TROY — Another road game turned into a nailbiter for Sidney on Tuesday at Troy’s Trojan Activities Center.
Though the squad may have caused its spectators to have completely bitten off nails by now, the team has won the close ones — and that has helped it secure the Miami Valley League Valley Division title.
Sidney held on to beat the Trojans 55-51 in its third close MVL road game in three weeks.
Similar to a 54-51 win over Piqua on Jan. 17 and a 50-47 overtime win over Vandalia-Butler last week, the Yellow Jackets saw a big lead shrink in the fourth quarter on Tuesday.
But just like those two MVL games, Sidney (15-4, 13-2) did enough to win.
“We felt comfortable late,” Sidney coach John Willoughby said. “We handled the ball fairly well. We had the two guys going to the free-throw line that we wanted in Sam (Reynolds) and Myles (Vordemark).”
Aside from clinching the MVL Valley title, the victory keeps Sidney in the running for the overall MVL title.
Tippecanoe (11-3, 10-1) has an edge, but it has seven league games remaining, all of which are scheduled to take place within the next two weeks, including a trip to Sidney this Tuesday. The Yellow Jackets have three league games left.
All other MVL squads have at least four league losses.
Sidney led by five points at halftime, but Troy started the third quarter on a 9-5 run to pull within 34-33.
But freshman guard Julius Spradling led a 10-0 run to end the quarter. He hit two baskets in the final 30 seconds, one of which was a buzzer-beating 3-pointer from the left wing.
“Jack Davidson came in and gave us a spark where we went into a zone trap, and Jack brought a lot of energy,” Willoughby said of the run.
“… Julius did great. That was the way he was playing the first 10, 11 games. He just hit a little bad streak, but that’s exactly the way we want him to play. He’s lighting on the defensive end. You’re not going to catch him when he steals the ball from you. His shot looked good tonight.
“He got us going right away tonight with a steal, and I thought we were just going to get all over them defensively. But give Troy credit, they settled down.”
Troy not only settled down early, but it settled down after Sidney’s run pushed the lead to 44-33 heading into the fourth.
The Yellow Jackets had a 50-44 lead with about 90 seconds left, but Zach King and Isaac Phillips each made shots during a 7-2 run to shrink the lead to 52-51 with 26 seconds left.
Troy fouled Vordemark after an inbounds pass with 25 seconds left, and he hit two free throws to increase the lead to 54-51.
The Trojans had a 3 hit off the rim on the next possession, and Sidney grabbed the rebound and threw the ball down court to Jaden Swiger, who missed a late dunk attempt but was fouled and hit a free throw to clinch it.
Willoughby said the Yellow Jackets had too many lulls on Tuesday.
“We didn’t have everybody show up tonight,” Willoughby said. “I thought Troy played with more spirit than we did tonight. Hopefully we’ll figure that out over the next three games.”
Spradling finished with a game-high 21 points. Vordemark finished with 14 and Reynolds finished with nine.
Phillips led Troy with 17 points. Charlie Walker scored 14 and Zach King scored 11.
Walker scored all 14 of his points in the first three quarters, including five in the first quarter to help Troy take an early 13-9 lead over Sidney.
But Sidney started the second quarter on a 10-2 run to take a 19-15 lead with 5:03 left after a 3 by Vordemark. Vordemark hit a 3 at the second-quarter buzzer to push the lead to 29-24 at halftime.
Sidney is scheduled to travel to West Carrollton on Friday. Though with inclement weather in the forecast, Tuesday may have been the team’s final game before tournament seeding meetings take place on Sunday.
Willoughby expects the Yellow Jackets will get a decent seed in the Dayton Division I sectional. But there are several strong teams in the sectional, including defending state champion Centerville.
“The GWOC teams are so good,” Willoughby said. “We’re fighting our tail off, and I think coaches recognize that. We’ve played some really good teams close on back-to-back nights. We’ll see how it goes. We’ll go and play as best as we can. No matter where we’re seeded, we’ll take what we get and get after it.”
