RIPLEY – The Birds Nest was hatched with excitement Friday night at Ripley.
Homecoming Night for the Blue Jays, haven’t beat Mason County ever in program history.
But it was an unsung hero getting the job done for the Royals.
Anwar Perry’s bank-shot at the buzzer from just inside the 3-point line gave Mason County a 71-69 over Ripley, keeping the Blue Jays winless over the Royals all-time in 13 tries.
Perry’s shot came off a steal from Braden May on an inbounds play from Ripley under their own basket, picked off by May at halfcourt and after a few taps of the ball before collecting it, was slung to Perry, who caught and fired without hesitation on one foot, hitting off the glass and finding the bottom of the net, buzzer sounding right after.
A. P. Perry at the horn!
FINAL:
Mason County 71
Ripley 69 pic.twitter.com/7Jz6Oyso10— Evan Dennison (@EvanDennison1) January 19, 2019
“In practice I shoot half court shots for fun and do random floaters that go up to the ceiling and stuff and then I didn’t ever know it would help in the game. I didn’t even know how much time was left after it went in. It went in, we won and that’s all that matters,” Perry said.
It was a game of runs prior. The Blue Jays came out primed and ready to pick up their 10th straight win, building a 26-16 advantage halfway through the second quarter. After taking their best shot early, the Royals responded with a 16-0 run to end the first half and take a 32-26 lead into the break.
The Royals would continue to remain in control, Ripley cutting to as close as five in the third, but a Royals response that had them up by as many as 14 in the third before taking a 53-42 lead into the fourth.
The Blue Jays weren’t ready to have their winning streak end yet. Jaki Royal put the Blue Jays on his back in the second half, scoring 10 straight Ripley points in the final frame to get them within three at 61-58 with 3:49 to play. Ripley would finally breakthrough and regain the advantage on a Royal layup to make it 64-62 with 1:48 to play.
Then the frenetic pace that it was all game continued to stay in a frenzy. The Blue Jays took a 67-64 edge on Corey Germann’s putback with 52 seconds left, but the Royals responded with five straight points thanks to a slew of offensive rebounds off of free throw attempts, Braden May’s putback giving them a 68-67 lead, followed by a Xylon Frey free throw to give them a two-point edge with 22.3 seconds left.
Nigel Royal was fouled on the ensuing play and knocked down two free throws to tie the game up with 19.2 seconds left.
The Royals were content to hold and attack in the closing seconds, but Jaylen Lofton’s attack to the basket resulted in a charge drawn by Jaki Royal with three seconds left. After a timeout, the Blue Jays inbounded a pass that was picked off by May at half court that was then swung over to Perry, banking home the runner as AP avoided OT.
“Braden looked at me after the game and said coach, ‘I was about to shoot that.’ I looked at him and told him it was a good thing he didn’t. He was falling away from the basket, so just a smart heads up play of seeing a teammate in front of him who had a better shot. Everyone wants to be that person to shoot that last shot. When a game is tied up, everyone wants to shoot that last shot,” Kirk said. “It kind of reminds me of the Tanner Pugh shot in the district tournament a few years back. Similar spot, a runner. I don’t know, just kind of unspoken words right there. It’s a great feeling, our kids were hyped, they were excited, but you hate to see anybody lose this type of ball game.”
These two programs don’t get to meet often, but the two meetings over the last two seasons have been down to the wire, Friday night’s contest decided by two, last season’s contest at The Fieldhouse decided in a 3-point Mason County victory almost a year ago to the date on January 19.
Lofton led the Royals with 25 points and dished out six assists as Mason County got back to the .500 mark on the season with a 9-9 record. Jeremiah Jones added 15 points, Perry ending with seven and seven rebounds despite being one of the smallest players on the court.
“Sometimes it’s not about the size of an athlete, it’s just having a nose for the ball. AP, he’s athletic. A lot of people don’t give him credit for how small he is. He reads the ball coming off the rim extremely well and he can elevate. He goes up and gets it with two hands, is strong with it,” Kirk said. “I thought he came in and gave us a big spark and played solid defensively.”
Jaki Royal’s 36 were a career-high for him, nearly willing his team to a victory as he knocked down eight 3-pointers on the evening.
“He’s a champ. He’s our leader and you could tell that on big games when the lights come out, he doesn’t shy down. He really stepped up, hit big shots for us. He’s a winner and did whatever he had to do to put us in a position to win,” Blue Jays coach Rex Woodward said. “He’s really stepped up as a leader, all of our guys are starting to come together and everybody is making plays. He’ll remember this night for a long time even though we came up short.”
Landon Dearing added 10 points and eight rebounds as the Blue Jays dropped to 11-3 on the year.
Both teams have short turnarounds, Mason County playing at Pendleton County on Saturday at 6 p.m., Ripley playing in the Coach Young Classic at North Adams against South Point at 1:45 p.m.
“I just told the guys after the game to keep their heads high. Every team goes through a loss like this, maybe not quite as bad as that was, but we still got a lot to accomplish. We got our sights set on our league and this was a good non-league test in the middle of the year for both programs,” Woodward said. “We’ve got to bounce back quick. There’s a lot against us right now with the way that game ended, homecoming tonight and we’ve got to be back in here at 10 to watch film tomorrow. They’ve got to be ready to shake it off and move on. I told them I’ll be ready and you guys have to make sure you’ll be ready.”
ROYALS 71, BLUE JAYS 68
MASON COUNTY—10-22-21-18—71
RIPLEY—15-11-16-27—69
Scoring:
Mason (71) — Lofton 25, Jones 15, May 9, Perry 7, Swolsky 6, Frey 6, Brammer 3
Ripley (69) — J. Royal 36, Dearing 10, N. Royal 8, Fyffe 6, Rigdon 5, Germann 2, Whaley 2
Field Goals: Mason 25/66, Ripley 24/63
3-Pointers: Mason 8/17, Ripley 8/18
Free Throws: Mason 13/27, Ripley 13/23
Rebounds: Mason 54 (Frey 13), Ripley 40 (Dearing 8)
Assists: Mason 14 (Lofton 6), Ripley 13 (N. Royal 4)
Turnovers: Mason 17, Ripley 13
Records: Mason County 9-9, Ripley 11-3
