock. Ontario coach Joe Balogh called timeout and drew up a play reminiscent of Laettner’s overtime game-winner against Kentucky in the 1992 East Regional final in Philadelphia.
“We call it Laettner because that is where we stole it from,” Balogh said. “I guess if you want to make comparisons it’s kind of similar to Duke-Kentucky because Chrastina hit a tough runner like the one the Kentucky guy (Sean Woods) made.”
Playing the role of Grant Hill, who threw the fateful inbounds pass to Laettner, was Josh Plieninger. The senior forward aced a three-quarter court pass from the left of his own basket to the opposite free throw line. Mack, an All-Ohio receiver in football, went up and snatched the ball over a pair of Clear Fork defenders, dribbled to his left and launched a shot as he fell to the floor.
Nothing but net.
“Josh took it out and made a great pass and I went up and got it,” Mack said. “We had two 3-point shooters running the floor and with three seconds left I knew I had time to take a dribble and shoot it.
“I caught the pass clean, but my dribble was a little shaky. I saw it go in as I hit the floor.”
Clear Fork coach Steve Bechtel will likely see Mack in his nightmares. The senior hit a last-second shot to beat the Colts at Ontario two years ago.
“We had two guys on him and … he hit a phenomenal shot,” Bechtel said. “He hit one two years ago against us, too, that won it. He stepped up when he needed to.”
As for Mack, he was just happy for the chance at redemption after Chrastina scored the go-ahead bucket against him. The Colts ran almost the entire final minute off the clock before Chrastina caught the ball on the left wing and drove across the lane.
“It was a good shot. I wasn’t expecting him to make it because I thought I had played pretty good defense,” Mack said. “He’s a good player and always seems to find a way to get his shots off.”
Chrastina and Ridge Winand helped the Colts rally from a big first-quarter deficit. Clear Fork trailed by double figures early in the contest and 19-10 after the first quarter, but outscored Ontario 43-32 in the second and third quarters to take a 53-51 lead to the fourth.
Winand scored a game-high 31 points, while Chrastina added 21.
“I guess we were hoping we could kind of stretch (the lead) out but Chrastina and Winand just didn’t let it happen,” Balogh said. “I thought we did a good job on Ridge as far as making his looks tough looks, but he made plays.
We thought if we could control those two guys we stood a chance but when they get 52 between them, that’s not a very good job of controlling them.”
Winand drained a 3-pointer early in the four-minute overtime session to give the Colts a 70-69 lead, but the Warriors scored seven straight points to take a 77-70 lead. Brandon Wagner hit a trey with 2:51 remaining to give the Warriors a 72-70 lead. After that, Ontario sank 10 of 14 free throws to ice it.
Mack and Wagner each scored 22 points to lead Ontario (7-0). Lenell Shelby added 15 points while Paul Homan chipped in with 10.
Griffin Robinette backed Winand and Chrastina with 13 points for the Colts (2-3).
“This game is always about plays,” Balogh said. “Guys on both sides were making plays tonight. It was a great game.”
In junior varsity action, the Warriors rumbled to a 64-30 win. Griffin Niss and Corey Thomas each had 10 points for Ontario. Clear Fork was led by Brad Studenmund and Clay Leedy, who each scored six points.
Clear Fork returns to action Friday, hosting Orrville in an Ohio Cardinal Conference game. Ontario is at Shelby for a Northern Ohio League game on Friday before visiting Lexington on Saturday.
Follow Curt Conrad on Twitter @curtjconrad.
“This game is always about plays,” Ontario Coach Joe Balogh said. “Guys on both sides were making plays tonight. It was a great game.”
