BEAVERCREEK — Dylan Hoosier had a feeling when he walked onto the basketball court at Beavercreek High School Dec. 4.
“When I prayed … I walked out there and I was at ease,” the Xenia High School sophomore said. “I felt like it was my time to show what I could do.”
His time came at the right time for the Bucs.
The 5-foot-9 guard scored a career-high 17 points — 11 in the decisive second half — as Xenia beat Beavercreek, 64-53, in a Greater Western Ohio Conference crossover game. Hoosier, a first-year varsity player, had scored a total of nine points in the Bucs’ first two games.
But inside the cozy Ed Zink Fieldhouse — well-known as a tough place for visiting teams to shoot, and win — Hoosier found his touch taking the ball to the rim.
“The game just came to me,” Hoosier said. “We needed a second guy to step up. I feel like that’s my position to do that.”
The Buccaneers (2-1) needed Hoosier’s heroics. Superstar Samari Curtis scored a game-high 30 but Xenia found itself in a battle with Beavercreek (0-2). And after an eight-point loss against Walton-Verona, Ky., Dec. 1 — a game in which only 19 points came from a Xenia player not named Curtis — Coach Kent Anderson knew he would need someone else to support Curtis.
“That was his breakout game,” Anderson said of Hoosier. “I think he did a great job attacking in the second half.”
Leading 29-27 at halftime, Hoosier scored six of Xenia’s first eight points to give the Bucs a 37-28 lead with 3:40 left in the third. Beavercreek got to within 40-37 with two minutes left, but Hoosier scored on rebound, was fouled and made the free throw to increase the lead to 43-37.
Beavercreek cut it to 43-41, but a 3-pointer by Jate Bradley as the buzzer sounded gave Xenia a 46-41 lead after three.
Three minutes into the fourth, an Isaiah Moore 3-pointer cut it to 50-48. Curtis then took over, making a jumper from the top of the key and then draining a 3-pointer to make it 55-48 with 4:41 left forcing a Beavercreek timeout. Chris Herbort hit a 3-pointer from the corner to cut it to 55-51 with 4:06 left, but Beavercreek scored just two points the rest of the way.
Moore and Adam Duvall scored 12 each, while Brandon Zink had 10 for Beavercreek.
“We just got a little tight late,” Beavercreek coach Mark Hess said. “We didn’t convert. Once you miss (shots), you kind of start to think a little bit.”
The first half was back and forth, with neither team leading by more than five. And that occurred once, when Brayden Walther scored on a fast break to give the Beavers a 14-9 lead with 1:53 left in the first quarter. Curtis made a 3-pointer from the elbow and Hoosier scored four straight to give Xenia a 16-14 lead with 33 seconds left. A pair of Herbort free throws with .9 left made it 16-16 after one.
Xenia opened a 20-16 lead 90 seconds into the second quarter on baskets by Gavin Gerhardt and Isaiah Hoyt, but two free throws by Moore, a basket by Brentin Semen, and a 3-pointer by James Hymes gave Beavercreek a 23-20 lead with 5:11 left. Curtis made a bucket and free throw to tie it and then a pair of free throws by Mali Harris-Strayhorn gave Beavercreek a 25-23 lead with 4:02 left.
A Zack Gaither put-back tied it at 25 with 3:55 left and then a steal and dunk and two free throws from Curtis gave Xenia it’s halftime lead.
“I think they played hard the first half,” Anderson said. “They killed us on the boards.”
Xenia hosts Lebanon 7:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 7 while Beavercreek is at Wayne the same night.
