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Flashes recover from Ridge rally, win in overtime

Tribune Chronicle / Robert Hayes Champion’s Joe Abramovich shoots a 3-pointer during the Golden Flashes’ 76-72 victory over Mineral Ridge.

CHAMPION — It was a thrilling game Friday evening at Champion High School, where the Golden Flashes hosted the Mineral Ridge Rams in a Division III sectional bracket final in the Warren District.

Champion built up a large halftime lead due to some great 3-point shooting. Mineral Ridge stormed all the way back to force overtime, but ultimately was edged by the Golden Flashes by a final score of 76-72.

For Champion (14-11), the victory helped achieve one of its goals.

“I feel really good, one of our goals was to get back to the district in Warren, so we’re able to do that,” Champion coach Nathan Kish said after his team’s victory.

The Golden Flashes built an early 8-2 lead due to 3-point shots from Nick Stahlman and Chase Wheelock midway through the first quarter.

A huge second quarter saw Champion develop a sizeable lead, thanks to some outstanding shooting from beyond the 3-point arc by the Golden Flashes. Wheelock sank four 3-point shots during the and Joe Abramovich added add two 3s of his own, to help Champion cruise to a 38-23 lead at halftime.

Rams (14-12) coach Steven Hughes said he knew Wheelock and Abramovich were going to be deep threats.

“We knew going into the game coach Kish was going to have his kids ready to play. They have two great guards, number 2 (Weelock) and number 5 (Abramovich).

“Ideally we want to stop those two, and if you look at the final score we didn’t.”

Defensive changes for Mineral Ridge forced Champion into taking poor shots in the second half, and the Rams capitalized. Jordan Zupko drained two early 3s in the third quarter to help the Rams chip the lead down to 43-34 at the 3:34 mark in the quarter.

This was followed up by a 13-0 run by Mineral Ridge to tie the game at 49-49 at the 5:37 mark of the fourth quarter. A layup by Zupko at the 2:44 mark gave the Rams their first lead of the game at 57-56.

With 7.6 seconds left, Mineral Ridge had the ball with a score of 61-61, but the Golden Flashes’ defense didn’t allow the Rams to score, which pushed the game to overtime.

A trio of 3s in overtime by Abe Bayus, Wheelock and Abramovich helped seal the deal as the Golden Flashes walked away with the victory.

Kish viewed this game as a learning opportunity for his team.

“When you struggle and have to learn how to fight through a little adversity, and find a way to win it’s great. On top of that the crowd was awesome, it’s good for our whole program.”

“We were trying to hold off as long as we could before we started pressing and getting after it,” Hughes said. “It was too little, too late, but we gave ourselves an opportunity to win. A lot of credit to coach Kish, we wish them the best moving forward.”

Wheelock led all scorers with 30 points. Other top performers for the Golden Flashes were Abramovich with 19 points and Stahlman with 13 points.

Jordan Zupko led the Rams with 22 points and he was followed by Koby Zupko with 16 points and Joe Rozzi with 15 points.

The Golden Flashes move on to face off against LaBrae Tuesday at Warren G. Harding High School in the district semifinals. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m.

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