From the sidelines
Leading by 12 Friday heading into the fourth quarter, the Inman Teutons boys' basketball team almost beat themselves.
They had dominated the Marion Warriors since tip-off. Center Gavin Schmidt had 19 points and was scoring almost at will. But something happened at the end of the third quarter.
Marion coach Rex Ostmeyer inserted sophomore Jason Hett into the lineup with four seconds remaining. Hett came off a screen and nailed a three at the buzzer. Couple that with senior Adam Heerey's hot third quarter shooting, and Inman got scared.
Despite leading by 12, the Teutons grew tentative because they were once up by as much as 20. Instead of looking at the game as being up double figures, the coaching staff saw it as a lead slipping away.
So what did Inman do? They turned into the Princeton offense with a whole quarter remaining. In other words, they threw the ball back and forth until Marion stole it, they threw it away, or they had a layup.
Dumb idea.
The Inman players all of a sudden weren't doing what had gotten them there in the first place. They committed turnover after turnover while Marion did what worked earlier in the third quarter — they kept shooting.
Heerey stayed hot hitting two threes and sophomore Travis Hett and senior Dale Vogel hit big shots to turn a 12-point lead into a tie game with 1:30 remaining.
Now that Inman was desperate they went back underneath to Schmidt and he quickly gave the Teutons the lead with a layup. Four more free throws for Inman stopped Marion's improbable comeback.
But it didn't have to be that way. Had Inman played their game, Marion may not have cut into the lead. It wasn't all their fault though. High school basketball doesn't have a shot clock. NBA players must shoot the ball within 24 seconds and college players have 35 seconds to shoot without turning the ball over to the other team.
That means Inman could have thrown the ball around for the entire eight minute quarter if they wanted. The Warriors didn't let their stall tactic work, and fought hard to the very end.
The game proved three things. Marion can flat out shoot when it wants. High school basketball needs a shot clock. And finally, these Warriors aren't going to give up.
The comeback was fun to watch even with the loss. The old cliché of learning from a loss might actually be prevalent in this situation. Its comeback showed you should always stick with what got you there.
Just ask the Inman coaching staff.
