Sports
Speakman’s 42 Not Enough as Nelsonville-York Stuns the Vikings in OT
By: Noah Wolf
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In the closing seconds of overtime, Vinton County coach Matt Combs yelled his instructions at Jake Speakman.
“Pick and pop! It’s either you or him!”
Speakman gets the ball, his Vikings down three points with 8.2 seconds left to play.
Speakman drives straight at the Nelsonville-York defense, as he’s done many times before in this game, before rolling to his right, pulling up and firing.
Rim.
Despite a 42-point performance from Jake Speakman, Vinton County falls to the Nelsonville-York Buckeyes, 84-81 in overtime on Friday night at Ben Wagner Gymnasium in Nelsonville.
Nelsonville-York (2-0, 1-0) had a star of their own in Ethan Bohyer. He scored 33 points and racked up 18 rebounds. The rest of the team combined for 15 rebounds.
This was not always as close of a game as the final score indicates. Nelsonville-York outscored the Vikings (0-2, 0-1) in the first quarter, 21-9.
Vinton County rallied back, outscoring the Buckeyes 21-15 in the second quarter, but they still trailed by six at halftime.
The Vikings tied the game for the first time with under two minutes left in the third quarter. But Nelsonville-York ended the quarter on a 9-0 run, going into the fourth quarter leading 56-47.
At this point, the Vikings turned it up to eleven.
They scored 26 points in the fourth quarter and held the Buckeyes to 15 to send the game into overtime. Speakman had 14 of the Vikings’ last 16 points in the fourth quarter.
It’s worth noting that Vinton County was not at full strength. Naylan Yates was out of action fighting a leg injury; his brother Nevan Yates is still recovering from off-season finger surgery. Shawn McCarty, who had the second-most points on the team with 15, saw limited action after the second quarter after he was elbowed in the eye.
Nelsonville-York continues their home TVC slate as they welcome Wellston to Ben Walker Gymnasium next Monday.
Tomorrow, Vinton County gears up for their second game in as many days. They head home to McArthur and will face off against Logan on Saturday.
Tune into WOUB on January 14th at 11 pm to watch our first episode of Hardwood Heroes.