JEROMESVILLE – Lowen Ferguson had too much fun leading the Hillsdale boys basketball team to the Division VII Final Four in March to simply let the ride end there.
The soon-to-be junior has spent parts of every month since then bottling up even more winning.
It culminated with an eye-opening performance in the Las Vegas Live Main Event all-star showcase tournament last weekend.
As part of the Eastern Ohio Sports Complex All-Star team – one of just 10 players selected out of approximately 1,400 for a spot on the roster – Ferguson helped lead the squad to a 5-0 record.
The three-day run included wins over teams with high school-aged players from France, California, Las Vegas, Texas and Wyoming.
In the bracket championship game against Wyoming, Ferguson scored a game-high 21 points and drew three charges on defense in a 67-54 victory. The guard was 4-of-7 from 3-point range in the game – a theme for Ferguson throughout the event, during which he was 21-of-31 from downtown (68 percent).
“From the first game, I knocked down 5-of-6 3s, so (his teammates) kinda got the memo that, ‘This kid can shoot,’” said Ferguson, who played off-guard most of the tournament, shooting the most corner 3s he’s ever attempted. “… It was the most off-the-pass shots I’ve ever gotten, so I think that’s why the accuracy was so good.”
The tournament wasn’t just some run-of-the-mill summer ball event.
Just to be on the roster, Ferguson had to qualify for the team out of roughly 1,400 players taking part in an annual eastern Ohio basketball camp held in Sherrodsville.
The camp – started in the late 1960s by Charlie Huggins and now run by his son and former Ohio State standout, Larry Huggins – features three, three-day sessions. Three players from each session, along with an additional player, are selected by coaches at the camp to represent eastern Ohio at the Las Vegas event.
Nate Dropsey was the head coach for the Eastern Ohio team in Vegas and also is entering his fourth year as head coach at Logan Elm High School.
He’s been taking teams to the Huggins camp since 2011 and believes it’s the best of its kind in Ohio.
This was the fourth year Ferguson has attended the camp, but he said making the Vegas roster never entered his mind until the list of potential players continued to be cut down.
“I thought I played some of my best basketball down there, so I knew I had a decent shot,” Ferguson said, “but I definitely wasn’t expecting it. It was a huge shock when I heard it.”
Of all 10 players on the Vegas roster, Ferguson came from the smallest high school. Others hailing from somewhat near Ashland County were Cloverleaf’s Isaac Smith and Willard’s Jaxson Hall, both All-Ohioans in 2026.
Dropsey said none of the players knew each other before they had their first practice.
“We had a one-hour practice at Olentangy Liberty right before we took off on the plane and that was the first time all these kids had met,” he said. “… One of the neatest things about it was that, at all times, all 10 of our kids were together, so I think that shows a lot about eastern Ohio and what it means to do it together.
“That’s what it takes to be able to do what we did and win that tournament.”
The Eastern Ohio Sports Complex camp has had a team representing it in Vegas for roughly 25 years now, and this year’s title was its first in the event.
“You could just tell the team was gonna be good with the way they could memorize a play after one time going through it (in the brief practice),” Ferguson said.
Ironically, Dropsey is a 2003 Hillsdale graduate who played basketball and soccer for the Falcons before eventually landing a teaching job at Logan Elm. In his first two years out of high school, he even coached Hillsdale’s seventh-grade basketball team.
He said he knew Ferguson’s father, current Hillsdale boys basketball head coach Ben Ferguson, but had never met Lowen before this summer.
Earlier this year, the 5-foot-6 sophomore led the Falcons to a 20-8 season and the program’s first-ever Final Four berth. Ferguson averaged 17.3 points, 5.2 assists and 2.8 steals per game en route to earning third-team All-Ohio honors.
He’s already got Hillsdale’s single-season records for made 3-pointers (61) and steals (76) as the Falcons’ point guard.
“From the moment we started practice until we started playing out there in Las Vegas,” Dropsey said, “you could just tell what a true competitor Lowen is. That’s one of those things where size really doesn’t matter when you compete as hard as he does on both ends of the floor.”
In Vegas, with college coaches and recruiters in attendance, Dropsey said Ferguson got a lot of good looks from 3-point range in the first three games, but then saw plenty of added perimeter pressure in the semifinal and championship contests.
In the 55-51 semifinal win over a team from Texas, the guard hit back-to-back-to-back 3s to help Eastern Ohio take the lead in the second half.
Ferguson averaged 15.8 points per game, despite the tournament featuring what he said was the best athleticism and height he’s ever faced.
“It was the most unselfish group of players I’ve ever played with; no one cared how many points they got,” he said. “It was truly, every time down on offense, we were looking for the best shot.”
The Eastern Ohio Sports Complex team also featured assistant coaches in Ben Ferguson and Sean Tucker, who has been the head coach at Toronto High School for the last 10 seasons and earlier this year was inducted into the District 5 Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
Lowen Ferguson said it was the perfect group of coaches and teammates, and it added to a summer that has been loaded with success on the court for him.
One week after Hillsdale lost in the Division VII state semifinal to Kalida, he already was playing in a tournament with his Akron-based AAU team.
That squad played events in four different states and won three tournaments.
From there, the Hillsdale basketball team’s summer schedule finished with a record of roughly 48-12, leading into the EOSC camp and Vegas event.
All told, Ferguson has played more than 100 games since his unforgettable sophomore season with the Falcons concluded.
He has an upcoming showcase in Louisville, Ky., with his AAU team, and was invited by the men’s basketball head coach at the NCAA Division II University of Tampa to compete in the Spartans’ Summer Elite ID Clinic in early August.
“I definitely got my name on the map last season, so I know this year a lot of eyes will be on me as far as defense and stuff like that,” Ferguson said. “I know I’ve gotta work 10 times harder than I did the other years because there isn’t going to be any open shots or second-best defenders of the other team on me.”
In the 2026-27 season, the Falcons will bump up a level to Division VI. Ferguson already knows the teams he’s watching out for as threats.
He also said that winning the Wayne County Athletic League is a top goal. Despite all its recent success (combined 57-22 record the last three seasons), Hillsdale still hasn’t finished above third in the talent-laden WCAL since tying for second in 2012.
Dropsey said he wouldn’t be surprised by anything Ferguson helps the Falcons do. The guard is on pace to clear well over 1,000 career points as a junior.
“I can’t wait to see what he’s able to do his next two years in high school,” Dropsey said. “Without a doubt, he’s gonna be playing somewhere at the next level.”
