Troy boys lose heartbreaker to Ronan
Troy made a valiant effort to come back from a large first half deficit to the Ronan Chiefs in Troy Saturday night, but was unable to capitalize on a few last second chances to tie the game. With a light snow falling, the Chiefs boarded their bus outside the Troy Activity Center to make their way back to Ronan with a 51-49 win.
Not much went right for the Troy Trojans to start the game. They had some decent looks at the basket, but went scoreless for the first three minutes, spotting the Chiefs 10 points. “We came out a little flat to start the game,” Troy coach Jerry Mee said.
Gage Tallmadge got Troy on the scoreboard with a 3-pointer, which was just the start for him. He would be the lone counter-punch to Ronan’s fluid offense in the first half, putting the team on his back for much of the game.
Ronan fed the ball inside to Jeremiah North Piegan early and often, and he delivered. North Piegan grabbed several offensive rebounds and showed tremendous footwork in the low post. He and Cedric Earthboy frustrated Troy with their inside presence in the first half.
At the end of the first quarter Ronan led by a score of 14-8.
The Trojans were also cold to start the second quarter. They played tough, but the ball just wasn’t bouncing in their favor. Sean Opland kept his team and the crowd fired-up with two resounding blocked shots inside the paint. However, Ronan reeled off another 12-point run to start the quarter, with six points coming from back-to-back 3-pointers.
With two minutes left in the half Ronan led 29-9. Tallmadge had had enough. He began taking the ball to the basket with controlled ferocity. When he didn’t score outright, he was sent to the line to earn points from the charity stripe.
As the buzzer sounded to end of the first half, Tallmadge pulled up from the top of the three-point line and was fouled. Ronan went to the locker room and he calmly drained all three shots. Troy trailed 31-17 at the half with Tallmadge accounting for all of Troy’s points.
Mee was pleased with his team’s performance in the second half. “We started to play with a sense of urgency in the second half. We worked hard and hit a couple shots,” Mee said. “We need to start with that urgency from the beginning of the game.”
For most of the third quarter the teams were evenly matched; both scoring at a healthy clip. But Troy started to get some offensive output on the outside from Brennan Olds and Opland established himself down low. Olds made a couple shots from downtown to pull Ronan’s defenders from clogging up the paint. That opened things up for Tallmadge to drive the ball.
Tallmadge pointed to their defense as the reason Troy was able to work their way back into the game. “We changed our defense and kind of shut them down,” he said. Tallmadge said they went from a zone to a special recipe of man defense that he couldn’t reveal to the press.
The third quarter ended with Troy trailing 34-47.
The fourth quarter belonged to the Trojans. They played suffocating defense, forcing Ronan into numerous turnovers. Half way through the fourth quarter, Troy had whittled the Chiefs lead to a manageable nine points. Tallmadge continued to drive and score.
As the fans got louder, young boys who had been outside playing began to make their way inside to cheer on their local idols.
Ronan tried to inbound the ball from in front of their bench with 33 seconds. With nobody open, an errant pass was thrown and Troy picked up the wayward ball. The ball was put in Tallmadge’s hands and he drove to the basket for two points. Troy was behind 47-51.
Again, Ronan tried to inbound the ball from their baseline, but the Chiefs players were covered like blankets. The hurried pass went off the hands of a Ronan player and bounced out of bounds.
Troy threw the ball in to Adam Tallmadge with 25 seconds left in the game. He passed the ball to the elder Tallmadge, who drove to the basket and narrowly missed. Opland got the offensive rebound, gave a pump-fake, and then rose up for two-points. Troy was down 49-51 with 12 seconds to play.
Ronan passed the ball in and was fouled with 8 seconds left. From the baseline, Ronan again tried to find someone, anyone, to throw the ball to. With nobody open, Opland stole another poor pass and was fouled as he drove to the basket.
With 4 seconds left Opland had two free throws. After missing the first, he purposefully missed the second. The players scrambled for the rebound, with Adam Tallmadge getting the ball. His shot hit the backboard, then the rim, but was just off target. Time expired; Ronan held on for the victory.
Time ran out on Troy a minute early. “Getting back in the game is a testament to those kids,” Mee said of his team’s effort, “Ronan is a good team.”
Mee said some players started the game playing with hesitation, but as the game went on they just played ball. “I think they grew up a little bit in this game,” Mee said of his players.
In Bigfork on Friday, the Troy Trojans faced off against District 7-B foe the Bigfork Vikings. The Vikings widened their lead through all four quarters on their way to a 74-52 win.
Bigfork remained perfect in district play and ran their record to 6-1 behind 20 points from Josh Sandry.
Bigfork is the defending Class B state champs. “They play at a high level offensively and defensively,” Troy coach Jerry Mee said. “We’re trying to work to get to that level.”
Gage Tallmadge scored 19 points and Sean Opland added 13 points to lead Troy. The team fell to 0-3 in district play and 3-3 overall.
SATURDAY
Troy Trojans (49)
Gage Tallmadge 32, Brennan Olds 9, Sean Opland 8
Ronan Chiefs (51)
Cedric Earthboy 11, Colton McCrea 8, Justin Krahn 7, Jeremiah North Piegan 19, July Sorrell 2, Rhett Duffy 4
Troy 8 9 17 15_ 49
Ronan 14 19 14 4_51
FRIDAY
Troy Trojans (52)
Craig Helmrich 6, Trinity Rice 3, Adam Tallmadge 2, Gage Tallmadge 19, Brennan Olds 5, Sean Opland 13, Kolten Winebark 4.
Bigfork Vikings (74)
Matt Farrier 2, Adam Jordt 7, Isaac Martel 15, Tyler Piazolla 6, Jonathan Landon 10, Josh Sandry 20, Ryder Trent 13, Garrett Beville 1.
Troy 15 14 10 13 _ 52
Bigfork 21 21 17 15 _ 74