DELAWARE — There were plenty of hugs to go around late Monday.
As Fredericktown’s players and coaches emerged from the locker room at Olentangy Berlin High School, following a season-ending 75-49 loss to state-ranked Columbus Africentric in the Division III district semifinals, they were met by their hometown crowd.
Parents, grandparents, siblings and friends. Extended family members, classmates, teachers and neighbors. Fredericktown filled its half of the gym on Monday, and then some, outnumbering the Nubians’ contingent 3:1.
They met at half court, and the procession began. There were hugs, handshakes and tears. There were pictures, pats on the back and thank-you-for-comings.
This was it. The final time Fredericktown’s seven seniors – and this team – would share the floor together. Some will play spring sports together, yes. But this was their last time on the hardwood, wearing scarlet and white, doing something they’d done together for half their lives.
It was enough to make Kaid Carpenter have to work to hold back tears.
“This season is full of memories … from the locker room to the court, to going to people’s houses. It’s just really, really exciting being with these boys,” the senior power forward said. “I feel like, whenever you come to watch our games, we make the games interesting. No matter who we play.
“We’re just a fun team to watch, and that’s gonna be something that people always remember about us.”
Fredericktown made things interesting on Monday. The Freddies, seeded ninth in the district, gave the top-seeded Nubians all they could handle through the game’s first three quarters.
Fredericktown led 10-9 after one quarter and trailed 29-22 at halftime. The Freddies, normally the team pushing the tempo, settled well into the role of pace-slower, using sharp passing and cutting in the half-court to keep the athletic Nubians out of transition.
“I think early on, we were disciplined. We took care of the ball,” Fredericktown head coach Derek Dibling said. “We moved the ball enough to be efficient on offense, take good shots, and not completely take the air out of it, but really try to slow it down and keep it out of their hands to some degree.”
The Freddies also hit key shots in the first half to keep things close. Senior guards Ben Mast and Brady Lester both knocked down wing three-pointers early, while senior forwards Carpenter and Teegan Ruhl found success driving to the rim.
Carpenter’s and-one transition lay-in late in the second quarter brought the Fredericktown crowd to its feet, as it cut the deficit to 4 with 1:41 to play.
The Freddies held their own defensively as well. They limited Africentric senior Dailyn Swain, a 6-foot-8 forward committed to Xavier, to 11 first-half points, including just 2 in the first quarter. The Freddies were locked in in the half-court, forcing difficult shots and finishing possessions with rebounds.
Lester said his team was intimidated neither by Swain, nor the Nubians, who entered the postseason ranked seventh in the state.
“Our mindset was, ‘We have nothing to lose. They’ve got everything to lose,’” Lester said. “We knew if we were intimidated coming in here, they were gonna step all over us. But all of us had the mindset of not backing down, and like I said, we’ve got nothing to lose.
“So we took it out and did the best we could. I felt like we did a good job staying confident and just playing our game and trying not to stray away from that.”
Fredericktown narrowed the deficit to 29-25 to begin the second half, as Carpenter hit a technical free-throw and Lester knocked down a mid-range jumper. But as the third quarter progressed, Africentric began to create separation.
Back-to-back lay-ins from Swain grew the lead to 7. Then, moments later, the senior stole the ball and went coast-to-coast, swooping in for a contested bucket that gave Africentric its first double-digit lead of the night.
Fredericktown senior Luke Bean answered a Swain transition dunk with a corner three, making it 42-34 with 2:19 left in the period, but the Nubians weren’t done yet. They closed the quarter on a 10-2 run, including and-one lay-ins from Swain and junior Cortez Freeman that brought the Africentric crowd to life.
A full-court heave from Swain at the buzzer was ruled late by officials, and the Nubians took a 52-36 lead into the fourth quarter.
Fredericktown kept things competitive early in the final stanza. Carpenter and Bean both knocked down threes, making it 57-43 with 5:25 left.
But in the end, the Freddies simply couldn’t keep up with state-ranked Africentric.
Running on fumes, Fredericktown struggled to take care of the ball the way they did in the first half. And the Nubians took advantage. They closed the game on a 18-6 run, including 10 points in transition.
Dibling said his team reverted to old habits late – like wanting to get out in transition and play with pace – and it proved costly against a quicker and more athletic team like Africentric.
“I think about our habits and how we play, and how these guys have played for so long, and it’s really hard to slow it down when in reality … they’re not wired to slow it down,” Dibling said of his team.
