Leopold boys basketball team barely fends off Oran's late rally

LEOPOLD, Mo. -- Cameron Davis got the ball from the referee then slid it from his right arm to his left behind his back before a couple of dribbles then he released his free-throw attempt.

The little ritual paid off for the Leopold sophomore Friday night.

Davis went 5 of 6 from the line in the fourth quarter to help the Wildcats hold off hard-charging Oran 67-65.

"Just concentrate and take your time," Davis said. "We shoot them a lot in practice. We're getting better at them, as you can tell."

Struggles at the free-throw line nearly cost Leopold. The Wildcats enjoyed a 14-point lead entering the fourth quarter, and their offense had looked sharp all night.

Leopold's Cameron Davis puts up a shot against Oran's Seth Ressel during the second quarter Friday in Leopold, Mo. (Fred Lynch)

But the Eagles started chipping away in the final period. Oran junior Kody Moore hit only his second basket of the game to trim the Wildcats' lead to 61-54 with 1 minute, 13 seconds left. That's when Leopold's free-throw shooting woes popped up.

The Wildcats missed the front end of two 1-and-1 situations, and the Eagles took advantage.

"It fuels our momentum and it puts it in their head thinking about it a little bit," Oran coach Joe Shoemaker said about the misses.

Hunter Schlosser's two free throws snipped Leopold's lead to 61-59 with 35.2 seconds remaining.

"We were down double digits and we just had to come out and play our game, force turnovers," Oran junior Alex Heuring said. "Just play hard the whole time. That was pretty much our game plan. We couldn't slow it down. We had to keep running with them."

Leopold's Gregg Davis tries to keep the ball from Oran's Kody Moore during the fourth quarter Friday.

Both teams went 6 of 8 from the line after Schlosser's pair for the final margin. Davis went 4 of 4 during that stretch.

"These kids are gamers," Leopold coach Andy Beck said. "When it comes down to the crucial times in the game, they step up and hit the big shot. They step up and hit the free throws."

The final seconds weren't without drama.

Oran's Seth Ressel was fouled with 3.1 seconds left and the Eagles trailing 67-64. Leopold called a timeout before Ressel's attempts, and Shoemaker said he allowed Ressel to decide if he intentionally would miss the second attempt.

"We discussed doing it either way, and I just left it up to the kids," Shoemaker said. "I said we'll leave it up to Seth. If he misses, we get a putback. If he makes it, we're going to foul on the inbounds. I had a feeling he was going to try to miss it, but I left that up to them."

Leopold's Kody Bartels jumps while looking to pass against Oran during the second quarter Friday, Jan. 27, 2012 in Leopold, Mo. (Fred Lynch)

Ressel swished the first attempt and hit the front of the rim with his second. The Wildcats (15-5) popped the rebound in the air, and Moore managed to corral it with about 2 seconds left. Moore heaved an off-balance attempt from just to the right of the free-throw line, but the shot didn't have much on it. Moore crashed to the floor as he let it go, and the ball didn't hit the rim.

Shoemaker didn't have a timeout to call after Moore grabbed the rebound, and he said he would not have called one anyway.

"In Kody's hands in that situation, I'd let it play," he said.

Oran's fourth-quarter charge was fueled by some timely misses by the Wildcats at the free-throw line but also by Leopold's eight turnovers. The Wildcats only turned over the ball seven times during the first three quarters.

"We start rushing for some reason," Beck said. "We can't figure it out. We spent all those timeouts talking about controlling tempo, slowing down, playing your game. We had the clock on our side. We had the points on our side. They've got to come to us. We've got the ball. Value every possession.

Leopold's Kyle Stroder grabs a rebound before shooting against Oran's Alex Heuring during the first quarter Friday in Leopold, Mo.

"I think it's finally starting to click in their heads after tonight, after we talked about it in the locker room. I think they're starting to see it."

Oran (11-7) got off 17 shots from the field in the final period, while Leopold managed six.

"We weren't doing our thing," Davis said. "They were kind of shaking us up."

Leopold got off to a hot start by limiting Oran's guards. Ressel and Moore struggled to operate because the Davis brothers -- Cameron and older sibling Gregg -- harassed them every time they touched the ball over half court.

"Coach said that we needed to back off of them and give them cushion, but since we're brothers, we pretty much read each other's minds, so we got up and guarded them," Cameron Davis said.

Moore and Ressel finished with 15 points and went a combined 4 of 26 from the field.

"Kody wasn't feeling himself tonight, and you could tell," Shoemaker said. "Their guards did a good job of pressuring on the ball. We didn't get a lot of open looks."

Beck said his scouting report on the Eagles said that slowing down Ressel and Moore was crucial to success because both players are capable of scoring in bunches.

"The Moore kid, you can't let him catch pretty much," Beck said. "And if he does catch, you've got to be there. The Moore kid we didn't want to let get open shots. If he was going to beat us, he was going to beat us off penetration. The Ressel kid was the opposite. We weren't going to let him beat us on penetration. If he was going to beat us, he was going to beat us on jump shots."

Beck credited his guards with attaching themselves to the Eagles' sharpshooters.

"Cameron and Gregg and D.J. Keim coming off the bench stepped up and played great defense on them," Beck said. "Those three guys out there are all heart. If you tell them to run through the wall for you, they'll run through the wall for you. They don't have to score a point for you to change the game. Their defense is just immaculate."

Leopold led by as many as 16 points in the third quarter. It put up 19 more shots than Oran through the first three quarters and forced the Eagles to commit 16 turnovers during that span.

"I think it's pretty easy to just get comfortable, and I think that's what we did," said Leopold junior Kyle Stroder, who led the Wildcats with 28 points. "Expected for them to lay down, but you can't do that."

Heuring led the Eagles with 28 points.

Oran 14 14 12 25 -- 65

Leopold 19 19 16 13 -- 67

ORAN (65) -- Alex Heuring 28, Kody Moore 8, Seth Ressel 7, Blake Henson 2, Adam Schaefer 13, Hunter Schlosser 7. FG 20, FT 20-29, F 18. (3-pointers: Ressel 1, Schaefer 3, Schlosser 1. Fouled out: none)

LEOPOLD (67) -- Brandon Jansen 5, Kyle Stroder 28, Cameron Davis 9, Joe Elfrink 12, James Jansen 3, Gregg Davis 1, D.J. Keim 5, Kody Bartels 4. FG 25, FT 12-20, F 20. (3-pointers: Stroder 3, Keim 1. Fouled out: Elfrink, Keim)