Panthers Push on to State Title Game
History has been made out in Dayton as the Maysville Panthers were among the Final Four for the first time in over half a century in boys basketball, taking on the Shelby Whippets for a place in the Division II championship game.
Maysville fans all fired up for this one! First quarter action, Alex Bobb, just weaving and bobbing for the three!
Later in the quarter, Alex Bruskotter for Shelby, all 6’7 of him knocking down the three, as he led all scorers with 34 points.
Second quarter, tremendous ball movement from the Panthers leads to a Jordyn Watson layup, but they trailed by three going into halftime.
In the third quarter, the Panthers kept up the pressure, Bobb with the fake and the deuce, he had 22 in the game.
The touch pass from Gator Nichols to Watson got the Panthers within 1, 38-37 halfway through the third quarter.
Watson had a tremendous second half for Maysville though, as he knocks down another corner three late in the third.
Fourth quarter, Watson came up big, time and time again in the second half, three of his team leading 26 points in the game to give Maysville the lead which it would not give up.
One last chance from Shelby but the pass is intercepted and Maysville will play for its first state championship game after winning this one, 68-65.
After the game, a host of Panthers talked about the effort and intangibles it took to get the win.
“Again, yeah that was such a whirlwind of a game, you know, we just find ways to make plays, our kids were just so gritty. Our core values: tough, unified, passionate, thankful. I feel like we were those four things tonight. We just find ways to keep playing. Just because, you know, we want another day together as a team, you know we want to play for a state championship for our entire community which was great tonight.“ – Dave Brown, Head Coach
“For the game, we needed a fast start, if we went down 15, we weren’t going to come back and win, so I knew we had to go out fast and we got to hit them with a hard punch, so we did.”
– Gator Nichols, Maysville Sophomore
“Yeah I mean, obviously the last two games, we came out and got down quick, it ruined our energy in the locker room. But Coach Brown, being the great coach he is, he got us locked in, and he got us our energy turned up so we can come out and have the second halves we did. But we knew coming into this game, we talked to our guys, that we have to put in 32 great minutes together if we want to have another game. And “G” coming out with the first half, the first quarter he did, first half, it just sparked energy I think, we just followed his lead, just took off from there.”
– Alex Bobb, Maysville Senior
“100%, Brown, all season he’s been preaching me confidence, it took a while to click for me, but once all my teammates’ words and all my coaches words got to me, I’ve been a way better player.” – Jordyn Watson, Maysville Sophomore
So tomorrow evening, we have Maysville facing Kettering for the Division II state title, back at UD Arena in Dayton. You can catch the pregame at 4:45, tip at 5:15 on Z92 and whiznews.com
