Knights beat Lancers for sectional title

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent sports

The Crestview Knights clamped down defensively in the second half, and claimed a 55-43 victory over the Lincolnview Lancers during Saturday’s Division IV sectional championship game at Van Wert High School

The win means Crestview (16-6) advances to tomorrow’s district semifinal game against Kalida, while Lincolnview’s season is over at 11-13.

After trailing 27-24 at halftime, the Knights allowed the Lancers to score just 16 points in the second half — eight in each quarter.

“The biggest thing was just our approach,” Crestview head coach Jeremy Best said of the second half. “I thought we played with a little more purpose in the second half, defensively. We made an adjustment at halftime, mainly with our mentality, and that seemed to be a big factor.”

“Give credit to their defense,” Lincolnview head coach Brett Hammons said. “They made it extremely difficult for us to score down the stretch.”

The Knights led 13-10 at the end of the first quarter, with Wade Sheets accounting for six of those points, while Lincolnview’s Chayten Overholt had seven points in the quarter.

Overholt scored five more in the second quarter and Ethan Kemler had seven, as the Lancers outscored Crestview 17-11 in the period.

“Ethan played well in the second quarter and got some buckets down low,” Hammons said. “We were just able to make shots and execute and got to the free throw line a couple of times.”

Sheets and Javin Etzler each scored six in the third quarter, and the Knights outscored the Lancers 16-8 in the period to lead 38-35 going into the final period.

Crestview went 11 of 14 from the free throw line in the fourth quarter to help secure the win. Etzler went 6-for-6 from the charity stripe, and 10-for-10 in the game and finished with 19 points, while Sheets led all scorers with 21.

Overholt led the Lancers with 20 points, while Kemler had 9.

The loss marked the final game for three Lincolnview seniors — Ryan Rager, Dylan Lee and Nick Motycka.

“I’ve been doing this for five years and it’s never easy going into the locker room, because you know you have to say goodbye to kids,” Hammons said. “We had three amazing seniors, great character guys that just made our team better.

“With the rest of the guys, we told them we know what we have to get better at and what we have to do to be more successful next year,” Hammons added.

The Knights and Kalida Wildcats will tip off at 6:15 tomorrow night at the Elida Fieldhouse, with the winner advancing to Friday’s district championship game against Delphos St. John’s or Continental.

“Kalida is a big senior-dominant team,” Best said. “It took them a while to get used to a new system, but they’re playing very good basketball and they’re going to present a major physical challenge for us.”

Tomorrow’s game will air live on WKSD 99.7 FM, and will stream live on The Van Wert Independent (www.thevwindependent.com)

Box score:

Crestview     13  10  16  15–-55

Lincolnview  10  17    8    8–-43

Crestview (55) — Wade Sheets 21, Javin Etzler 19, Derek Stout 9, Grant Schlagbaum 2, Drew Kline 2, Brett Schumm 2.

Lincolnview (43) — Chayten Overholt 20, Ethan Kemler 9, Caden Ringwald 6, Ryan Rager 4, Tristin Miller 3, Isiac Bowersock 1.