Turner’s buzzer-beater gives Tipp thrilling home victory

The rivalry is already intense between Tippecanoe and Troy. Colin Turner just added to the neighborly battle.

Turner took a missed shot from CJ Bailey and shot as the buzzer sounded, dropping it through the net to give the Red Devils a 44-42 victory in the Tipp home opener for the boys basketball team.

“I knew it would be tough after watching Troy play Sidney, they put a lot of ball pressure on us, and we had trouble with it,” Tipp coach Brock Moon. “We have to get better from that. What I love is the guys continue to battle. I am not sure what we shot from the field, but it wasn’t great and we had a lot of open looks.”

“We emphasize crashing, and it paid off on the last bucket.”

Bailey led Tipp with a game-high 27 points but praised his teammate, who used strong efforts on the boards to get the win.

“We have been looking forward to this game since we could start practicing,” Bailey said. “We focused on Greenville first, but our big focus was beating Troy in our second game.”

“It was all about Colin Turner at the end. You can look at the points by me, you can look at our missing shots, but it was Colin getting those offensive rebounds that kept us in the game.”

Troy led 15-12 after the first period despite three shots from behind the arc from Bailey and one from Zumwalt to account for all of Tipp’s points.

The Red Devils, a team looking to rely on their perimeter game this season, took a three-point lead at the half when Landon Haas knocked down a three to send the Red Devils into the locker room at the half, holding onto a 24-21 lead, Tipp’s first lead since it was 9-6 early in the game.

The Red Devils offensive struggled in the third period, being held to five points, but they still only trailed by two heading to the fourth. The Trojans pushed their lead to eight points on consecutive threes to open the final quarter before Tipp started the grind back.

Bailey hit a big three and later scored consecutive buckets with 1:47 left to tie the game at 40. The Trojans again took the lead before Larkin Thomas connected on a score to send the game to the final minute tied at 42.

A traveling violation by the Trojans with 13 seconds left gave Tipp a chance to win it. Turner sent the place into a frenzy with his heroics to give Tipp their second win of the season.

“This is big and always a tough game,” Moon said. “The guys were fired up, but we have to do better at the little things and handle pressure.”