“It’s just like, you fall back on habits. We talk about it all the time – whatever you’re doing in practice is what’s gonna eventually come to the surface in the game. And unfortunately for us tonight, we needed to slow it down a little more, and it’s just hard for our guys to slow it down.”
Swain finished Monday with a game-high 30 points. Senior forward Preston Steele tallied 18 for the Nubians, while Freeman added 10.
Lester and Carpenter scored 12 points apiece to lead Fredericktown. Bean added 9 and Ruhl added 8 for the Freddies.
Africentric, coming off a state semifinal appearance last season, will face third-seeded Columbus Academy in the district championship game on Thursday at 8:30 p.m. at Capital University. The winner will move on to the Sweet 16.
Fredericktown had 48 hours to prepare for Africentric, following its dramatic sectional title win over North Union on Saturday night. Forty-eight hours to learn how to play slow and methodical, when the Freddies are accustomed to playing fast and loose.
They made it work for three quarters, Dibling said. The fourth was a different story.
“It’s hard … to do something that you’re not accustomed to doing,” the seventh-year head coach said. “And I think that was kind of our Achilles heel, actually. It’s who we are, but it kind of hurt us at the end a little bit, with not being able to control the ball and taking some quick shots. And turnovers hurt us. We made some bad decisions down the stretch.”
Still, Dibling said his team has plenty to be proud of. The Freddies won their second Knox-Morrow Athletic Conference title in three years this season, going undefeated in league play and cutting down the nets on Senior Night. They also won their second sectional title in three years, advancing to the Division III district tournament after knocking off two opponents at home.
They finished 18-8 and were Knox County’s last basketball team left standing.
“I’m proud of where we’ve come,” Dibling said. “It was not easy to start the year … just trying to get chemistry together and trying to get guys on the same page. But I think (now) you finally see some things that we’ve worked on all year come to fruition and really be a part of who we are.
“And I think that’s what’s exciting – things that came together at the right time. We wanted to be playing our best ball in almost March, and here we are, in almost March.”
Fredericktown’s seven-man senior class – consisting of Carpenter, Ruhl, Mast, Lester, Bean, Xavier Mullins and Dom Thompson – will go down as one of the most accomplished in program history, having won two of its eight league titles.
Dibling spoke highly of the group and its character, on and off the court.
“(They) mean a ton. I know they’re gonna be wildly successful, just because of how hard they work. They’re a super passionate group. They love each other. And I’m gonna miss them,” Dibling said.
“But I think the cool thing is that they’ve left their impact and their mark on that locker room and those guys coming up. And ultimately, that’s what’s special. I’m excited for them to move on, but we have a lot of good memories together, so that’s something we can hold onto.”
What made these seniors special, Dibling said, was their love for each other. They were talented and worked hard, Dibling said. But they were also immensely close, due to the amount of time they’ve spent together through athletics.
“It’s just a really cool thing (to watch). I mean, they literally go from sport to sport, playing with each other. They’re best friends on the court, off the court, all the time. And I think it’s really cool that they have a core group of guys that they can rely on,” Dibling said.
“I told them, 30 years down the road, they’ll look back and they’ll laugh at this and tell stories. And hopefully still be really good friends, because they’re a tight group. They’re a tight group.”
Lester agreed. He said the group’s closeness proved advantageous for Fredericktown when the going got tough.
“Through all the sports we’ve played, not just basketball, we’ve just developed to be a family,” Lester said.
Fredericktown will look to reload next year after losing a deep and talented senior class. Lester believes the next group of seniors will be ready to step in and take over.
“I just hope they fed off our work ethic, which I think they did. And I’m excited for them to come up behind us, and I think they’ve got some great potential,” Lester said. “They’re like us – they’ve played ball together … since they were kids. I’m excited for them. I think they’ve got a good future ahead of them.”
This year’s seniors served as positive role models for the program’s underclassmen, Dibling said. He hopes the next group will be able to turn Monday’s loss into motivation for next year.
“We talked in the locker room and you look at the disappointment on (the seniors’) faces, and I think that just tells you how meaningful it was to them. And (the underclassmen) see the pain, the disappointment, and the hope is that it drives them,” Dibling said.
“Obviously, there’s only one D-III team happy at the end of the year. Everyone else walks away disappointed. But you run with disappointment and hopefully it motivates you to work harder. Because you only get these moments so often. You’re not going to get them all the time.”
