SHAKIN' THINGS UP...is what the Arcanum Trojans did by beating conference leader Miami East.

By Bob Moore
A means to an end - “Something done to achieve something else” is one definition found on Google for this term, but for the Arcanum basketball program and their fans the saying means this; A shot by Braden Means at the buzzer that lifted the Arcanum Trojans over AP #2 Div. III Miami East Vikings in Overtime, 54-53.

“That is two very good ball teams going after it” noted Arcanum coach Brian Gunter in his post game comments. Even the first words out of a very disappointed, but gracious, Allen Mack of Miami East were; “A tremendous high school basketball game.”

Both coaches got it right and then some. This game was fantastic.

First quarter ended in a 10-10 tie and it built itself from the get go as a game that would go down to the wire. Both teams fell into their zone defenses. Miami East used their defensive pressure from baseline to baseline to force turnovers and capitalize with their transition game. Arcanum extended their zone to keep the pressure on Miami East’s Dan Hickman to keep him from penetrating and wrecking havoc with his no look passes and acrobatic moves in the paint. Both teams were successful in carrying out their game plans and that is one reason why this one went down to the last tenth of a second.

Brenton Balsbaugh of Arcanum and Aaron Mitchell of Miami East put on an offensive rebounding clinic in front of the packed house at Miami East. Balsbaugh’s rebounding kept Arcanum close throughout the contest. Mitchell had key rebounds to score or keep the ball alive that ended in scores for the Vikings.

Balsbaugh and his Trojan teammates worked the offensive glass and extended the zone defense that limited the Viking opportunities in the transition game. When Arcanum were able to keep Mitchell from crashing the boards, Miami East only had one attempt and out for most of their possessions in first half court set. Arcanum had their share of turnovers in the first half, but few ended up in the Hickman / Logan Carey transition game. As a result, Dan Hickman only scored 3 points in the first half.

Arcanum was able to take a few pages out of the Miami East repertoire that were keys to their success in the first half. The second quarter ended with the Trojans breaking the Miami East full court pressure and Balsbaugh and Austin Bruner found holes in the Viking armor.

The other key was Arcanum penetrating the East zone pressure in the half court set with hi – lo passes to Balsbaugh or other Trojans sneaking into holes on the baseline. Arcanum ended the half with a 6 point run that put them up 5 at the half.

“What we tried to do was overload and put 4 people on the ball side” noted Gunter in his post game comments. “The key was that hi – lo and getting the ball into Jordan (Greve). He had to put it on the deck a few times and the D had to step up and then he was able to get the ball into Brenton.”

The second half started with typical Miami East fashion with Hickman and Carey taking advantage of turnovers and converting them into easy buckets. Arcanum turned the ball over their first three possessions of the half and the East front court duo combined for 5 points to tie the game at 21. With the momentum swing it appeared that the Trojan horse brought in masquerading as an upset bid in the first half was going to be converted into the next Viking victory. Coach Gunter called a timeout with 6:21 to stop the bleeding and settle his team into handling the pressure from the Miami East full court press.

Kyle Karadak welcomed Arcanum back from the timeout with a trey that gave Miami East their first lead since the middle of the second quarter, 24 – 21. Hickman and Vikings continued to take advantage of the full court pressure and built their lead to 4, 29-25 with 3:21 left in the quarter.

Arcanum finally broke the Viking press with another long pass to Balsbaugh and he converted the deuce while Hickman committed his first personal foul of the game. Balsbaugh completed the three point play that cut the lead to one, 29 – 28.

After a Miami East miss, the Trojans found Balsbaugh on the block for two and he converted another old fashioned 3 point play after Carey committed the personal foul.

Miami East misfired on their next possession and Bruner fired a full court pass to Chris Barga for two. In just over minute the Trojans go from 4 down to 4 up, 29 – 33 and that was enough for Allen Mack to call a timeout at the 2:15 mark.

Hickman converted another turnover to 2 points with an assist to Tyler Dunivan that cut the lead to two. Arcanum ended the 3rd quarter by returning the favor on two Miami East turnovers. Braden Means sank two free throws as a result of Tyler Dunivan trying to stop him on a fast break and Seth Paulus scored near the end of the period that gave Arcanum their biggest lead of the contest 31 – 37.

Arcanum used their 6 point lead to survive the next push by Miami East with their swarming defense. Austin Bruner fouled Hickman in the first 30 seconds of the quarter and he made the first free throw to cut the lead to 5, 32-37.

The next possession the Miami East pressure was too much for Arcanum and Gunter called timeout at the 7:16 mark. To no avail the Trojans fell victim to the advancing Viking horde when Hickman converted another turnover to 2 points that narrowed the lead to 3.

Another missed opportunity by Arcanum on offense was met with Karadak’s second trey of the ballgame that tied the game at 37. The press appeared to be the straw that was going to break the back of the Trojans when Hickman converted two charity tosses as the result of … you guessed it; another turnover. Miami East began the quarter on an 8 point run to take a 2 point with 5:38 left in regulation.

Balsbaugh stopped the bleeding for Arcanum when he converted a free throw. It what seemed like the total collapse by Arcanum, they found themselves only one point down, 39-38.

