Boys basketball: Plano starts hot, Ottawa responds for I-8 victory at Reaper Gym

PLANO — With feet firmly planted in the mud after one quarter of play, the Ottawa boys basketball team found its footing over the next three periods versus Interstate Eight Conference foe Plano.

Trailing by seven entering the second stanza, the Pirates chipped away with patient offense and an efficient 1-3-1 zone defense to outscore the Reapers by 16 points the rest of the way and earn a hard-fought, 61-52 league victory Friday evening at Reaper Gymnasium.

“I thought we were pretty low energy to start the game and dug ourselves a hole, but managed to get out of it,” Ottawa coach Mark Cooper said. “As the game went on, we ran better offense and got nicer looks. That went along with some good zone defense, which we haven’t played much in a long time.

“We did a better job of handling early adversity tonight, which we haven’t done at times this year. I was happy with our effort after the opening quarter.”

The Pirates (9-8, 5-2 I-8) received a game-best 15 points from junior Cooper Knoll as well as 13 apiece from seniors Aiden Mucci and Levi Sheehan. Ottawa shot a strong 21 of 45 (47%) from the field.

Plano (5-16, 1-7 I-8) saw a team-leading 13 tallies off the hands of Sammy Sifuentes along with nine markers and a contest-best 12 rebounds from junior Christ Keleba. Junior A.J. Johnson also kicked in with eight points.

But the Reapers just couldn’t sustain the early momentum they established in the first period.

“We’ve struggled attacking zone defenses all year so far, and we did it again tonight,” Plano coach Kyle Kee said. “We didn’t execute going against a 1-3-1 defense like Ottawa gave us, so they kind of got us on that.

“It was a great start for us, but we just couldn’t maintain our focus against a team that really runs their offense well too. and they kept chipping away and extending the lead as the game went on. It’s disappointing, but I believe we’re better than our record indicates.”

Sifuentes tallied six early markers to give the Reapers a 16-9 lead after eight minutes of play. They’d own a 23-17 advantage before Ottawa came alive offensively behind Sheehan, who drained a left-baseline 3 pointer at 4:30 to spark a 12-2 Pirates rally.

Sheehan’s acrobatic putback of his own miss at the horn gave Ottawa a 29-25 lead at halftime.

“I knew I had to provide some energy after our slow start,” Sheehan said. “I started to feel it, and I thought we were in a good place with the lead going into the third quarter.”

That’s where Mucci found his stride, nailing a right baseline 3-ball at 6:40, a top-of-the-key bomb at 2:00 and an old-fashioned three-point play with 50 seconds to go to put the Pirates ahead 41-35. Huston Hart followed with a triple at the buzzer, putting Ottawa in front 44-37 with eight minutes to go.

Mucci would score all of his points in the second half leading the way for the Pirates’ march to victory.

“I had a rough first half, and I came out after halftime knowing I had to turn things around,” Mucci said. “I gained some confidence hitting a couple of 3s, then a plus-one, and from there we just wanted to stay in control and close things out.”

Plano could get no closer than eight points down the stretch. Sheehan took control with the ball in his hands to register seven points during the final four minutes to ice the Ottawa victory.

“We had a big overtime loss to Rochelle on Tuesday, so to get back on track tonight was huge,” Sheehan said. “I think we’re in second place in conference now, so to stay in the race was really important for us and regain some focus moving into our game tomorrow against Mendota.”