# 1 Stunner
by Don Baldin- News Tribune
February 25, 2010
CHILLICOTHE — Two area teams went into the Class 2A IVC Chillicothe Regional looking to advance to Friday night’s regional championship.
The higher-seeded one wasn’t the one moving on after a crazy night in Chillicothe.
The No. 4-seeded Hall Red Devils threw a little surprise on the host Grey Ghosts with a stunning 49-42 victory in the opening game of the night.
The improbable went down, and even the Devils couldn’t believe it.
“I told you Friday night that if we win on Wednesday it would be the biggest upset in the state. Nobody, and I mean nobody, gave us a chance after the last two games we played against them,” Hall head coach Mike Filippini said. “But we worked on two types of stall games for the past two weeks for (Wednesday night). As soon as we heard who we had in the regional we went to work and you have to give credit to the kids, they pulled the plan of perfectly (Wednesday night) and now we move on to play for the regional championship.”
Unfortunately, the No. 3-seeded St. Bede Bruins couldn’t create an upset, dropping a wild, foul-filled 63-43 loss to the No. 2-seeded Boilermakers of Kewanee. Hall (9-20) and the Boilermakers (17-13) will play for the regional title Friday night at 7:30 p.m.
Semifinal No. 1
Hall 49, IVC 42
The Hall game plan was apparent from the outset — to shorten the game by running variations of the stall game and then look for layups and other high-percentage shots. The Devils pulled it off perfectly.
After a Grey Ghost hoop, the patient Hall offense produced a wide-open lane for Billy Gaull to roll in a layup to tie the score at 2-2 with half the first period gone. The Devils then played good defense and again worked the ball around until, with 2 minutes, 15 seconds left in the opening stanza, Gaull got loose again and dropped in another lay up. The Ghosts would then move down quickly to tie the score at four on a Trevor Black layup.
Anthony Urbanski connected on a pull-up jumper to make the score 8-4 in favor of the Red Devils with only a minute left in the period. The Ghosts then drew closer with a 3-point play before Hall’s Austin Helm ended the frame with a la up to give Hall a 10-7 lead heading to the second quarter.
The Ghosts came out hot in the second quarter and moved ahead by scoring six of the first eight points of the quarter to take a 13-12 lead, but Hall didn’t change its strategy and again slowed the contest down until Tyler Thompson found an open lane and dropped in a reverse layup to put the Devils back in front 14-13 with about two minutes left in the first half.
After a pair of free throws put IVC back in front, the Devils’ Gaull connected on a free throw and a layup off a pass from Thompson to put Hall back up 17-15 with a minute to play.
IVC took an 18-17 lead at half.
The Red Devils stayed patient in the third quarter and continued to get good shots to score the first eight points of the quarter to go ahead 25-18 with 4:25 left in the third period. The run belonged mostly to Helm, who scored three straight hoops with a pair of putbacks and a driving layup. But the Grey Ghosts owned the second part of the quarter and came back with eight points of their own before Matt Orlandi drew the Devils even after three with a free throw.
“Coach (Filippini) had us working on this for two weeks,” Hall’s Helm said. “We even went into Friday night’s game against them with an attacking style to kind of set them up for this. It doesn’t matter what our record was in the regular season we are 1-0 where it counts.”
Hall started the fourth by creeping ahead on a Gaull free toss and a Helm layup to build a 29-26 lead with only six minutes left on the clock. IVC answered to tie the score at 29-29 with 5:30 to play in regulation. The Red Devils then stayed the course and continued to frustrate the Ghosts, and then surged ahead with a layup each from Thompson, Orlandi and Gaull to make the count 36-29 in favor of the Devils with three minutes left on the clock.
“I am obviously glad we won, but also because we get to continue to play,” Hall senior Rob Booker said. “We really played hard (Wednesday), and this win feels great but we want to keep going. Maybe we are coming together at the right time. No one thought we would win (Wednesday) so nothing is impossible.”
The teams exchanged hoops until the Red Devils put on a pressure free-throw shooting clinic with Gaull hitting four, Orlandi one and Thompson two on their way to icing the game.
“We played a real good game (Wednesday) and executed well,” said Gaull, who scored 18 points. “I am glad my senior year is going to keep going. I came into (Wednesday) looking to give it all I had so if it was my last game I would have no regrets. But now we move on and we lost to both of these teams and we’ll be ready for which everyone we see Friday night.”