Turnovers continued to haunt the Trojans and Carey converted another 2 for Miami East that extended the lead to 3. Jordan Greve went on his own 4 point run for Arcanum that began with 2 free throws. His bucket with 3:20 left in the quarter helped Arcanum regain the lead, 41 – 42.

A Logan Carey free throw tied the game at 42 and the last 3 minutes of the game became a chess match with each team matching every move.

Kyle Karadak fouled out with just under 2 minutes to go and Austin Bruner followed suit 40 seconds later.

Greve nailed two free throws after the Karadak foul and Mitchell followed suit with two free throws after the Bruner personal foul.

Carey hits one more free throw to put the Vikings up one and Means stoled the ball with 47.7 seconds left and hit one free throw after being fouled on the lay up attempt.

That gave Miami East with the ball with the game on the line and Hickman worked the ball inside on a drive but elected not to shoot it. As a result, Miami East called a time out with 15.5 seconds left to work the final shot, but Arcanum made the stop and the game went into overtime.

The OT started with two free throws from Greve that put Arcanum up two, 45 – 47. Hickman countered with another bucket in the transition game.

The Trojans continued to find Balsbaugh on the baseline and he worked a foul from Mitchell and nailed the ensuing free throws to put Arcanum back in the lead.

On Miami East’s next possession Mitchell kept the ball alive for Miami East with his 6th offensive rebound. The effort put the ball back into Hickman’s hands and he was able to drive for two and cash in on an old fashioned three point play with the free throw that put East up by one, 50 – 49.

Not to be undone, Balsbaugh worked the offensive glass for a stick back bucket and he cashed in with a charity toss after being fouled by Mitchell. That put Arcanum back up one, with 54.1 seconds left.

Miami East worked the ball hard for 20 seconds with no openings in the Arcanum defense. Hickman finally broke free and received a pass at the top of the arc and nailed a huge 3 point goal with 31.2 second left that put East up one.

That set the stage for Arcanum to have the ball in their hands for the final play of the game. After working the ball down to 8 seconds Means launched a NBA 3 pointer that missed to the left of the bucket. Balsbaugh gathered in the rebound and got blocked if you’re a Miami East fan and absolutely hammered with a no call from the refs if you’re an Arcanum fan. The blocked shot found Means about 8 feet in front of the basket with the clock ticking down in the final second. Means gathered in the ball and flicked the ball from his hand with less than 0.2 seconds left on the clock. The ball hit the right side of the rim; bounced to the left side of the bucket and did a little tilt move to the left, but not far enough left to avoid a big upset in the CCC and the State AP rankings. The ball fell through the net and the Arcanum faithful began the celebration.

“A tremendous high school basketball game” noted Mack. "I thought we had the game winning shot, especially when their first shot went out but we just weren’t able to grab the rebound. We talked about this a lot that in late game situations you need to control the boards. Sometimes it is the second shot that beats you, this time it was actually the third shot. Balsbaugh had a tremendous game for them, I’m sure it was a double double with 24 points and with how many rebounds he had” (at least 12 rebounds unofficially).

“We had a good run in the third quarter and another good run to start the fouth quarter, but unfortunately we were unable to make one more play that we needed” continued Mack. “That was a tremendous shot (3 pointer with 31 seconds to play in OT) by Dan (Hickman) there at the end. It was a clutch shot but we needed one more stop.”

“I give Arcanum a lot of credit. They made a lot of key plays and certainly Means had a big shot there at the end to win it. That was great hustle by him to get back in there after missing that first attempt.”

“Good things happen to (basketball) programs that keep playing hard from the start to the finish” noted a very excited Brian Gunter in his post game comments. “It was a total team effort because when Austin (Bruner) fouled out we brought Seth (Paulus) back in and with Seth and Barga out there; we just kept making plays and plays and plays. We thought Brenton (Balsbaugh) got fouled there in the end and here comes Braden (Means) with that little tear drop and it went in. We never gave up; we battled and good things happened.”

“What a ballgame, WHAT A BALLGAME!” exclaimed Gunter. “It was just a lot of fun!

Post script

At the end of the game Coach Mack either through himself or the staff at Miami East had the presence of mind to recognize Dan Hickman for breaking the 1000 career point mark. Hickman ended the night with 1009. The home crowd and the Arcanum team and fans took time out of their celebration to acknowledge Hickman’s achievement.

“I’d like to congratulate Dan for achieving this milestone" commented Coach Mack. "He had a huge shot to give us the lead late in the game, but I know he’s disappointed that his team lost and that is what he cares about the most; but that is still a significant accomplishment and we are very proud of him.”

Score by quarters

Arcanum……10…21…37…45…54
Miami East…10…16…31…45…53

Arcanum
Balsbaugh – 24 (8-12)
Barga – 2
Bruner – 4
Greve – 12 (8-8)
Means – 10 (5-6)
Paulus – 2
Total 54 (21-24)

Miami East
Carey – 12 (6-10)
Dunivan – 6 (0-3)
Hickman – 22 (4-5)
Karadak - 9
Mitchell 4 (2-2)
Total 53 (12-20)

3 Point Goals
Arcanum - 1 (Means)
Miami East – 5 (Karadak 3, Hickman 2)