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Weatherly awakens, Campbell gets gritty as Tigers escape
By Joe Warren
Nevada Daily Mail
With 6:28 left in the first half Monday senior Drew Weatherly saved the Tigers.
After missing his first three shots from beyond the arc, Weatherly had stopped shooting. He had passed up a few open looks and had focused his game on doing other things -- setting screens, playing defense and rebounding.
Unfortunately, the Tigers were really struggling offensively and they needed more from the sharp shooting guard. They needed some points.
The Tigers came out flat against Butler, and the 1-5 Bears were taking it to them.
With Butler's only victory coming by forfeit, NHS coach John McNeley had warned his team that they would come out desperately looking for a win, and that's exactly what the Bears did.
But the Tiger players didn't heed the warning, and they came out a step slow, playing their most uninspired ball of the season.
"We were not focused," McNeley said, sensing the poor start was coming on the bus ride to Butler. "Too many yawns, too many heavy eyelids."
The Bears led 19-10 after one period, and it was 20-10 when the Tigers went to a 2-3 zone instead of the man-to-man defensively that they started the game with.
James Tumm hit a basket to make it 20-12.
After a defensive stop, something really fortunate happened for Nevada.
While running the offense, Weatherly was left all alone on the left wing, holding the ball with nobody even near him. The Bears had lost track of the 6-foot guard, and when he caught the ball they didn't seem to be in too big a hurry to close out. It was as if the Butler players were daring Weatherly to shoot it.
So Weatherly did shoot. And it went in. And the cat was out of the bag. The Bears had uncaged a Tiger and it might have cost them a chance at their first earned victory of the season.
That shot with 6:28 left in the first half did more than cut the lead by three points. It gave Weatherly a shot of confidence. Everyone knows what happens when a pure shooter gets confidence in his shot. The following results were predictable.
Butler scored on an inside bucket by Matthew Nisely to make it 22-15.
The next offensive possession for Nevada didn't last very long. Weatherly found some space (not nearly as much as the previous attempt) and buried a trey from the right wing this time.
The score was 22-18.
A mere 37 seconds later Weatherly poured in another from downtown. Suddenly it was a one-point game. Butler's lead had been cut to 22-21, and BHS head coach Steven Miller called a timeout.
But the timeout was too late. The Tigers had come to life.
"We needed them big time," McNeley said of Weatherly's 3s. "I think they run away and hide from us if he doesn't knock those in."
Nevada got another stop defensively (part of a five minute span where Nisely's basket was the only Butler points) and Tumm scored again to give Nevada their first lead at 23-22.
The rest of the game was nip and tuck. Neither team made a big run and neither folded tent.
The trio of treys from Weatherly had put Nevada back in the ballgame, allowing another senior to take over down the stretch.
That senior, playing with a painful ankle sprain, was fellow guard Bryan Campbell.
Less than a week after injuring his ankle against Carl Junction, Campbell was back in the starting lineup.
He had played less than two minutes in Friday's win at El Dorado Springs, but he told his coach he was ready to go Monday, and go he did.
"He told me he was 70 percent," McNeley said of his star guard. "I don't think he's even 70 percent."
Even at less than 70 percent Campbell took over the game down the stretch. It was as if the senior wasn't going to let his last trip to Butler end in misery.
Campbell scored 11 of his game-high 22 points in the fourth quarter, proving to be unstoppable whether guarded by one, two or three Bears defenders.
Afterwards Campbell didn't have much to say about his heavily taped ankle.
"It hurts," is all he could muster.
"You talk about a guy that took over the game," McNeley said.
Take over is what Campbell did, hitting all of his seven free throw attempts on the day, including the final two with two seconds remaining to lift the Tigers to a 55-53 victory.
He also made shots from all angles. A reverse layup after blowing by three defenders. A leaner from the right baseline that bounced around the rim. A trey from the left wing. A one-handed, off-balance shot from the top of the key while being fouled. They all went in and that's why the Tigers are 3-1 instead of 2-2.