Fourth quarter dooms Arcola; nearly upsets No. 6 Tuscola

By Editor | January 14, 2025 |

By Mike Monahan

TUSCOLA – A good sized crowd, some of which battled the snow, was on hand for the boys basketball version of the ‘Cola War’ Jan. 7. What they saw was a non-conference game that had nine ties and four lead changes and neither team led by more than the final margin of five points. Tuscola, the No. 6 team in Class 1A Associated Press rankings, outscored Arcola 9-2 in the final 3:37 to down Arcola 47-42 and improve to 15-1, while Arcola dropped to 12-3.

“Tuscola played a good game and I thought we played a good game,” said Arcola coach Greg Gisinger. “ I think it was two teams that could compete for a 1A sectional. Hats off to Tuscola. They are well coached. They have good guards, they have seniors, they have bigs and they are really good at home. I was really proud of our team for how they handled themselves the whole game and their demeanor. I love our players. They are great young men and pretty good at basketball too.”

Arcola, whose Lincoln Prairie Conference game originally scheduled to be played at Argenta-Oreana was postponed on Friday, took a 6-4 lead on a dunk by Braden Phillips. Tuscola took a 13-11 lead after the first eight minutes on a basket by Logan Kurtz. In between the first and second quarters there was a five minute delay due to the floor (mainly out of bounds all the way around the court) was wet and then turned into slippier spots after they dried it with a wet towel. Eventually a Tuscola janitor drove a scrub and dry vehicle around the floor. They did the same thing after the third quarter only it took just two minutes then.

The Warriors led 24-22 after a basket by Arcola’s Braden Phillips and got the ball back as time was winding down in the half. The Purple Riders turned the ball over and Tuscola’s Kam Sweetnam stole the ball and scored on a layup to make the score at half 26-22 instead of possibly being tied or an Arcola lead.

“Kam is about as good as anybody at intercepting and jumping the passing lane,” said Tuscola coach Justin Bozarth. “On the backside of it we were trying to switch our matchup because we were going to have a guy foul the ball and just have them reset because they were not in the bonus (two free throws starting at the fifth foul of the quarter.) We were trying to switch and I was watching that to be honest and next thing I know Kam is going the other way. That is what he is good at. His first tep is about as explosive as anybody. He is a guy that just continues to make plays for us.”

Gisinger took the blame for the turnover saying,” I had a bad play and we truly didn’t get into it.”

Arcola’s Braden Phillips scored 12 of the teams 15 points in the third quarter, including back-to-back three-pointers to tie the game at 28.

“Braden is a monster,” said Bozarth. “We tried to guard him just straight up one-on-one and he got Sawyer Woodard in foul trouble right from the get go. I thought Russo did a pretty good job on him. Just using this size and making him score over the top of him. When he hit back-to-back three-pointers that obviously puts us in a predicament defending. I feel like every time we have played Braden Phillps he has done that to us (23 points, nine rebounds).”

A three-pointer by Brody Phillips and a bucket by Braden Phillips put Arcola ahead 37-33 heading into the final quarter.

However, Arcola was 2-for-10 from the field in the fourth, including 1-of-3 from beyond the three-point line with six of its 13 turnovers in the game.

Still, the Purple Riders, who last beat Tuscola 53-46 on March 9, 2021 in the Covid-19 season at Tuscola, led 40-38 after a three-pointer by Brody Phillips with 4:44 remaining. The game was tied for the final time at 42 with 1:41 left on a bucket by Braden Phillips, a senior. Tuscola took the lead for good on a basket by Kurtz, who led the Warriors with 14 points.

“That was a set we have,” said Bozarth. “Parker James tried to drive it and didn’t have the angel as Brody Phillips did a good job of taking away his angle. We swung it to Logan and our secondary option out of that and he swung to the corner and got to the rim and finished. We missed a bunch of layups, so it was good to see that one go.”

Arcola was called for a charge with 33.8 left and Tuscola made 3-of-4 free throws to make the final margin five points.

“I thought we made a few tired mistakes,” said Gisinger. “Guys played a lot of minutes and I thought we looked a little tired at the end as we missed layups, free throws and box-outs and were slower to locations at the end. That could also be on me as well. We are going home with two time-outs in our pockets. I wanted to have some late in the game, but I probably could have used one more in the fourth to give us a little breather. I kind of misplayed time-out situations.”

Tanner Thomas was also in double digits for the Purple Riders with 13 points, while Tuscola’s Sweetnam had 13 points.

Arcola shot better than Tuscola from the field (37 to 33 percent) and from three-point territory (38 to 21 percent, but the Purple Riders were just 6-of-11 (.545) compared to 11-of-14 ( .786) from the free throw line. The Warriors had a 34-30 rebound edge and had six turnovers compared to 13 for AHS.

Arcola 11 11 15 5–42

Tuscola 13 13 7 14–47

ARCOLA: Canton Wesch 0-0-0, Brevyn Whisman 1-0-3, Braden Phillips 10-1-23, Tanner Thomas 3-4-13, Brody Phillips 1-1-3, D.J. Stevens, Aiden Myers 0-0-0, Totals 15-6-42

TUSCOLA: Logan Kurtz 5-2-14, Kam Sweetnam 4-4-13, Parker James 1-2-4, Sawyer Woodard 4-0-9, Kaedan Chenowith 0-0-0, Caden Russo 2-3-7, Zach Rennels, Dylan Graves 0-0-0, Totals 16-11-47

3-point goals: Arcola 6-16 .375 (Whisman 1, Braden Phillips 2, Thomas 3) Tuscola 4-19 .211 (Kurtz 2, Sweetnam 1, Woodard 1). Field goals: Arcola 15-41 .366, Tuscola 16-49 .327. Free throws: Arcola 6-11 .545, Tuscola 11-14 .786. Rebounds: Arcola 30 (Braden Phillips 9), Tuscola 34 (Russo 11). Turnovers: Arcola 13, Tuscola 5.

Arcola 0 8 4 10–22

Tuscola 7 12 10 17–46

ARCOLA: Eddy Garcia 2-0-4, Evan Rardin 1-0-2, A.J. Stevens 4-0-8, Haris Mayhal 1-0-2, Ronnie Vega 1-0-2, Kaden Hohlbuach 2-0-4, Totals 11-0-22

TUSCOLA: Evan Vearil 2-0-4, Connor Musgrave 6-3-18, Tanner Block 1-0-2, Dylan Graves 2-0-4, Kale Wilcox 1-2-4, Myles McKinnie 3-0-8, Cale Wallace 1-0-2, Ryker Gough 1-0-2, Austin Bennett 1-0-2, Totals 18-5-46

3-point goals: Arocla none, Tuscola 5 (Musgrave 3, McKinnie 2)

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