Shubert comes up clutch for Breese Central at Highland Shootout
All they needed was one shot or play to go their way at the end but that’s not how it worked out for the Highland basketball team on Saturday.
Instead, it was Breese Central’s Mason Schubert who came up big in the clutch.
Shubert converted a conventional three-point play with just four seconds left and the Cougars, who trailed for over 59 minutes held off Highland for a 34-31 victory in game two of the 32nd Highland Optimist Shootout at Highland High School.
“They took us out of our cuts a little bit so I’ve got to give them credit and they were very physic and we had to watch their physicality and we finally got that done in the second half, Central coach Jeremy Shubert said. “Our guys had to stay disciplined and that’s just another important feature of this basketball team that they can stay disciplined and guard for two minutes at a time.”
Highland (10-8) started well early as Garrin Stone’s bucket and a Trey Koishor backdoor basket helped push them out an 11-4 late in the first quarter.
Central (13-1) clawed back into in it on a driving layup by Zane Schrage, cutting the head to 19-16 at the end of the first half.
Schrage kept the Cougars close with a strong performance, scoring a game-high 15 points and grabbing seven rebounds. “Zane did that and he didn’t do it from the arc,” Shubert said. He did it by taking it off the drive, and we all know Zane can shoot it but when he can get in there, he’s a mismatch nightmare and he cs score from a lot of different levels.”
HHS pushed the lead to eight on a Stone free-throw and a Braxdon Decker two to make it 26-18 with 4:26 left in the third quarter.
Highland kept the lead into the final minute of play but a turnover near the basket forced by the Cougars’ defense took away the Bulldogs’ best chance to close out the game. That turnover came after HHS was forced to use their final timeout with 3:32 to play to avoid a five-second violation with the ball.
“I didn’t have the time out left there because I thought we were getting ready to get a five-count (on us) and I didn’t want that to happen, so looking back I’ll look myself in the mirror and think maybe we should have kept that last timeout and see what else should we run,” Highland coach Deryl Cunningham said.
Central worked the ball in the halfcourt and Schubert came free on a backdoor cut, scored, was fouled, and knocked down the and-one free throw with 4.1 seconds left.
“That’s the most important three points he scored tonight,” Shubert said. “It was the only three he scored.”
Highland could not answer on the other end as time ran out.
It was a frustrating finish for the Bulldogs, who led up until the final 10 seconds of the game.
“I’m just really disappointed for our guys,” Cunningham said. “They played hard to hold that team defensively (in check) and I told them that, so I didn’t up the guys after the game and zi told the guys they played hard and we will go again (with them) in two weeks and it’s gonna be the same thing and they’re very good and they can just ground out games.”
Stone led Highland with 12 points and Koishor had 7 points.
This story was originally published January 7, 2024 at 9:37 AM.