RIPON — It didn’t come down to Ripon Christian’s size or Ripon’s speed on Tuesday.
This rivalry rumble pitting the top two teams in the Trans-Valley League was decided by desire.
“I wanted to win here so bad that I was going to do whatever it took to win,” Cody Haines said.
Despite giving up girth and length in the low block, the rangy 6-foot-4 power forward came up with the biggest play in Ripon’s wild 53-52 victory at Ripon Christian. Cole Stevens, who scored eight of his game-high 20 points in the fourth quarter, missed a runner from the baseline, but Haines was there for the go-ahead tip-in with two seconds left.
“We were supposed to get a screen there on the wing and I just floated it up there,” Stevens said. “Luckily, Cody, who has been doing great the last couple of games, was there to make the play. That’s just him. He’s going to get the boards.”
Ripon Christian (5-1 TVL, 12-7 overall) couldn’t get a shot off in the end, as Aaron Paschini stripped Ty Beidleman near the free-throw line after Beidleman received a cross-court pass from Travis Vander Molen.
While Paschini (10 points) had a rare off night from the field, Haines was able to make up for it with hustle. He finished with 10 points and 12 rebounds, eight coming on the offensive end.
Ripon (5-1, 17-4) lived off of second-chance opportunities in the fourth quarter when it grabbed 10 offensive rebounds. The Indians had a 36-32 edge on rebounds despite Ripon Christian’s across-the-board advantage in size.
Haines had to bang bodies with the likes of the 6-foot-6 Beidleman (13 points), 6-5 sophomore Andrew Vander Weide (four points, 11 rebounds) and 6-5, 260-pound Lukas Vermeulen. The Knights even have big guards in the 6-4 Travis Vander Molen and Daniel Hannink.
“(Ripon coach Rod Wright) said I was going to be smaller in there and that I had to play tough, take it to them and that’s what we did,” Haines said.
Ripon Christian failed to score in the final 2:03 after Vander Molen hit a 3 from the top of the arc to lift the Knights to their final lead, 52-51. They had several opportunities to seal the win but were ultimately done in by late turnovers, including an errant outlet pass off a defensive rebound that sailed out of bounds and set Ripon up for its game-winning possession.
“They were trying to give this to us,” Wright said.
The lack of execution, particularly in the fourth quarter, was the least of the concerns for first-year Ripon Christian coach Mark Hofman after the tough-to-swallow defeat.
“Ripon wanted it worse than us,” he said. “Their coach knew it, they went after it and we didn’t. We have to figure out who we are. We’re still in first place, we have three weeks left — do we want it? Are we going to work hard and get after it or not? It’s very simple.”
Keeping it simple was what allowed Ripon Christian to gain control earlier in the contest. The Knights looked to get Beidleman involved, and he scored nine of his team-high 13 points in the first half. And when they couldn’t find their posts inside, Hannink and (10 points) and Zach Cortright (nine points) were able to knock down their shots from the outside. They backcourt tandem accounted for six of Ripon Christian’s 10 3-pointers.
Ripon Christian took its largest lead at 28-20 thanks to a Cortright 3 with 1:54 to go in the second quarter, but Ripon closed with a 6-0 run capped by a buzzer-beating elbow jumper by Haines.
“In the first half of the game it was grinding and grinding, and then we got into that little spurt where we got the pace up to where we like to play,” Wright said. “Then some shots started to fall.”
Not all of them did, and that’s alright with Stevens.
“This is our rival, man,” he said. “We wanted to get this win.”
PAINT THE TOWN RED
Indians upend RC thanks to Haines last-second tip-in


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