Big Scooter (03/04/06)

HARTFORD CITY — Scooter wasn’t nervous. He was angry.

Dribbling alone in the backcourt as the seconds ticked away in overtime, he was thinking he didn’t want the season to end in disappointment. He didn’t want the careers of his four senior teammates to come to a close because of a missed opportunity.

So, after failing on a pair of potential game-winning shots in regulation, Scott Bruggeman turned his anger into adulation on his third chance. He drove from the top of the key, pulled up and hit a 10-foot jumper with three seconds remaining in overtime. It lifted the Jay County Patriots to a 52-50 victory over the Tipton Blue Devils in the first of two Class 3A boys basketball sectional semifinal games at Blackford Friday.

“When you play a team like that, that can beat you in so many ways, you’ve got to kind of pick our poison. And we wanted to make Bruggeman beat us, and he did,” said Tipton coach Travis Daugherty of Bruggeman, who led Jay County in points, rebounds and assists. “Some of the shots he hit were just clutch, just huge shots. Jay County deserves a lot of credit for just hanging around and making the plays they had to.”

Following a Jay County timeout with 17 seconds remaining in overtime, Bruggeman took an inbound pass from Tyler Rigby and stood dribbling behind the timeline with the game tied at 50. At the 12-second mark he got his sneakers squeaking, moved across halfcourt and eventually broke into the heart of the Blue Devil defense.

He pulled up a step or two inside the free-throw line and his jumper over Tipton sophomore Matt Hodges dropped in with three seconds to go.

The Blue Devils ran a well-designed play after a couple of timeouts, but Dejan Nedelkovski’s off-balance shot from just inside the 3-point arc drew only rim as time expired.

“That’s just how it happened,” said Bruggeman, who also hit game-winning free throws in a one-point win over Mississinewa earlier this season, of his most recent game-winning shot. “That’s the play we work on during practice. If I feel like I have a shot I’m going to take it, or if I see somebody open they’re getting the ball. It’s just, the shot happened.”

Jay County will play the Mississinewa Indians (14-7) again for the sectional title today at 7:30 p.m.

Mississinewa advanced with a 51-43 win over the host Blackford Bruins (2-19) in Friday’s second semifinal game.

Bruggeman had a chance to beat Tipton in regulation Friday night as he drove in from the right side, but missed a shot off the glass. He grabbed the rebound, but was off the mark on his put-back attempt as time expired and the teams finished regulation tied at 44.

Jay County coach Craig Teagle said he just wanted his point guard to be smart again on the final overtime play.

“The main thing was to dribble penetrate, pull up, and if you’ve got the shot, take it,” he said. “If not, kick, definitely don’t charge into anyone, if it goes into another overtime, so be it. You know, the only thing better than winning a sectional game in regulation is winning one in overtime.”

Juniors Bruggeman and Corey Comer carried the Patriots (16-6) to their fourth straight sectional championship appearance.

Bruggeman shot 7-of-14 for his team-high 17 points. He also dominated the glass early, and his seven rebounds were second only the 11 pulled down by Tipton’s 6-foot-6-inch freshman center Derek Elston. He also dished out six assists, and blocked a shot for good measure.

Comer scored the final seven points of a 9-0 Jay County run to end the first half en route to his total of 12. He shot 5-of-11 and had three assists.

“If someone’s Corey’s height we just don’t think they can stop him,” said Teagle, who went to Comer heavily when foul trouble forced the Blue Devils to use their bench in the second period. “He’s just so physical and he’s got nice moves. So we wanted to go to him and try to get him to score. Any time we get that kind of mismatch we’ve got to go with it and it worked for a while.”

Tipton had an 18-11 lead after burying four 3-pointers in the first quarter, but then shot just 2-of-14 in the second period. Jay County used the 9-0 run over the final four minutes for the half for a 25-23 advantage.

The Patriots’ pushed the lead to as many as eight points, only to have Dejan Nedelkovski bring the Blue Devils roaring back. He scored the final 11 points of the game, including three 3-pointers to force the extra session. He finished with 13 points, four rebounds and four assists.

Elston had a great game in the defeat, adding a game-high 18 points to his game-high rebounding total. He also had three blocked shots and two assists.

Despite the same losing outcome for Tipton, the game showed a marked turnaround for the Blue Devils after they lost to Jay County by 18 on Feb. 11.

“There’s no way in the world I can describe how proud I am of the guys,” said Daugherty. “Not only for tonight’s effort, but just the consistency of our effort over the last two weeks or so. It’s been just unbelievable.

“I think it’s safe to say that we lost to a more talented team tonight, but I don’t think that we lost to a tougher team or to a team that played harder than we did.

“Our goal was to be playing our best when it mattered most. And I think anyone whose seen us this year would agree that we’ve done that. And that, I think, says a lot about the kind of kids that we have.”[[In-content Ad]]