Division II State Final: Chambers Shot At Buzzer In OT Lifts Chillicothe Over Libbey

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Last Second Shot By Ray Chambers In Overtime Lifts Chillicothe Over Toledo Libbey 70-69; Earns Chillicothe Division II State Championship


Yappi.com Photo by Bryant Billing

Ray Chambers (center, blue 34) takes a shot for Chillicothe in the Division II State championship game. Chillicothe went on to win 70-69.


Chambers: "I thought it was going to fall out."

By Bryant Billing

COLUMBUS- It was one of those moments. Lance Jones hit a shot for Toledo Libbey with three seconds left in regulation to send it to overtime. And it was a moment that many won't remember. That is because Chillicothe's Ray Chambers made a more memorable shot. Chambers made a jump shot off of the glass as time expired in overtime to lift the Chillicothe Cavaliers (25-2) over the Toledo Libbey Cowboys (24-3) 70-69 in front of 14,498 people at Value City Arena in Columbus. The win earned Chillicothe the OHSAA Division II championship.

The game was tight from the start.

Libbey jumped out 12-9 after the first quarter. The game continued to go back and forth. A Julius Wells dunk with five minutes left in the second quarter put Libbey up 20-16. That helped to solidify the Cowboys lead for the rest of the quarter. Libbey finished the quarter on a 13-8 run, which gave them a 33-24 lead at the end of the second quarter.

Libbey started the third quarter off on a 7-0 run in the first minute, and it looked like the Cowboys might run away with it.

But Chillicothe wasn't going away.

The Cavaliers responded with an 11-4 lead over the next two minutes. Chillicothe kept the drive alive, and a basket from Anthony Hitchens pulled Chillicothe within two at 49-47 with one minute left in the third. Hitchens had seven points in the quarter, which almost surpassed the eight he had in the first half.

Chillicothe took the lead in the fourth quarter. A Hitchens basket with 2:40 left gave the Cavaliers the 57-56 lead.

The game continued to go back and forth. Chillicothe held a 63-61 lead with less than ten seconds left, but Libbey had plenty of time to get a shot off. The Cavaliers found Lance Jones on the wing, and gave the ball to him. Jones took a shot with a lot of pressure from Chillicothe, but the shot fell to tie the game at 63 apiece. That sent the game into overtime.

The game continued to go back and forth, and it went down to the wire. The Libbey fans started to celebrate when Julius Wells made two free-throws with five second left to give Libbey a 70-69 lead.

But five seconds is a lot of time.

Hitchens took the ball out of bounds, and Libbey set up a trap. Hitchens was able to get out of the trap, and he quickly moved down the floor. It was two on one then, with Hitchens and Chambers from Chillicothe and Wells from Libbey. Hitchens threw a bounce pass behind Wells to Chambers, and Chambers went up for a jump shot. The shot bounced on the front of the rim off of the backboard, but it fell in at the buzzer.

The Chillicothe bench emptied, and Chillicothe won.

This was one of those games.

Both teams played great and gave it their all. But someone had to lose, and that was Libbey.

The main deciding factor of the game was free-throw shooting. Chillicothe shot 19-27 from the free-throw line, while Libbey shot 12-17. Those five points made the difference. Chillicothe went 3-6 in overtime, while Libbey went 2-2. That one point was the difference between a victory and another overtime.

"Your not going to win close games if you don't shoot free-throws well," Chillicothe head coach Gary Kellough said after the game.

Libbey made up for that by shooting better from the field (27-54) than Chillicothe (23-57), but it was not enough. William Buford (29 points), kept Libbey in it. He shot 13-25 from the field, and he came through when Libbey needed him.

"We had seen them this summer, and we knew them well," Kellough said of Libbey and Buford. "I'd like to have him on my team. He creates so many problems because he can play all five positions."

"It's a heart breaker," Libbey's Julius Wells commented after the game. "There are no words for it. It's a heart breaker."

"I thought both teams played extremely well," Toledo Libbey head coach Leroy Bates commented after the game. "I think they made adjustments the led them to come out more aggressive on offense [in the second half]."

"We were just a little out of sync at the end," he continued. "We wanted to take the ball out of Hitchens' hands. But rather than dish it out, he kept it, and that confused us. A lot of us were worn out, too. I know Lance Jones was extremely fatigued. But that's just an explanation, not an excuse."

Chambers was still amazed at his shot.

"It was crazy," he commented. "I threw it up, it went in, and all of a sudden, we won. I thought I missed it."

"I was scared," he continued. "[Looking up,] I thought it was going to fall out."

"I was surprised [I got to shoot]," he continued jokingly. "I though he [Hitchens] was going to shoot and save the day."

But I think Bates summed it up the best.

"In every game, someone wins, someone loses. It's a fact of life."

Individual Statistics: Player, Field Goals made/attempted, Total Points. Chillicothe- Ray Chambers 8-12 23; Stuart Beverly 3-8 10; Caleb Knights 2-6 6; Anthony Hitchens 8-27 24; Seth Dawes 1-2 5; Ron Smith 1-2 2. Toledo Libbey- Lance Jones 5-6 10; Julius Wells 3-8 13; Brad Sandridge 5-11 11; William Buford 13-25 29; Bradley Burton 1-3 6.

Team Statistics: Field Goals, Three Point, Free-Throw, Turnovers, Rebounds. Chillicothe- 23-57 (40.4%), 5-17 (29.4%), 19-27 (70.4%), 10, 34. Toledo Libbey- 27-54 (50%), 3-8 (37.5%), 12-17 (70.6%), 15, 34.