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Ravens rally past Manchester, advance to HCAC title game
Feb. 23—ANDERSON — After 15 miserable minutes of play, Anderson University men's basketball coach Carter Collins burned his second timeout in the first half of the Ravens' Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference semifinal game against Manchester on Friday at O.C. Lewis Gymnasium.
The Spartans had just completed a methodical 15-1 scoring run and had their biggest lead at 29-13. The Ravens were shooting poorly, and their chances of a second straight HCAC tournament title were fading quickly.
"It was not enjoyable for me at all. We certainly started off about as bad as we can possibly play," Collins said. "We had to refocus, and that was the second timeout of the first half. That might be the first time I've done that all year. I also wanted to get that press situated."
The defensive switch paid immediate dividends as the Ravens stopped the first-half bleeding and, behind 15 points each from Tate Ivanyo and Cam Smith, pulled out a 75-73 win over the Spartans.
Anderson (22-4) has won 12 games in a row and improved to 11-1 overall at home while Manchester's season ended at 16-11.
The win followed a similar script to the regular-season finale between the same teams on the same floor one week earlier when the Ravens trailed by as many as 13 points and were down four at halftime. In that game, Anderson also stormed back for a 10-point win.
The players credited a boisterous student section and cheering block with helping fuel the comeback.
"The support from the crowd just brings the energy up so much," Smith said. "Even when we were down a ton in the first half, a couple buckets and they were screaming, and that kept us energized."
The Ravens kept the halftime deficit to single digits when sophomore Bryson Huckeby drained a 3-point basket and was fouled with 6.2 seconds left in the half. Although he missed the free throw, AU was within 36-28 at the break after trailing by as many as 16 points in the first half.
The semifinal marked the return from a three-game absence for Huckeby due to a lower body injury, and while his nine points were well below his season average of 14, the timeliness of his scores and his nine rebounds were key.
"I wasn't necessarily counting on a big game from him. He hasn't played a game in two-and-a-half weeks. It's going to take him time to find his rhythm again," Collins said. "But his rebounding was huge. ... Even though he didn't necessarily have his best game offensively, but he just had a massive impact."
It became back-to-back 3-pointers when Ivanyo opened the second half with a long-range shot to pull the Ravens within five points. It became a 15-4 AU run when Huckeby scored on a rebound basket to tie the game at 40-40, the first tie since it was an 8-8 game early on.
Back came the Spartans.
Cam Smith's brother, Bryant, buried a 3-pointer to briefly regain the lead for the Spartans, but Bryce Williams scored on a layup and assisted on a Jordan Gadis layup for AU's first lead at 44-43 with just over 15 minutes remaining.
After waiting over 25 minutes for the first lead change, the packed house saw 11 more lead changes over the following 10 minutes. After Manchester's Zach Sawyer tied the game at 62-62, Cam Smith scored on a layup off a Williams steal before Huckeby scored consecutive baskets for a 68-62 lead.
On the heels of last week's game, those scores were the biggest of the game according to the 2023 HCAC player of the year.
"A couple of (Huckeby's) post moves towards the end of the game with less than five minutes to go showed his toughness," Ivanyo said. "He really came through big time."
An Ivanyo free throw with 13.4 seconds left staked the Ravens to a four-point lead, meaning the Spartans needed two scores to tie or win.
And they nearly got them.
Sawyer was fouled on a rebound with 4.7 seconds left, made the first free throw and missed the second intentionally with the rebound coming off to Logan Willoughby. He had just enough time to force up a 3-point basket and was fouled on the attempt, giving him three free throws to tie the game with just two seconds remaining.
He missed the first before making the second, and after missing the third on purpose, Bryant Smith grabbed yet another offensive rebound but could not get a shot off, sending the Ravens off to the championship game against Hanover — 78-64 winners over Transylvania on Friday night — in Saturday's 6 p.m. championship game.
"I give a lot of credit to the guys, to go down by 16 at one point in the first half and stay composed," Collins said. "Luckily, we're going on for another day."
Elijah Mattingly scored 12 points and grabbed eight rebounds for the Ravens, and Williams added nine points.
Bryant Smith paced Manchester with 17 points while Sawyer scored 16 and Willoughby added 15.
Contact Rob Hunt at
or 765-640-4886.
