Cooper 59 Conner 55 OT (33rd District Championship)

[Mr. Sixer]

One of the greatest games of the year for both teams no doubt. Game went back and forth with Conner shooting lights out as usual and Cooper having a dominant advantage inside with Pouncy having a huge game scoring and on the boards and taking the MVP.  
 

Cooper got some balance scoring late and  hit some huge FTs down the stretch after missing several in the first half. 
 

Congrats to both teams and the 33rd will be well represented and will be tough outs next week. I said it all year in that there may be a favorite but the field will be strong in the 9th. 

[Runcible Owl]

🐆 Final at Union per "The Scoreboard."

[colonel-fan]

Any stats available?

9th Region tourney is going to have some great games this year.

[kyag]

Very physical game, Sullivan knows how to teach defense. All the Cooper kids use their chest very well to push players and keep their hands up to avoid drawing fouls. 
 

Conner shot well in the 1st half with Kramer leading the way and Campbell leading the scoring column n the 1st quarter. Lohr had a few open looks but wasn’t hitting. Pouncy gave problems to Conner and Conner went to a zone at times and used Ben Fay more to match the size instead of the strength of Reese. 
 

2nd half was a battle. In my opinion the difference in the game was Lorh getting hurt while coming off screens and having his left arm pulled multiple times by the Cooper defender. I was sitting pretty close and saw the grabs, the ref’s didn’t call it so no foul. I’d done the same thing back in the day….I’m not complaining about the ref’s but there was a lot of grabbing. Lohr goes out in the 3rd with 0 points and no shot attempts in the quarter. Conner only used 2 subs which Cooper used at least 4 and I think towards the end of the game it showed on shots being short for Conner. 
 

4th quarter Lohr tries to come back in favoring his left arm. He rubs off a screen and the Cooper defender grabs his arm pulling it back and that was it…Lohr goes to the bench and his night was over, 0 points. That in my unbiased observation was a huge loss for Conner and impacted the outcome. Conner had a lead with 2:50 left, run the clock down to 1;50 and turn it over. Cooper scores, Conner has another chance and Cooper stops them again to score and tie it. Conner gets the ball with 30+ seconds, Coach Otte decides to not call a time out…Conner runs the clock down to about 15 seconds and I’m thinking ok Otte is going to call a timeout…nope. Landon Hamilton has the ball drives with about 8 seconds left, takes a contested shot which I believe was partially blocked Cooper ball time out. Cooper comes back out bounds the ball on the ball to Cooper player in front of Conner’s bench, Hamilton is there to take the contact, no call ball bounces off Cooper player Conner ball with 2 seconds left. Hamilton inbounds the ball to Campbell cuts right towards center half receives the ball, 2 Cooper players converge towards Hamilton…Shot, horn, everyone standing….ball bounces off the back iron, overtime it is. 
 

In overtime I thought Cooper made the plays and Conner didn’t. Towards the end of overtime, Cooper is on the line for 2, miss the first and make the second. Conner needs a 3 to tie, ball inbounded to Hamilton and Cooper fouls him to go to the line for 2. Hamilton makes the 1st and misses the second on purpose, Cooper gets the rebound and makes the next 2….game over. 
 

Conner’s quest for four falls short and now they await a winner from another district. 
 

Congratulations  to Cooper, they are going to be a tough out in the region this year and for the next 2 for sure. 

[Breds82]

Not complaining about the officiating while pointing out obvious non-calls= complaining about the officials. An “I love you but……?”. Keep doing it until you get caught is what I say. Good luck to both teams in the region.

[kyag]

4 minutes ago, Breds82 said:

Not complaining about the officiating while pointing out obvious non-calls= complaining about the officials. An “I love you but……?”. Keep doing it until you get caught is what I say. Good luck to both teams in the region.

I disagree. Complaining about the ref’s is blaming them for a loss, stating they were terrible, saying calls were not made on purpose, and they favored one team over another...which I don’t think happened.  I thought the game was officiated evenly. The ref’s let them play, it was physical which tends to go against Conner as they are not a defensively physical team. There is always missed calls, missed shots, unforced turnovers, that’s part of the game. I saw the grabs, the ref’s didn’t think it impacted the player so be it. I agree with you Breds82,  keep doing it until they call it. If they don’t call it…it ain’t a foul, just part of the game. Grabs and holds happen. This one happened right in front of the ref and it was a no call, but it (the grab/holding the arm) did end up impacting the game cause the player (Lohr) was injured because of it..I don’t think the Copper player was trying to hurt Lohr either, but the grab was intentional.  I probably could’ve worded it better but I’m really not blaming the ref’s….Conner had chances and didn’t convert them and Cooper did.   
 

We’ll just have to agree to disagree on what we personally think blaming the ref is.