Outside The County-Peru

Sectional results from Peru

Potts’ dagger at the buzzer propels Tigers past Knights 45-42

Peru traveled to Mississinewa on Wednesday night beginning the quest to a 3-peat as sectional champions facing the Knights of Norwell.

Sectional 23 had already seen 2 very close games won on shots at the buzzer or with only fractions of a second left, when host Mississinewa knocked off favored Belmont Tuesday night, and Oak Hill came back from double digits down to knock off Maconaquah in game one on Wednesday. The Tigers and Knights proceeded to follow suit and give fans their money’s worth!

Peru controlled the tip and worked the ball to find Senior Alex Ross at the top of the key for a triple to 15 seconds into the game. Norwell answered about a minute and a half later to knot the game at 3. Norwell would push the lead to 6 before Senior Matthew Roettger knocked in a shot. Norwell built their lead to 8 twice in the quarter, but Ross and Roettger combined for 12 points to keep it close. Peru trailed 18-12 after 1.

The Tigers’ defense appeared in the 2nd quarter making Norwell work hard to get any looks at the basket, allowing only 5 points. Ross, Roettger, and Junior Xavier Turner combined for 15 points helping the Tigers erase the deficit and enter the break with a 4-point lead.

The Tigers were a little careless with the ball in the 3rd quarter committing 5 turnovers, but their defense was still stifling, as they only allowed Norwell to score 4 points in this quarter as well. Junior Gavin Eldridge made his only bucket of the night with a deep 3 1 minute into the 2nd half pushing the lead to 7. Peru pushed the lead to 36-27 entering the final stanza.

Peru committed another 5 turnovers in the 4th quarter, Peru maintained a 2 possession lead most of the quarter. Roettger drove the lane and found a wide-open Turner for an 8-foot jump shot to push the Tigers back up by 7 at 42-35 with 2:50 remaining. Norwell then found the 3-point shot again, cutting the lead to 1 with just over a minute remaining. the Tigers turned the ball over with 48 seconds remaining. Norwell got the ball to Aston Federspiel down low who drew a foul with 33 seconds remaining. He made the first but missed the second attempt, with Roettger securing the defensive rebound. After a Peru timeout, Ross was inbounded the ball and tried to make a pass to a cutting Roettger, but the ball was knocked out of bounds by Norwell. Peru then inbounded the ball to Roettger in the backcourt, he drove down just outside the right side of the lane but was turned away by the Knights with a double team. In a last-ditch attempt, as he was falling, he shuffled a pass to Senior Ian Potts, who caught the ball, set his feet, rose, and drained a triple at the buzzer.

The Tiger victory moves their record to 13-10(5-4 TRC). They advance to the semi-finals on Friday night in the second game of the evening, facing Oak Hill at 7:30 pm.

Scoring

Matthew Roettger – 17

Alex Ross – 13

Ian Potts – 6

Xavier Turner – 6

Gavin Eldridge – 3

By Adam Butt on Feb 29, 2024