The Pioneers defended the fort on military appreciation night at Simon Kenton, surviving a scrappy Ryle squad 46-41.
Simon Kenton 7-foot-3 senior Gabe Dynes was an “Army of One” in the paint, starting and finishing the game with a bucket and blocked shot to bookend his night.
The Youngstown State signee began the scoring with a layup followed by a block less than a minute into the contest. Then, with 16 seconds left, he closed out the scoring with a lob dunk and a blocked shot with five seconds remaining, both of which were needed to put away the Raiders.
“It’s just timing and knowing when to jump,” Dynes said of his shot-blocking ability.
He continued, “I think I had like 15 deflections, just keeping my hands up making sure they see that I’m there, and they can’t get the ball in.”
When all was said and done, Dynes’ line was an “Army Strong” three rebounds shy of a triple-double – 12 points, 10 blocked shots and seven boards.
“He’s a force to be reckoned with inside,” said Simon Kenton head coach Trent Steiner. “It’s a thing not seen very often in high school, that’s for sure.”
Something else you don’t often see is a military appreciation night without the playing or singing of the national anthem.
With both teams decked out in special Army uniforms and the stands about 80 percent full, everyone stood awaiting the anthem. Yet there was silence as the PA announcer fiddled with an uncooperative Ipod. Once the moment reached the point of awkwardness, the PA announcer moved on to introducing the starting lineups.
No national anthem on military appreciation night!? This would not, could not stand.
Fortunately, after the starters were announced, Ryle’s statistician, Pete Coleman, answered the call of duty and delivered a solid rendition of the Star Spangled Banner.
As it turns out, Coleman enlisted to perform the national anthem at Ryle home games about six years ago. In 2018, he had the honor of singing it prior to the Steelers at Bengals game.
Maybe he inspired the Raiders because they took to heart the Army slogan, “Be all you can be.”
Ryle was in the fight all night. The Raiders trailed 13-9 after the opening quarter. With 2:43 left in the second quarter, Landen Reed knocked down a 3-pointer to tie the game at 17. That was followed by a Logan Verax steal and drive for an and-one to give the visitors its first lead at 20-17.
The Pioneers had an immediate response, as they did all night. Isaac Gabbard drained a corner three.
Then, Simon Kenton grabbed a defensive rebound resulting in a Jay Bilton bucket just before the halftime horn to take a 22-20 lead into the locker room.
Ryle’s Landon Lorms scored six of his team’s eight points in the third quarter, going 4-of-4 from the free-throw line and sinking a midrange jumper in between those trips to the charity stripe.
The Pioneers Travis Krohman buried a pair of jump shots to keep the home team in front. Simon Kenton still only led by one after three periods despite four third-quarter blocked shots from Dynes.
Trailing 29-28 to start the fourth, Verax found a way to slay the giant with an up-and-under reverse layup, giving Ryle its first lead since the 2:18 mark of the second quarter. Verax finished with a team-high 13 points.
Krohman (nine points) came right back with a triple to put the Pioneers back in front, 32-30. On the ensuing possession, Lorms hit another jumper for two of his 12 points to go with six rebounds and four assists. That knotted things up at 32-32 with 6:30 to go.
That’s when the Pioneers put together a march to victory. Bilton (10 points and four assists) got by his man for a layup. Then, there was a loose ball scramble at midcourt. Gabbard emerged from the scrum with the ball and threw a dime to Dynes for a dunk. A Raiders turnover turned into a Bilton transition bucket. And Brayden Polly’s press-breaking pass to Dynes for a layup capped a 9-0 Simon Kenton spurt.
Ryle found itself down 41-32 with 4:20 to play. The Raiders, however, had one final push. Lorms lofted up a floater over Dynes with 1:19 to play that cut the lead to 41-38.
Again, Simon Kenton had an answer. The Pioneers shot 4-of-11 from three. Gabbard (nine points, five rebounds and five assists) had three of them, his last for a 44-38 lead with 55 seconds left. It still wasn’t enough to put away the Raiders, yet. A top-of-the-key three from Verax kept Ryle in it with 30 seconds left.
Then came the daggers from Dynes. Gabbard found his teammate for an alley-oop slam with 16 seconds left to push the lead to five. Ryle’s possession that followed was met with Dynes’ 10th swat of the night to shut the door on the Raiders.
“I think my guys fought hard. I’m super proud of them,” said Ryle head coach Nick Dorning. “We probably had some dead legs in the fourth quarter. We’re always working on our conditioning. I can’t say enough about how proud I am of my guys. I thought they fought really hard.”
How Ryle was even in this game is remarkable given the numbers: 15-of-49 from the field (30 percent) and 4-of-23 from 3-point range (17 percent) compared to Simon Kenton shooting 51 percent from the floor (20-of-39).
The Raiders won the rebounding battle, though, 30-23, including 15-3 on the offensive glass.
“It was like we were pulling teeth all night,” Steiner said. “We were blocking shots and the ball was going out of bounds and they were getting possession. There were loose balls we weren’t coming up with. I thought they played harder than we did for a stretch. You got to compete every single night. Plain and simple. And I don’t think we competed very well, and a lot of that credit goes to Ryle. I thought they did a great job of punching us in the mouth, and I didn’t think we reacted to it very well.”
Simon Kenton reacted well enough to improve to 10-4 on the season and will next host Bryan Station, Friday at 8 p.m.
Ryle has dropped five of its last six, falling to 3-7 on the season. The Raiders look to bounce back at Dixie Heights, Friday at 7:45 p.m.