D-V District Boys Basketball: Keystone gives up late drive, loses heartbreaker to Norwayne

LAGRANGE — Jeff Holzhauer won't get over Wednesday's loss until practice resumes sometime in the fall. With time running out, the Keystone coach watched in disbelief as Norwayne's Jaxson Gasser dribbled nearly the length of the floor and laid in the go-ahead basket to hand the Wildcats a 58-57 defeat in Division V district play. "I knew they were going to try to take me away," Gasser said of the gutsy drive to the basket that started with 9.8 seconds left. "I knew I needed to get the last shot to put us on top. I knew I was the guy." It was smart. The worst that could happen is Keystone would foul him and put him at the line for two shots, but there was no whistle and time had apparently run out before the officials gathered to review the situation. "I think I did get fouled," Gasser said. "I'm speechless, really." "We even talked during the timeout," Holzhauer said. "We are not going to get beat down in the block again. Leave your guy, double them. Make them kick it out. Make them make a three. They don't want to shoot threes. Make them make a three. Double-down if you have to and we just didn't. "We just stood there and we watched and I don't know why." Officials generously gave Keystone 0.9 seconds to respond, but Colt Cowling's desperation heave from the other side of half court was wide left. The No. 3-seeded Wildcats finished a remarkable season at 18-6, co-champions of the Lorain County League with Brookside. "Their program is missing three out of their top six guys right now," said Holzhauer. "We got beat by a bunch of JV kids. They had varsity kids out there but a lot of those kids — I've been watching a ton of film, I didn't have any film on some of those kids that played in the game. That's a credit to Brian (West, Norwayne coach) and his program." No. 11 Norwayne (15-9) will play for a district championship Saturday against No. 2 Chagrin Falls at Akron Firestone. "If you knew what we've been through, obviously the three kids sitting at the end of the bench in street clothes are a huge part of our team," said West. "One's been out all year and the other two got hurt two weeks ago. All the credit goes to our kids and the next man up mentality. "That's probably the most physical we've played. I knew we had to be physical with them. We tried to limit (Liam) Goran and Cowling as much as possible. I told the kids we had to hold them to 35 combined. I don't know what they ended up, and the other thing I said, if we can keep it in the 50s, I think we can get them to panic in the fourth." Goran (17) and Cowling (18) finished with exactly 35 and the score was what Norwayne wanted. The Wildcats didn't panic, but Holzhauer had issues with their play. "My biggest fear all year is we aren't going to be physical at some point," Holzhauer said. "There was no question who the more physical team was. (Norwayne) is not very quick and they're not very athletic. They handled our guys. They stayed in front." "They played really physical and we didn't handle it really well," Goran said matter-of-factly. "They beat us to a spot and they were going to make us defend them in the paint and we couldn't stop it." There were times Keystone appeared to be breaking open the game, only to have the Bobcats answer every time. Keystone led 25-18 with two minutes to play in the first half, but Norwayne rallied to tie it at 25 at halftime. The Wildcats battled back from a 36-30 deficit in the third quarter to take a 39-36 lead, but Norwayne tied it again to start the final quarter. Keystone jumped in front 47-43 off a 6-0 run thanks to a 3-pointer from Ty Holzhauer, two free throws by Goran and one by Cowling, but again Norwayne answered and led 55-51 with under a minute to play. Goran's two free throws gave Keystone the lead 57-56 with 9.8 left after Cole Gasser missed a pair of free throws at the other end, but his brother grabbed the inbound pass and dribbled up the floor for the winning basket. The Gasser brothers — Jaxson and freshman Cole — equaled Cowling's and Goran's scoring. Their senior brother, Austin, added nine, as did Ty Holzhauer for the Wildcats. Norwayne equaled Keystone in 3-pointers and finished with 62.5 percent on field goals to 47 percent for the Wildcats. The rebounding was pretty even (22-20 Norwayne) and the turnovers and free throws favored Keystone, but Norwayne is the team advancing. "I think everyone will want it more next year," said Goran, searching for the correct words. "It should leave a chip on our shoulders. I think all of us will want it a little bit more next year." Contact Tim Gebhardt at (440) 329-7135 or timothygeb@msn.com. Norwayne 58, Keystone 57 NORWAYNE (58): Jaxson Gasser 8-1-18, Ryder Ingold 2-1-5, Matthew Troup 1-0-2, Cole Gasser 7-2-17, Austin Gasser 4-0-9, Bryce Besancon 2-0-4, Bradley Lanz 1-0-3, Bryce West 0-0-0, Brendan Besancon 0-0-0. Totals 25-4-58. KEYSTONE (57): Liam Goran 6-5-17, Ty Holzhauer 3-0-9, Emory Fedor 1-0-2, Bobby Gurich 4-1-9, Colt Cowling 3-11-18, Brendan Hagerman 1-0-2, Devin Walker-Thigpen 0-0-0. Totals 18-17-57. Norwayne&emsp;15&emsp;10&emsp;16&emsp;17&emsp;—&emsp;58 Keystone&emsp;11&emsp;14&emsp;16&emsp;16&emsp;—&emsp;57 Three-point goals: Norwayne 4-7 (J.Gasser, C.Gasser, A.Gasser, Lanz), Keystone 4-13 (Holzhauer 3, Cowling). Field goals: Norwayne 25-40 (62.5 percent), Keystone 18-38 (47 percent). Free throws: Norwayne 4-12 (33 percent), Keystone 17-21 (81 percent). Rebounds: Norwayne 22 (Troup 8), Keystone 20 (Cowling 5). Turnovers: Norwayne 14, Keystone 9. Fouls: Norwayne 18, Keystone 19. Fouled out: Ingold, Hagerman.