Lori breaks Ohio free throw record in Caldwell win | News, Sports, Jobs

Caldwell’s Bede Lori dribbles past Meigs’ defenders during Saturday’s Clash at the Coliseum in Vincent. (Photo by Mike Morrison)

VINCENT — Twice before he had gotten very close to breaking the All-Time Ohio High School record for consecutive free throws made only to come up a bit short but Saturday night Caldwell senior Bede Lori made it happen when made his 69th consecutive free throw in Caldwell’s 72-66 win over Federal Hocking at The Clash at the Coliseum at Warren High School.

Lori had gotten to 62 twice in his career and began this season with 64 consecutive makes from the charity strip and after making his first four free throw attempts in the opening half he connected on the record-breaker early in the fourth quarter to pass Ryan Dierks from Licking Valley (2007-2008) for a new state record.

“Honestly I really didn’t feel that much pressure because I’ve been so close before,” said Lori, who owns a career free throw percentage of an incredible 94.5 percent. “It means a lot for sure but getting the win is the thing that matters the most to me.”

The 6-foot-4 Lori already owns the state record for free throw percentage in a season (95.83%) a mark he set last year after holding the previous record with a (95.75%) mark the year before.

Caldwell head coach Clint Crane was quite complimentary of Lori and the work he has put in throughout his career to put himself into position to break such an esteemed record.

“He’s been close to it like three other times so it was great to see him pull it off tonight.” said Crane. “He’s worked so hard and deserves it and came through with all that pressure.. what a weapon to have in a game like this.”

Lori was obviously proud of the record but perhaps more so of the fact that it came on a night in which every point was critical as it took the Redskins all four quarters to dispose of a very good Federal Hocking team.

“It felt great no doubt about it but the win felt even better,” said Lori, who is on pace to become the All-Time state leader in career free throw percentage.

“We didn’t play like we wanted to but we are 1-0 and a win is a win.”

Caldwell carried a 45-43 lead into the final period and increased it to seven thanks to a short jumper followed by an old-fashioned three-point play by senior Tyce Devolld.

Back-to-back buckets by Federal Hocking point guard Tariq Cottrill brought the Lancers back to within three before Lori was fouled in the back court, sending him to the free throw line with a chance to break the record.

Lori calmly knocked down the first free throw in front of a huge crowd which not only included those who were already there for their game but also the large number of fans on hand preparing to watch the following game between Belpre and Warren.

The game was briefly stopped and Lori received a standing ovation from both the large crowd as well as both teams and coaches.

After things calmed down Lori ironically missed the next free throw to snap his streak at 69.

Federal Hocking would manage to get the lead back down to two but the Redskins were able to pull away down the stretch as Lori started a new streak by making nine consecutive freebies the rest of the way to lead his team to the six-point lead.

“I’ve just got to start it over and start chasing it again,” joked Lori, who is already 13 percent of the way towards setting another mark. “I’ve been fortunate and have a couple of other free throw records so this is nice to have on top of those.”

Lori led all scorers with 31 points while Devolld and sophomore Carter Wheeldin added 17 and 12 points respectively for the Redskins while Federal Hocking was led by Iden Miller with 18, Caden Chapman with 17 and Andrew Airhart with 12.