COLUMBUS: Jackson senior Kyle Young stepped to the free-throw line Saturday night with 3.6 seconds on the clock in the fourth quarter at Value City Arena with a bunch of pressure on him.
How much pressure?
Well, Jackson and undefeated Cincinnati Archbishop Moeller were tied in the Division I boys basketball state championship game.
Young swished the first shot and missed the second. Moeller secured the rebound, called timeout and then missed a subsequent game-winning shot attempt to give Jackson a 39-38 victory before a crowd of 11,750 at Ohio State University.
“We stayed focused the whole game and we dug down deep,” Young said after accepting the championship trophy with his teammates and cutting down a piece of the net from the basket in which he made the winning free throw.
“We knew they were going to be tough to guard. ... It was awesome that I was able to hit that free throw, but throughout this whole game we had a lot of guys step up.”
Senior Logan Hill, a 6-5 Toledo recruit, led Jackson (28-2) with 12 points, six rebounds and three blocks. Jaret Pallotta, a 6-5 junior, had 11 points, seven rebounds and three assists.
“This game was a grind the entire time,” Hill said. “At halftime, we talked about the team with the most grit was the team that was going to pull out the victory.”
Young, a 6-7 Butler recruit, scored five points and grabbed 10 rebounds, and 6-3 senior Kyle Nicolas scored five points and had two assists and two steals.
“These kids deserved this,” Jackson coach Tim Debevec said. “They earned this. We had a lot of good stuff in the offseason, and I am proud of these kids. I love Jackson kids. This bring a lot of families and community members together. True enough, you see our fans tonight. We had families come in from Florida, North Carolina and from all over the state of Ohio to get here to watch this game.
“This is incredible, man. We are the 2017 state champions. You can never take this away from these kids. They played their hearts out. We grinded this out.”
Miles McBride, a 6-0 sophomore, paced Moeller (28-1) with 15 points, nine rebounds, two steals and two blocks. Moeller also got solid performances from 6-5 senior Keegan McDowell (14 points, eight rebounds) and 6-4 junior Jeremiah Davenport (eight points).
The Bears also got three points apiece from 6-2 junior Ethan Stanislawski and 6-2 senior Dillon Dingler.
“This state championship means a lot to our kids because they are homegrown,” Debevec said. “They are all from Jackson.”
Jackson scored the final five points of the first quarter on a Hill layup and a Dingler 3-pointer to take a 13-11 lead.
Young scored the first four points of the second quarter to give Jackson a 17-11 advantage at 5:48, but Moeller didn’t stay behind long as McBride helped the Crusaders draw even at 20-20 with a bucket that capped the scoring in the first half.
Both teams’ defenses continued to be stout in a third quarter that ended with Jackson up 30-27. Hill and Nicolas each scored five points in the quarter.
Hill opened the fourth quarter with a layup to give the Bears a 32-27 edge, but the Crusaders refused to go away. McBride made a free throw and a jumper to knot the score at 34-34 with 2:09 to go after Jackson was whistled for an intentional foul.
Pallotta made a 3, Davenport followed with two free throws and then Moeller committed an intentional foul that sent Hill to the line. Hill split 1-of-2 free throws and Jackson led 38-36 with 49.7 seconds left. McDowell tied the score at 38-38 with two free throws with 23.8 to go, and then Young won the game for Jackson.
“That kid is special,” Debevec said of Young.
Quick shots
• Akron native Scott Gooden was one of the three referees. Gooden played high school basketball at Copley and Firestone, and then played at the University of Akron.