After dismantling Ashland by 42 the previous night, Greensburg likely figured to have little trouble in disposing of Haviland Tuesday evening to claim outright possession of the regular season SPIAA League title.  Geographic rivalries, however, seldom play out by means of logic, the Rangers pulling away late for a 63-54 win at Haviland in a game that was tied with as little as four minutes to go.
   Despite GHS leading 31-21 at the break, an eight-point third quarter scoring edge by the Dragons made it clear Coach Dave White’s first undefeated regular season league record would not come easily.
   The last of three triples by Haviland’s Tanner Stevens early in the fourth brought Steve Davis’ squad to within one, followed by Lane Kendall’s lone trey on the night that first knotted the score at 47 all with 5:48 remaining.  Stevens’ driving runner in the lane with 4:07 left again tied the tally at 51 all.
   It was then that Greensburg turned the corner, Eric White’s triple from the left wing at the 3:06 mark breaking the deadlock and igniting a Ranger 12-3 run to seal the win.
   Particularly helpful to Greensburg’s cause was hitting 12 of 14 second half free throws, including its last four.  The Rangers were 13 of 17 on the line for the night, while Haviland could hit only seven of its 15 attempts from the stripe.
   “We’ve shot free throws well this year, especially in tight games like this one when we really had to,” White said later.  “Kids like Jarrett Schaef have really stepped up repeatedly and knocked down some big foul shots at critical points.”
   While that fickle element of logic would indicate the game shouldn’t have been this close with Greensburg hitting two-thirds of its filed goal attempts (22-33), including five of six shots from beyond the arc, Haviland was able to put up nine more shots while matching the Rangers’ three-point production with five treys of its own.  The Dragons were 19 of 42 from the field (45.2 percent) and five of eight from three-point range.
   “We thought we’d bother Lane Kendall (who finished with a game-high 25, a career best) with Andrew (Seiler) covering him, but that didn’t work out very well,” White said.  “We were able to contain him later when we switched Eric (White) onto him.  If I had it do over again I think I’d run a triangle and two on them (covering Kendall and Stevens man).
   “I thought our half-court trap would cause them more trouble.  The way they broke it was a little unorthodox, but it worked, so yeah, some things didn’t work out the way I’d planned.  But, you know, a win is a win and now it’s on to play South Gray (top ranked) Friday and then on to Regionals next week (in Coldwater).”
   Noting Gray has “blown everyone out this year,” White said he was looking forward to the contest at Mullinville “because we want to play the very best teams late.  We want to play them before postseason so we know what to expect later.
   “They’re going to have three to five kids in the 6-3 to 6-5 range, and it would be nice to have Shane (Engelken, 6-3 junior forward who’s been out since Jan 15 with cracked bone in lower left leg) against them, but we’ll still hold him back until Regionals next week.”  The win moved Greensburg to 16-3 entering Friday’s game at Mullinville.
Girls’ game even closer…
   Greensburg’s girls, meanwhile, outscored Haviland 15-8 the last five minutes of the earlier game to end regulation in a 44 all tie, before riding the suddenly hot shooting hand of Lindsey Heft to claim a 58-55 win in overtime to push their season mark to 12-7 heading into Friday’s regular season finale with South Gray.
   Despite leading 36-29 with five minutes left, Haviland was sent reeling when Heft drained an NBA-range triple at the 3:38 mark to draw Greensburg to within three.  Heft then disquieted the Haviland crowd from the line, hitting a pair of foul shots moments later to again bring her team to within three.
   Kacey Fulton stole Haviland’s entry pass on the next possession, converting to shave the Dragon lead to 41-40 with barely two minutes to go.
   Haviland seemingly got a reprieve 30 seconds later when Megan Booth missed both free throws and picked up her fourth personal trying to rebound the second miss, sending Hannah Williams to the line where she sank both to stake Mark Clodfelter’s team to a three point lead.
   More free throws resulted in a 44-42 Haviland lead that was knotted at 44 when Jordan Eller hit a 10-footer with 1:12 to go.
    After forcing a Haviland turnover on the following possession, GHS ran clock down to 19 seconds when Coach Marshall Ballard called time for an inbounds play that fell apart when Morgan Fulton was trapped near the sideline.
   Clodfelter used a timeout to set up a play with six seconds remaining that saw a long pass find Haviland’s Kim Ralstin under the basket.  Ralstin, however, was bothered just enough by Eller’s defensive reach to miss the shot, the rebound going to Kacey Fulton.
   Heft wasted no time in the extra period, hitting another long three just eight seconds into the overtime.  Heft again bombed from deep, hitting yet another trey to give GHS a 50-47 advantage.
   Booth hit one of two free throws to give GHS a 53-51 lead, only to see Justine Chadd again tie the score on a 10-footer.
   Haviland again looked to be in good shape when Amanda Watson was sent to the line by Kacey Fulton’s fifth foul with 37 ticks left.  Watson hit both to hand the Lady Dragons a 55-53 edge.  Bailey Rush, however, returned the favor, fouling out trying to pick Lindsey Heft’s pocket.  Heft calmly drained both foul shots, again knotting the score at 55.
   Freshman Morgan Fulton grabbed the biggest rebound of her young life moments later when Haviland’s Amanda Watson missed a 12-foot jumper with 9.3 seconds to go.
   Jessica Davis then fouled the one Greensburg player Marshall Ballard was determined to have holding the ball, Heft calmly sinking both foul shots to break the tie and give Greensburg a hard-earned win 24 hours after dropping a draining 65-63 loss at Ashland.
   Though Heft finished as the game-high scorer with 22, the senior guard had missed all five of her previous shots from beyond the arc and scored only seven when she hit her first triple with just over three minutes left in regulation.  Heft scored 15 in the last seven minutes, ten of them coming in overtime.  The senior was six of six from the line, and three of three from beyond the arc during the span.
   Responding to the comment she’d gotten hot at the right time following the game, Heft later commented, “Yeah, finally.”
Notes:  Greensburg and Haviland will be heading to different Regionals for the first time in several years, the Rangers going to Coldwater and Dragons to Skyline.
   Greensburg’s boys enter their Regional as the top seed and will face the winner of the Fowler/Minneola game Thursday night at 6 p.m.  The other bye recipient, second-seeded South Central will play the Bucklin/Ashland winner in the later game that night.
   The Lady Rangers, meanwhile, as the fourth-seed will play Fowler in the 7 p.m. Tuesday game, before facing top seed Ashland Friday if successful.  On the other side of the bracket, second-seed Bucklin will play the South Central/Minneola winner Friday.
   As for Haviland, the boys (1-18), a sixth seed, will play third seed Skyline (9-11) at Skyline Monday at 7 p.m., the winner facing the winner of second seed Cunningham (13-6) and seventh-seed Stafford (0-19) Thursday at Skyline.
   Haviland’s girls (10-10), meanwhile, will host a first round game Tuesday at 7 p.m. against sixth seed Macksville (4-15).  Winner of that game faces winner of second-seed Skyline vs. seventh-seed Attica (3-15) Friday night at Skyline.