With time running out and Republic trailing by three points, Ahlante Askew was supposed to drive to the bucket, draw the defense, and kick it out to a shooter. He skipped the first part and took the shot himself, splashing it in from nearly 35 feet to force overtime.
From there, the Tigers outscored Hartville 10-4 in the overtime period to win 51-45, earning a place in the Blue & Gold Tournament championship Thursday night against Sparta.
Hartville’s slow pace and disruptive defense took Republic out of its rhythm for much of the night. After a strong start — the Tigers led 9-4 in the opening minutes — Republic struggled to score and made uncharacteristic turnovers. A layup just ahead of the halftime buzzer gave Hartville a 22-20 lead at the break.
“We knew it was going to be a grind and that’s something our program’s had to do at times in years past,” said coach Tim Brown. “It’s not really a situation we’ve been in this year, so we knew this was going to be a game to see how battle-tested we are. On a college-size floor, there’s not really much you can do to speed them up and take the ball from them, because they run their stuff so well.”
Defensively, Republic played well enough to overcome its offensive struggles. On Hartville’s first possession of the night, the Eagles held the ball on the perimeter for nearly two minutes, and when they finally tried to probe the Republic defense, the Tigers forced a turnover. That was indicative of Republic’s defensive performance all night.
Republic took the lead in the third quarter, and entered the fourth quarter with a 31-29 lead. But Hartville used free throws to grab its largest lead of the night at 39-34 with 1:14 remaining. The Eagles made only one field goal in the fourth quarter, but made nine free throws in the period.
Down five, the Tigers scored quickly on a layup by Askew to cut the lead to three, then got a steal on a tipped pass by Askew. Republic scored again to make it a one-point game at 39-38, but Hartville hit two more free throws to go up by three, 41-38.
That set up Askew’s heroics after a time-out in the final seconds of regulation.
“I was supposed to drive and kick. It didn’t really work out like that. I just stopped where I had space and shot the ball and it went in,” Askew said.
“I thought we stepped up and made plays in the last four minutes and overtime,” Brown said. “In that last four-minute battle, our poise, our defense, we were locked in, and it was enough for us to get a victory.”
The Tigers improve to 9-1 overall and will play Sparta for the Blue Division championship Thursday at 7 pm at Great Southern Bank Arena. (We will carry the game live, audio only, here.
Score by Quarters
Hartville 7 15 7 12 (4) – 45
Republic 9 11 11 10 (10) – 51
Individual Scoring
Ahlante Askew 22, Jordan Douglas 9, Brenley Hagewood 6, James Rexroat 6, Khamari Edwards 4, Gunner Ellison 4