O’Hare Lifts R-P in OT

It wasn’t an encouraging first half for R-P’s boys.  W-K played inspired ball, including having just one turnover in the stanza.  The Falcons went to intermission with a healthy 27-13 lead.  But the 1A Round of 16 contest between the Falcons (10-seed, 10-16) and Trojans (7-seed, 12-13) was far from over.  R-P hit its first eight second stanza field goals.  A 16-3 run quickly cut W-K’s lead to 30-29 (11:00).  The Trojans wouldn’t take the lead until Logan Skalet hit one of two free throws, making it 37-36 (5:09).  The sophomore also made a couple key threes.  Thrice late, the Falcons regained the edge via shots from 6’3” senior G Taariq Bouissardane.  The last (45-44 > 0:50) came after a big Skalet three.  Subsequently, R-P missed two free throws and W-K split at the line, leaving it 46-44 Falcons (0:24.4).  Luke O’Hare then had a bunny for the tie, but he missed.  He got fouled on a second attempt.  The Trojans most experienced guy hit two big freebies to tie the game at 46 (0:12.9).  W-K missed a low percentage three before the buzzer.  Erasing a 14-point halftime deficit, R-P forced overtime.  There, O’Hare took over, scoring a three-point-play, then hitting four more free throws.  Chris Drinkall’s group built a 53-46 lead and advanced to Rochester via 59-49 overtime final.  O’Hare was huge (game-high 20 pts, 10-12 FTS, 8 rebs, 6 asts).  Ruberg added his tenth double-double (19 pts, 7-14 FGs, 15 rebs).  Bouissardane (16 pts), Luke Bergan (15 pts, 5-8 threes), and Avilez (10 pts, 5 rebs, 5 asts) led W-K.  The Trojans started the game 5 of 13 at the line, leading up to O’Hare’s game-tying regulation makes.  They finished the game 13 of 15, going 11 of 13 in OT.  W-K had 11 turnovers in the second half.  The Trojans avenged a 47-39 loss.  R-P (13-13) next plays Hayfield (2-seed, 22-5).