“Last year, being a new coach, I underestimated the history here and our mindset going into the game here that we’ve never played well, we’ve never shot well here,” Moon said.
So after Friday’s home win against Sidney and again on Saturday morning, Moon took the topic of playing at Butler head on.
“I said, ‘We’re changing our mindset walking into this place,’” he said. “Wouldn’t say it was pretty, wouldn’t say we shot well, but they battled and that’s really what we wanted.”
And the Red Devils won 39-30, overcoming a five-point halftime deficit and taking control with a 12-3 fourth-quarter run in a battle for supremacy in the Miami Division.
“People say there’s a curse,” 6-foot-5 Tipp center Jackson Smith said. “But our goal was to break that curse this time. And we did.”
Tipp (8-2, 8-1) took a two-game lead in the division over Butler (6-4, 6-3). Butler travels to Tipp in the season finale this year.
Smith, a senior, and sophomore guard C.J. Bailey scored most of the curse-breaking points, and the Red Devils’ team defense and rebounding held the Aviators to 13 second-half points.
“The key was getting it inside and boxing out their big and he’s athletic – he loves getting rebounds,” Smith said of Butler’s 6-4 Julius Rusk. “And just limiting turnovers, which we did not do in the first half and that’s why they got up. But in the second half we got offensive rebounds and we didn’t turn the ball over as much.”
Smith scored 13 of his 20 points in the second, including three putbacks. He scored Tipp’s first eight points of the half to push his team to a 20-18 lead. After Butler regained the lead, Bailey, who scored all 12 of his points in the second half, made consecutive 3-pointers for a 26-23 lead heading to the fourth quarter.
“We always struggle to shoot in this gym, and C.J. hitting those threes was big,” Smith said.
Smith scored to put Tipp up for good 28-26 early in the fourth quarter to set the stage for the Red Devils to make 8 of 12 free throws in the final minutes.
“He’s so even keel, and he has really good feet inside,” Moon said of Smith. “He’s not the most athletic kid, but for us he’s so important. He gives us an inside presence that is calm and collected. And we can give the ball to him when we need a bucket.”
Butler led 17-12 at halftime, and T.J. Green made two early fourth-quarter 3-pointers, but otherwise the Aviators struggled. Head coach Andy Holderman wants his team to be patient, and they were, but some easy misses and the inability to contain Smith were the two main things on his mind after the game.
“A lot of it was self-inflicted,” Holderman said. “Obviously, they’re a well-coached team and they’re defensively sound. But missing a couple point-blankers ... and then on the defensive end is where we got buried. Jackson was able bury us down in the post and we never made an adjustment. We just let him keep doing it. Giving him the ball three feet from the basket is good as gold, and we get the ball three feet away and can’t put it in the basket.”
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