Clyde came out on fire hitting shots left and right to build a 15-3 lead in the first four minutes of the SBC Lake contest at Columbian Friday night.
However, the SBC Lake player of the year decided to take matters into his own hands for the Tornadoes.
Junior Logan Gooding carried the Tornadoes on his back to bring them back to grab a 68-61 win in the regular-season finale.
Clyde (10-12, 2-8 SBC Lake) threw just about everything and everyone at Gooding, but to no avail. Gooding poured in a game-high 32 points, dished assists to open teammates and guarded Clyde's JaCori Roberts down the stretch.
TC (11-11, 5-5) outscored Clyde 19-9 in the fourth.
“They are a really good basketball team and that's their brand of basketball because if you let them stand there and shoot 3s, it's going to be a long night,” Gooding said. “We let them get a couple off and they hit them, but we just had to settle down and get locked in.
“It was a really good win for us. JaCori Roberts is a hell of a player even for a freshman, so it got a little chippy and there was some talking between the lines with a big crowd and a great environment, but I just wanted to do whatever I had to do to win the game. That's all that mattered.”
The first four baskets of the game were 3-pointers as Aric Kauble drilled a pair of 3s and then Oscar Webb added one as well as Clyde got off to that fast start.
Then Roberts and big man Chase Castle got going inside the arc.
But TC battled back to get within 20-10 after the first stop.
Gooding splashed a trey to begin the second frame, but Clyde held onto the lead and kept fending off TC runs to maintain a lead.
After the Fliers led 28-15 with 4:59 remaining in the half, TC ended the half with a 10-2 spurt as Nolan Miller came off the bench and provided a much-needed spark for the Tornadoes with five points in the run.
Clyde led 30-25 at the half.
“They shot 26 free throws and we only shot nine … I try to not make it about officiating or anything like that, but I think it was a testament of them getting to the basket,” Clyde coach Jared Shetzer said. “We played hard. We're battle-tested, we're better than our record and I love our kids.
“We've had two tournament-like games in a row. We had Port Clinton last night and won that one, had a tournament-feel tonight and lost, but the message to the guys is to take the last two and we're 1-1 and we didn't get eliminated. We're going to play Lake and then focus on the next one.”
The third quarter was high scoring as the teams combined to score 46 points and the Fliers still held the lead – 52-49.
However, Gooding really began to heat up with 11 points in the third and then tied the game in the first 15 seconds of the fourth as he made all three of his foul shots. Miller then made a layup to give TC its first lead of the game – 54-52, but Clyde did respond to take a 55-54 lead, and then a 57-56 lead, but TC ended the contest on a 11-5 run, making 9 of 10 free throws to ice it.
“The thing I'm super proud of is I called a timeout when we were down 15-3 at the time, and I just told to stay the course,” TC coach Jac Alexander said. “They won that battle, but this whole game is a war. We have to chip away at the next battle, so we can get ourselves in the game and that's exactly what they did.
“Clyde went on their runs and credit to them they hit shots and they were ready to play. We gotta do a better job at the start not messing around, but I'm proud of the guys … it was an awesome atmosphere in here tonight and the best fan support and for senior night, but hopefully we can build this thing to where that's every night we play.”
Nolan Miller added 15 points and Blake Miller had 10 points for the Tornadoes.
“(Nolan) had some big defensive plays tonight and when you start doing that, everything starts going right for you,” Alexander said about Nolan Miller's contribution off the bench. “He makes a couple shots when he gets in the game, he didn't flinch and he just lets it rip. We talked about just letting it rip and that's what we did. That's why we had three dudes in double figures tonight.”
Roberts and Castle each dropped in 17 points and Webb ended with 11.
“We actually had a guy score 35 (points) on us last night and then tonight 32, so when you have good players like that you're facing, you just try to throw whatever you can at them,” Shetzer said of Gooding's performance. “The kid just had a great game.”
Alexander added: “That's just him. He doesn't get rattled by too much. He just does him … he always makes the right play. He makes the right read all time and he's such a high-level IQ basketball player as a high school player, which you don't get that all the time. He just had another phenomenal gutsy performance, which is becoming every night for him. He's gotta keep doing that for us to be successful.”

Columbian 68, Clyde 61
CLYDE (10-12, 2-8): Karcen Garner 1 4-4 6, Max Swander 1 0-0 2, Oscar Webb 5 0-0 11, Aric Kauble 2 0-0 6, Michael Scruggs 0 2-2 2, JeCori Roberts 8 0-0 17, Chase Castle 8 1-3 17. TOTALS 25 7-9 61
COLUMBIAN (11-11, 5-5): Nolan Miller 5 5-5 15, Blake Miller 3 3-7 10, Logan Gooding 8 11-13 32, DaShawn Russell 2 1-1 5, Blake Tucker 1 0-0 2, Kyle Hepp 2 0-0 4. TOTALS 21 20-26 68
Clyde 20 10 22 9 — 61
Columbian 10 15 24 19 — 68
Three-point goals — Clyde 4 (Kauble 2, Webb 1, Roberts 1); TC 6 (Gooding 5, Miller 1)