Versailles bows out of state tournament
Anna too much down the stretch
By George Starks

DAYTON- With senior Damien Richard (ACL) and junior Kyle Ahrens (Broken Leg) out for the season, the Versailles Tigers had their backs against the wall in their sectional final game Wednesday with Anna.

In December, the two teams met in the Tigers Christmas tournament. In the title game, the Trigers pinned a 59-52 loss on the Rockets.

It was in that game that Ahrens suffered is season ending injury.

Richard would add to the injury list a few games later with the blown ACL, ending his sport career at Versailles.

Versailles jumped out to the early 14-9 lead after the first quarter but it was an uphill climb from there on.

“We did a nice job defensively in the first quarter,” said Scott McEldowney. “We did a good job in the half court executing.”

Led by Josh Robinson, Carter Bensman and Joel Albers as well as Evan Romie, the Anna Rockets were just a little too much to handle in the final four minutes, topping Versailles, 58-55 in overtime.

“We’ve dealt with a lot this season. I’ve never had a season like this one,” said a very dejected McEldowney. “I told the guys that instead of dwelling on things to look at it as an opportunity. We’ve had so many things happen to us and had so many kids that have stepped up through the whole process. When Kyle went down, Damien Richard stepped up and was a huge scorer for us. When Damien went down, Evan (Phlipot) was just a bear inside to guard. Every time he touched the ball he was just so hard to stop. Jacob Wenning made the most of the extra minutes that he was given and had to scrap and fight for everything.”

The momentum swing came to the Rockets at the end of the first half.

After the Tigers gained a 23-23 tie with two seconds remaining off two fouls shots by Ryan Knapke, it was junior Grant Glover that drained a three from half court at the buzzer as he heaved it and found the bottom of the net, giving the Rockets a 25-23 lead at the break but it wasn’t the buzzer beater McEldowney talked to his team about..

“I told the kids at halftime that we should be up by 10 points or more if we would have just too care of the ball a little bit better,” said McEldowney. “It seemed like half of their points came of transition points.”

Phlipot played like a well-oiled machine in the paint, finishing with 19 points on the night while Wenning netted 18, 10 in the first half with six coming off three offensive rebounds.

With Albers on the bench in late game foul trouble, it opened the door for Phlipot in the paint department.

“We knew exactly what we wanted to do. With him out of the game, it was the game plan to pound the ball down low to Evan. With Albers out, it was going to make it easier for us. Anna done a great job pressuring the ball and we should have tried harder to work the ball into him.”

With the loss, the Tigers finish the season with a 13-10.

Romie, averaging eight points a game, dropped in 18 for the Rockets while Bensman added 15 in support.

For the Tigers, it was the final game for seniors, Nick Campbell, Phlipot, Knapke and Wenning as well as Richard.

Richard will play his college ball at Xavier University.