Staff report

DEGRAFF — Houston’s Cameron Arnold capped off an outstanding performance by hitting the game-winner at the buzzer to give the Wildcats a 53-52 victory over the Riverside Pirates Tuesday night in high school boys non-league basketball action at Riverside.

The win puts the Wildcats at 2-17 overall with 5-13 Mississinawa coming to the Houston gym on Saturday night.

Riverside is now 5-13 overall and is back in action Friday at home against Upper Scioto Valley, and Saturday at Ansonia.

Houston was clinging to a five-point lead with 28 seconds left when they missed the front end of a one-and-one, then put the Pirates on the line, where they hit one of two.

Riverside’s Hunter Kreglow then drained a three-pointer to cut the lead down to one.

Riverside fouled at the other end and Houston hit the first. But the second was off the mark, and off the rebound, Kreglow sped down the floor and hit another three-pointer to put the Pirates up by one with just 6.7 seconds remaining in the game.

But that was enough time for Houston to draw up a play for Arnold, and he got an open look at the bucket and hit his shot at the buzzer to pull out the win for the Wildcats.

“It was a good game,” said Houston coach Brad Francis. “We called timeout with 6.7 left, and Cameron got the ball at the foul line and went the length of the floor and got to the rim for that last shot. When we got shots, we played pretty well, but we turned it over too much. But I felt really good for the kids. They were real happy and it was a fun bus ride home.”

Arnold finished with 25 to lead the Wildcats, and Howie Ludwig added 18, including four three-pointers. He had two of those threes and 10 of his 18 points in the fourth quarter.

“This was a tough loss,” said Riverside coach Seth Bodenmiller. “It’s games like this where you really realize how important free throws are. We were 6 for 17 in the game, so to end up losing by one point stings even worse. I cannot fault our guys, though, just in the effort they gave in those final 30 seconds. Even though we lost, I think we will be able to use this game as a valuable lesson and improve going forward.”

Houston was 10-for-15 from the line.

For the Pirates, Kreglow finished with 18 and was 4-for-5 from three-point land. He also had nine rebounds.

Trey Helmlinger added 15 points and Hank Harshbarger finished with 11.

Houston (53) — Leist 3, Freistuhler 1, Ludwig 18, Arnold 25, Sluss 2, Hensley 4.

Riverside (52) — Harshbarger 11, Helmlinger 13, Knight 4, Auflick 2, Willoby 4, Kreglow 18.

Score by quarters:

Houston`14`27`32`53

Riverside`16`25`32`52

Three-pointers: Houston 5 (Ludwig 4, Arnold); Riverside 8 (Kreglow 4, Harshbarger 3, Helmlinger).

Records: Houston 2-17, Riverside 5-13.

Reserve score: Riverside 48, Houston 44, 2 OTs