Southern Ohio Sports Authority is presented by OhioHealth.
CHILLICOTHE — Blake Fitch’s blood type is ice.
With time winding down and his team trailing 58-57 in a must-win game, he did what only cold-blooded shooters do — deliver.
After receiving an inbound pass with 20.4 seconds to play, he drove inside the 3-point arc, pivoted and sank a turnaround jumper in front of his own bench with just 8.1 ticks remaining.
“It’s the best feeling in the world,” Fitch said. “It’s what you dream about as a kid, to hit a game-winning shot against our rival. But it was just a routine shot. I work on that shot all the time. It went in, thankfully.”
Fitch’s clutch basket lifted Unioto (9-5, 7-1 SVC) to a gutsy 59-58 win over rival Zane Trace — one that came with the team’s leading scorer, Zeke Schobelock, sitting on the bench with an injury throughout much of the second half.
“Just his guts, man. He was a little injured and he played through that tonight,” Unioto coach Matt Hoops said of Fitch. “Blake Fitch carried us in the second half. Blake Hoops carried us in the first half. But all the guys in between those two were just as big as those two scoring the basketball tonight. I’m just really proud of our entire team. Guys stepped up when they had to.”
CREDIT: Derrick Webb/SOSA
Tale of the tape
Right out of the gates, Zane Trace’s Landen Jarrell made his presence known.
The junior drained a 3 just 38 seconds into the action, giving the Pioneers (6-7, 6-1 SVC) an early lead. Gunnar McCullough then tacked on two free throws to make it 5-0.
Unioto, however, answered right away with a bucket from KB Perkins and back-to-back scores from Fitch, forcing a 7-7 tie with 4:59 to play. ZT then went back ahead with two freebies from McCullough and a 3 from Brock Jarrell, making it 12-7.
That lead would hold going into the second quarter with the Pioneers up 22-18.
ZT’s Landon Robinson started the second with a bucket before McCullough followed suit — just before a free throw from Brock Jarrell — making it a 27-18 tally with 5:43 remaining before halftime.
But the Shermans quickly started working on chipping away at the deficit, courtesy of Blake Hoops. After Fitch dialed long distance, Hoops scored at the 5:08, 4:34 and 2:49 marks to bring Unioto to within two at 30-28.
Later, he’d score with 52.7 seconds to go, putting the Tanks ahead 33-32, before draining a 3-ball just before the buzzer to give his team a 36-32 lead at the break.
That run continued into the third and was capped by two scores from Perkins, making it 41-32 and polishing off a momentum-changing 13-0 run.
But the Pioneers wouldn’t go away.
McCullough, Landen Jarrell and Robinson teamed up to cut the deficit to 41-37 before Jarrell buried a triple with 2:24 left in the quarter, trimming Unioto’s lead to 43-42.
Then, with 17.9 seconds before the start of the fourth, Noah Houston scored his first points. Houston’s 3-ball put the Pioneers in front, 45-43, heading into the final eight minutes.
Meanwhile, Schobelock was forced to the bench after getting nicked up. The Shermans had a choice to make. Without their leading scorer, was it going to be fight or flight?
“We didn’t make excuses. At one point, we rallied around it,” Hoops said of Schobelock’s injury. “We assumed he wasn’t coming back at one point because he wasn’t around. So we just had to move on, play for him and play how he’d want us to play. We did that. Just so proud of them. Late in the game, we could’ve taken a bad shot or turned the ball over here and there. But we just kept playing, the entire 32 minutes. Good things happened for us tonight.”
The fourth was a grueling stretch of tit for tat basketball.
However, the Pioneers were able to hold their lead. In fact, after two free throws from Landen Jarrell, they had a 54-47 lead with just 1:25 to play.
But Fitch and company didn’t care. He scored with 1:15 remaining before splashing two free throws in with 1:05 to go, making it 54-51. The two teams then traded multiple trips from the charity stripe with the end result being ZT having a 58-55 lead with 43.5 seconds left.
Fitch then scored with 24.3 ticks and, after Unioto’s defense forced a turnover, he got his opportunity — and took full advantage of it — to close the chapter on what could be a season-defining victory.
“Since the start of the new year, we’ve really talked about winning one game at a time,” Hoops said. “That’s what we’ve done. We’ve tried to win one game at a time. If we win, we win. If we don’t, it’s back to the drawing board. It’s a long season. But I think when we started to do that, we were 4-5. They’ve started to adapt to it, believe in it and just started playing better together.”
Stat book
Fitch was Unioto’s leading scorer with 20 points while Hoops added 16 of his own. Schobelock added nine points, and KB Perkins had seven points and six rebounds.
Landen Jarrell led all scorers with 23 points to go alongside four boards while McCullough finished with 13 points and a team-high seven boards. Brock Jarrell also chipped in with 12 points.
In total, both teams shot better than 50 percent from the floor. The Pioneers were 18-of-34 shooting while the Shermans shot 21-of-37.
What’s on tap
Both teams are back in action on Saturday.
Zane Trace will try to get back on track in front of a home crowd against Piketon while the Shermans take a trip to Frankfort for a battle with Adena.
The Warriors will come into that contest with eight wins in their last nine tries.
“They’re at home and we beat [Adena] the first time we played this year,” Hoops said. “They’re going to want [to beat] us badly. We’re just going to have to prepare the right way, focus on us and know that we’re going to be in for a dog fight.”
BOX SCORE
Zane Trace: 22-10-13-13 — 58
Unioto: 18-18-7-16 — 59
Zane Trace: 18-34 FG, 17-26 FT, 7-12 3pt., 15 rebounds (McCullough 7), 17 turnovers, 7 assists (Robinson 3). Scoring: L. Jarrell 23, McCullough 13, B. Jarrell 12, Robinson 6, Houston 4.
Unioto: 21-37 FG, 14-20 FT, 3-6 3pt., 18 rebounds (Crace 6, K. Perkins 6), 16 turnovers, 5 assists (Fitch 2). Scoring: Fitch 20, B. Hoops 16, Schobelock 9, K. Perkins 7, J. Perkins 4, Crace 3.
SPONSORED BY SHANE MAIER — STATE FARM INSURANCE
