Boys basketball: Key plays late lift Alter to district title

Joe Brand, Anthony Ruffolo and A.J. Leen made monumental plays to escape with a 46-43 victory, the Knights’ second straight district title and 29th in program history.

The Knights, a state semifinalist last year, face Dunbar at 6 p.m. Thursday at Vandalia Butler. Alter lost to Dunbar by two points in early December.

“We’ve played a lot of games and this is our third year starting, me, Gavin [Geisel] and A.J.,” Ruffolo said. “We’ve won a lot of games, we’ve lost a decent amount, but we just have that confidence. We stuck together, and I think that’s why we didn’t panic.”

There was no luck to it, fingers crossed or not. The Knights scrapped for a loose ball and it bounced to Brand standing alone on the left wing behind the three-point line. Brand made the shot with 50 seconds left to cut the Taft lead to 43-41.

With 36 seconds left, Taft missed its first free throw after making its first 12. Then Ruffolo found an open Brand in the left corner again. This time he missed. But Ruffolo pulled the rebound out of a crowd and somehow made the shot through a hard foul with 21 seconds left. He added the free throw for a one-point lead.

“I just wasn’t going to lose like that,” said Ruffolo, who scored 13 points. “If the ball is there, I’m getting it. I’m not going to let anyone get that. I was able to get it and just kind of throw it up there and it went in.”

Alter coach Eric Coulter said, “He was relentless after it. I say this all the time, players make plays and he made an unbelievable play.”

Then Leen, who led the charge on offense with 19 points, took a charge in the lane with six seconds left.

“He always steps up big in big moments, and he did it again tonight,” Ruffolo said.

Next, Gavin Leen, who had not scored but is the Knights’ best free-throw shooter at 90%, made two free throws with 3.1 seconds left for the final margin. Taft’s 30-foot heave missed and the Knights rushed the floor to celebrate.

“Both of these teams, they’re comfortable in this environment,” Coulter said. “It’s not like this is the first time and everybody’s nervous.”

What got the Knights into position to win was their defense. The half-court zone and soft full-court pressure was designed to slow down Taft, which averaged 74.5 points this season.

“Against a team like that you have to control tempo, and that’s what we did,” Coulter said. “Defense was really good.”

Ruffolo said improving on defense was the focus of practice for the past week.

“We’ve been labeled as not a great defensive team,” he said. “Coach [Brian] Rex really got us on the defensive side, and we stuck together. We played as a unit today defensively, and we knew where their shooters were.”