Advance basketball team moves on to Class 2 quarterfinals

~ Advance stayed in the hunt for the Class 2 title with a 63-52 win over New Haven

PARK HILLS, Mo. -- Not all big shots come at the end of games.

In the case of Advance senior Austin Miller, none of his big shots came at the end of his team's Class 2 state sectional against New Haven on Wednesday night at Park Hills Central High School, but they still were pivotal in helping the Hornets advance to the quarterfinals with a 63-52 victory.

"Miller was big," Advance coach Bubba Wheetley said. "He made some shots at crucial times to separate the lead there a little bit in the third, fourth quarter. He hit the shots that, if they don't go down, this game could go either way."

The first of his 18 points came with 1 minute, 23 seconds left in the first half. His 3-pointer gave Advance a 25-21 lead, but it was big because it snapped his team's 0 for 6 streak from behind the arc to start the game.

Advance senior Lane Below drives past New Haven forward Kyle Ruediger during the Hornets’ 63-52 win over the Shamrocks on Wednesday in the Class 2 sectional at Central High School in Park Hills, Mo. (Adam Vogler)

"It's real big," said Advance senior standout Lane Below, who scored 40 points in his team's district championship win. "We didn't make a whole lot of outside shots the first half. We just talked about at halftime just keep believing in yourself. Have confidence and shoot the ball with confidence. We shoot a couple hundred of them a day. Just shoot it was confidence."

Advance led 25-24 at halftime and stayed ahead throughout a tight second half.

Miller made two more 3-pointers in the third quarter during and 8-2 run for the Hornets that gave them a little bit of breathing room in a game that had little up to that point.

Below, who finished with a game-high 28 points, pitched in with seven points over the final 2:32 of the third to help Advance take a 42-36 lead into the fourth quarter.

While he made four shots from behind the arc, Miller's biggest three-point play came the conventional way when he made a shot in the paint and was fouled with 4:14 left in the game.

The play, which drew what has become a trademark primal roar from Miller, was part of an 8-0 run for Advance that featured six made free throws to put the Hornets up 55-46 with 3:07 to go.

Advance made 8 of 10 free throws over the final three minutes to seal the win and move on to Saturday's quarterfinal, where it will play the winner of tonight's contest between Thayer and South Pemiscot at 7:45 p.m. at the Farmington Civic Center.

"We haven't really been in this position the last couple years," Below said. "Everybody was just real excited to come out and play today. We didn't want to make this our last game, so everybody was playing as hard as they could."

Advance opened up a 10-2 lead to start the game and employed a full-court press for the entire game in an effort to speed up the Shamrocks, who prefer a half-court game.

"We're not real comfortable playing as slow as they played all season," Below said. "We watched some game tape, and we were just wanting to try to pressure them and get up in them and pick the pace of the game up a little bit and not play their tempo."

While New Haven handle the pressure admirably, turning the ball over just eight times in the game, there was little doubt the game was mostly being played at the Hornets' preferred pace.

"It just keeps us going really," Below said about the benefits of the pressure. "I mean, if we're in a full-court press, we're all moving and going fast. If we're in half court, we're just kind of standing on our heels waiting for them to come at us. If we're in full-court pressure, everybody's moving and getting up and down the floor faster.

"We were trying to get turnovers, but they're a good team of course. They can handle the ball. We didn't think we were going to get a lot of turnovers, but if you can get one or two here or there it's pretty key in this big of a game."

Big shots help, too -- whenever they come and whomever they come from.

"That's why it's so important to have someone to step up beside Lane that can knock down a shot here and there," Wheetley said. "That's one thing we've worked on all year long. They've been in that gym. I've been working those kids on their 3s -- not just 3s -- just work on shooting period because I told them we're going to get in that situation where you're going to make the difference. We've got to have someone else hitting shots when they collapse on Lane. That's going to open up everyone else, and that's what happened tonight. Miller hit a few big shots there."

Advance 15 10 17 21 -- 63

New Haven 13 11 12 16 -- 52

ADVANCE (63) -- Austin Miller 18, Lane Below 28, Eli Seger 7, Alex Morse 5, Dalton Wilson 5. (3-pointers: Miller 4, Below 1. Fouled out: Seger)

NEW HAVEN (47) -- Kyle Ruediger 24, Seth Schenck 12, Ross Seitter 7, Brandon Carey 4, Alexander Poggas 4, Jared Horstmann 1. (3-pointers: Schenck 2, Seitter 1. Fouled out: Poggas, Cody McWay)