BOYS BASKETBALL: For second straight year, Flyers lose late lead in district championship

Unfortunately for Griffin and his teammates, it was a familiar stinging feeling to end the season.

For the second consecutive year, what had been going so right for St. Paul went wrong Friday in the final two and a half minutes of a Division IV district championship game against Ottawa Hills at Gibsonburg High School.

A 41-35 lead with 2:33 remaining for the upset-minded Flyers became a 44-42 loss that left more questions than answers.

St. Paul finished the season 14-10 overall while Ottawa Hills improved to 22-1 and will play Miller City (20-4) Tuesday at Bowling Green in a regional semifinal.

It was a year ago the Flyers had another one-loss team on the ropes. They had a 41-37 lead on Plymouth with less than three minutes left before falling 47-43.

“We’re obviously disappointed, but I’m also proud we’ve been here the last two years,” St. Paul coach Mike Smith said. “We’ve been consistent and have had tournament success. Plymouth had a great team and we took them to the limit, and Ottawa Hills only lost once and we took them to the wire. 

“Sometimes things work out the way they work out. I don’t think it was due to lack of preparation or game plan. We frustrated them, but just didn’t make a couple plays.”

Ottawa Hills scored on back-to-back baskets that sandwiched a would-be St. Paul layup that did everything but fall in for Justin Wilde. That allowed the Green Bears to pull within 41-39 with 1:51 left. Griffin split a pair of free throws for a 42-39 lead with 1:40 remaining, but the Bears got another basket with just less than a minute left to keep pace.

The Flyers then missed the front end of a bonus foul shot. 

Ottawa Hills’ Eliot Browarsky sank two free throws to give the Bears a 43-42 lead with 19.2 seconds left. It was their first lead since the 2:27 mark of the third quarter.

Browarsky, who averaged 19.2 points per game during the regular season, finished with eight points on 2-of-12 shooting.

“We weren’t going to go down without the ball in his hands,” Ottawa Hills coach John Lindsay said. “I was just glad we had the opportunity to show our competitiveness at the end.”

Wilde brought the ball into the forecourt as the clock ticked under 15 seconds. After several failed attempts to penetrate the Bears defense, Wilde found an opening and charged to the basket.

At the last moment, Wilde passed to his left to Griffin, who took the ball and lunged toward the basket with four seconds left. Griffin missed the shot, and while there was contact, no whistle was blown.

 The Bears recovered the rebound and were fouled with 0.2 seconds left, splitting the free throws for the final margin.

Turnovers hurt the Flyers as they finished with 15, including a stretch in the third quarter in which they turned it over on four out of five possessions.

“They put a lot of pressure on the ball, and we tried establishing our inside game,” Smith said. “But a lot of that ended up forced, and it gave us problems. 

“I liked the way we guarded, we changed some things a little bit to take some things away from them. I like everything we did. But we missed a couple layups, and they get magnified at the end. But there is a lot of mistakes in a 32-minute game that can be singled out.”

Daren Smith hit three 3-pointers and paced St. Paul with 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting while Griffin added 10 points. Schwieterman scored seven points and grabbed nine rebounds despite playing in foul trouble most of the game.