Menu
Nevada comes back in sectionals stunner
A natural disaster — or at least a high school basketball game that at times sounded like one — took place Tuesday night inside Wynn Gymnasium.
That was the only comparison Nevada boys head coach Shaun Gray could think of after his team, which looked dead in the water for three-and-a-half quarters, somehow emerged for a stunning 51-46 comeback victory over Logan-Rogersville to advance to the quarterfinals of the MSHSAA Class 5 state tournament.
“When you believe in one another, and then you combine that with the atmosphere like we had here, all it takes is a little bit of momentum, and it’s that tsunami effect,” said an elated Gray after the game. “One little quake out in the ocean creates that tsunami. A couple stops, a couple shots, it goes from 10 to six in a hurry, and then everybody in this building — I’d say close to 1,000 people — are thinking, ‘Here comes Nevada.’”
More specifically, here comes Lane McNeley.
The 6-foot-2 left-handed senior hit three 3-pointers and a layup in the final three minutes of the game, helping to erase a 10-point deficit and eventually save the Tigers’ season — much to the pleasure of the seemingly countless crimson and gray faithful in attendance for the home sectional contest.
“I’ve never heard it this loud in this place. It was special,” said McNeley, who was the lone Tiger to score in every quarter and finished with a team-high 20 points. “We just had no quit, and I can’t explain it right now.”
Like most hoops games, an explanation for this one begins with the tip-off.
Senior Ben Hines gave up three inches to six-foot-seven Logan-Rogersville senior Jonathon Dunn but was able to out-jump him to give Nevada the ball first. Fittingly, though no one knew at the time of course, McNeley opened the game with a 3-pointer from the top of the key.
The Tigers (22-5) would hit three more treys in the opening quarter, including two from senior sharp-shooter Logan Applegate, to take a 13-11 lead into the second. At that point, the home crowd was electric.
But the other half of the gym got to cheer louder in the second quarter, as the Wildcats (20-6) outscored Nevada 11-1 in the period — the Tigers’ only point being a McNeley free throw with three minutes to go before halftime.
Down 22-14 out of the break, Nevada needed to start hitting some of the outside shots that were so widely available against Logan-Rogersville’s match-up zone defense.
Applegate, who finished the night with 17 points, obliged with a 3-pointer from the wing on the Tigers’ first possession in the third.
A few trips later, Hines collected an offensive rebound and put in the easy layup to cut the deficit to four.
But Logan-Rogersville answered with five quick points and seemed to match every shot Nevada put in. The Wildcats built their lead to 10 by the end of the quarter, all but silencing the once-raucous home crowd.
On Nevada’s bench, though, things weren’t so quiet.
“Going into the fourth quarter, we said, ‘This ain’t how we’re going out,’” McNeley said.
Lane’s twin brother Logan sank two quick threes to open the final frame, but buckets and free throws by Logan-Rogersville’s Kanon Gipson, Max Goff, and JJ O’Neal kept Nevada out of reach by double digits with three minutes to go.
Cue the tsunami.
“These past couple of games, I haven’t been shooting as well as I should be,” said Lane McNeley, who collected an Applegate pass and drilled a three from the wing with 2:44 left to bring Nevada within seven. “I knew coming into the game, the way they play their 2-3, the shots are going to be there. If App’s not on, I gotta hit. He was on, but Logan and App and Ben were finding me, and they were just falling.”
A block by Hines gave the ball back to Nevada, but Applegate was called for a charge to give it right back to Logan-Rogersville.
The boos quickly changed to cheers, though, when Lane McNeley took a charge of his own and cashed it in with another trey from the wing (off a dish by Hines) to bring the Tigers within four.
The Tigers’ press then forced Goff to throw the ball away, sending the crowd into a frenzy and forcing opposing coach John Schaefer to call a timeout with two minutes remaining.
The Wildcats got Applegate to brick a three, but he rebounded his own miss and laid it in to bring Nevada within one score — which was immediately converted by Lane McNeley when he collected a steal and dribbled to the hoop for an easy left-handed lay-in.
Just like that, the game was tied 44-44 with 1:25 to go.
“Down the stretch, I didn’t even know what was going on, it was so loud,” said Applegate, a usually stoic player who couldn’t help but smile as Lane McNeley stole another pass before drilling a go-ahead corner 3-pointer off an out-of-bounds play. “One of our shooters got hot, Lane. As a team, one of our best things is that we know who’s got the hot hand. So, we kept finding him and he kept delivering for us. Got us the win. He came up so big for us.”
With just a minute left, Dunn brought his team within one with a baseline drive and bucket. But Nevada passed the ball around the perimeter long enough, and Applegate hit all four of his free throws after the Wildcats started to foul, to send the Tigers to the state tournament version of the Elite Eight.
“It’s cliché to talk about that never quit, never die attitude. If a team’s ever had it, this team’s had it,” said Gray, whose squad outscored Logan-Rogersville 14-2 over the final five minutes of the game. “And it comes from the fact that they believe in one another. When we’re throwing passes out of bounds and getting blown by baseline, we’re not looking and pointing fingers. And there are programs, you can watch teams when the going gets rough, the frustrations set in. These guys are slapping each other on the back and saying, ‘You’re all right, you got this.’”
Lane McNeley agreed.
“I never have any doubt in this team. Night after night, we always prove who we are,” he said.
The Tigers’ next opportunity to prove themselves will be 6 p.m. Friday night at Bolivar (14-12), after the Liberators snuck past Rolla 51-45 in their sectional match-up.
“It will be a tall task, but it’s one we’re excited for,” Gray said. “When you get in that situation where it’s one game to the final four, anything can happen.”