Celina sinks Shawnee

SHAWNEE TOWNSHIP - Celina's Derek Gagle barely had time to sight the basket.

He spun, faded away and fired.

Gagle's turnaround jumper from 19-feet out with six-tenths of one second left gave Celina a 62-60 overtime victory over Shawnee on Friday at Lappin Gymnasium.

The game-winning play started with Gagle's inbound pass on the side with 7.9 seconds left. The ball went to Darin Waterman, who handed it back to Gagle. Gagle dribbled to just behind the foul line, faked a handoff to Waterman, turned and fired.

Swish.

"I knew when I got the ball there was about four seconds left so I didn't know if we had time for one more pass or if I had to shoot," Gagle said. "It went in."

Added Celina coach Chris Bihn, "It wasn't really designed for him to get the shot. We didn't get enough penetration, but what I wanted was that ... Jake (Green) would get that back-side layup."

Celina (9-3) stands atop the Western Buckeye League at 4-0. Shawnee was 6-3 and 2-1 in the WBL.

"I think all of our kids had some brain-dead moments tonight," Shawnee coach Nick Bertke said. "I think we had a good start, then we relaxed a little bit."

Jake Green, a 6-foot-6 center, dominated inside for Celina with 29 points and five rebounds. Gagle finished with 15 points.

"When he (Green) goes to the basket, nobody can stop him," Gagle said.

Garrick Warthem led Shawnee with 23 points, while Smith had 17.

Shawnee had several chances down the stretch, as the Indians led 56-51 with 22 seconds left. But Gagle hit an off-balance 3-pointer to get within 56-54 with 11 seconds left.

Shawnee then turned the ball over in the backcourt against the Celina press.

Gagle took the inbounds pass with eight seconds left and was fouled 17-feet away from the basket. Gagle sank both ends of a one-and-one with 3.6 seconds to go to tie the game at 56 and force overtime.

Celina used a 2-3 zone and a diamond-and-one on Smith to cause problems for Shawnee.

With the game tied at 60, Smith held the ball out front for the final minute, hoping Celina would come out its 2-3 zone. With 12 seconds left, Smith dribbled to the right side, was tied up and called for traveling with 7.9 seconds to go.

That set up Gagle's game-winning shot.

Shawnee led 21-10 after the first quarter. But Celina came back to get within 27-25 at the half. It remained close the rest of the way.