Wolverines’ season ends in 1A district heartbreaker, 52-51

MOUNT AYR - A missed free throw with no time left on the clock that would have sent the game into overtime instead gave Bedford a 52-51 victory over East Mills in the Class 1A, District 13 semifinals Thursday in Mount Ayr.

Wolverines head coach Kevin Schafer said his team took the tough luck loss hard but no win or loss comes down to a single free throw.

“We knew before the game we were pretty evenly matched and a good team was going to lose,” Schafer said. “Missing the free throw at the end didn’t lose the game for us. Many different times we could have done different things. You can miss a free throw early and it costs you the game. It’s no different that missing it any other time.”

The two teams were tied at 23-23 after a back-and-forth first half that saw neither squad lead my more than four points.

East Mills did finagle a two-point lead heading into the fourth but it wouldn’t last.

Cooper Nally’s short jumper gave the Bulldogs a slim 52-50 lead with :08 to go in the game. Following Nally’s bucket, the Wolverines immediately took the inbounds pass and freshman Mason Crouse raced the length of the court for a potential game-winning shot. But Crouse’s runner rimmed out. Wolverine forward Nolan Smiley then snagged the rebound and attempted to tip the ball back in on the carom but was fouled with no time left on the clock.

Smiley hit the first free throw but missed the second.

Schafer said his team executed perfectly on the final play.

“They kept the ball out of Michael’s (Schafer) hands as soon as they got their two but we did everything right,” Coach Schafer said.

“Our freshman (Crouse) took off like a bat out of heck and got a good shot up and Nolan Smiley hustled down there and tried to tip it in because he knew there wasn’t enough time left. We did a lot of right things on that play and it just didn’t work out. I’m proud of the things we did on that play.”

Nally was big for the Bulldogs all game long. Nally, who scored a game-high 23 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, put in the game-winning shot then used his 6-foot-5 length to alter Crouse’s shot on the defensive end.

“He made the shot then did a good job of hustling back for them and he’s 6-foot-5 and he did a good job challenging Mason’s shot,” Schulte said. “He had to shoot it a little higher and it came off. We did a lot of things right and Bedford did a lot of good things right too obviously.”

Michael Schafer led East Mills with 20 points. Smiley chipped in 13 points on 6-of-7 shooting. Crouse added nine points.

Four seniors – Michael Schafer, Nic Duysen, Brad Hall and Thomas Anderson – played their finals game for the Wolverines as they closed the season with a record of 19-4. All four contributed in their own way, Schafer said.

“Michael really improved a ton from last year. He was a good player last year but he was one of the top players in the conference this year,” Schafer said. “Nic Duysen was our best rebounder and when we ran our match up zone he was the one communicating, getting our younger guys in the right position.

“Brad Hall did a really good job of being a role player for us. Thomas Anderson did a good job in practice. His job was to make us better in practice and he did that every day in practice. That’s not always easy for a senior but he accepted his role.”