Crestview to play for regional championship

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent sports editor

BOWLING GREEN — Crestview won the battle of the boards and outscored Maumee Valley Country Day in each of Tuesday night’s four quarters, in a 61-45 regional semifinal victory over the Hawks at Bowling Green State University’s Stroh Center.

The victory means the Knights (23-3) will play Pandora-Gilboa in Friday’s Division IV regional championship game, with the winner advancing to next week’s State Tournament in Columbus.

The Knights led 8-7 after the first quarter, with six of those points scored by 6-4 senior Derek Stout. The Hawks led on three occasions during the first part of the second period, but Drew Kline hit two treys and the Knights went on a 10-2 scoring run to close the quarter.

The first triple by Kline put the Knights up 16-15 at the 2:35 mark, then Stout added a layup. Maumee Valley CD’s Dez Jett hit a pair of foul shots, but the Knights responded with another three pointer by Kline and two free throws by Stout for a 23-17 halftime lead.

“I thought we made a little bit of a push to end the half,” Crestview head coach Jeremy Best said. “We were only up six, but I thought we started to seize some momentum and impose our will a bit, and let them know we were going to be here for 32 minutes.”

MCVD’s Parker Chatman opened third quarter scoring with a quick basket and foul shot that trimmed Crestview’s lead to 23-20, and after a bucket by Stout, Zeb Jackson hit a pair of foul shots to make it a 24-22 game. The Knights answered with another basket by Stout and Kline’s third triple of the game to increase Crestview’s to 29-22. Stout went on to finish with a game high 20 points, while Kline finished with 13.

“Drew hit three huge threes during the course of the game for us, and we were 5 of 12 from three point land, which is pretty solid,” Best said. “Jace Vining and Derick Dealey also had big threes for us.”

After a MVCD timeout, Steve Coleman scored off an offensive rebound, but Crestview’s Jace Vining drained a trey to extend the lead to 32-24. From there, the Hawks scored five consecutive points to close the gap to 32-29, but the Knights went on a 7-1 scoring run to finish the quarter. Stout accounted for four of those points, while Wade Sheets scored the other three.

“I was real proud of the way our guys came out in the second half and continued to dig,” Best said.

The fourth quarter saw the Knights extend their lead to as much as 16, and the Hawks could draw no closer than seven, 50-43. Crestview scored the final seven points of the game, all on foul shots by Etzler, Stout, Kline and Colton Lautzenheiser.

When the dust settled, the Knights had outrebounded the Hawks 41-25, and held normally high-scoring MCVD to 16 of 52 from the floor (31 percent). Entering the game, the Hawks averaged 68 points per contest.

“We thought we could do some things on the offensive glass, and we had 13 (offensive rebounds),” Best said. “Our guys just did a fabulous job.”

Etzler ended the game with 16 rebounds, to go along with 9 points.

The Knights will play Pandora-Gilboa (25-1) at 7 p.m. Friday night back at the Stroh Center. The Rockets defeated Mohawk 50-31 in the first game of the night.

“It’s a lot like looking in the mirror,” Best said of Pandora-Gilboa. “They’re similar to us with a similar philosophy, so I think it’ll be a really great Division IV regional final game, and we’re excited to be there.”

 

Scoring summary:

Crestview         8 15 16 22 – 61
Maumee VCD   7 10 13 15 – 45

Crestview: Javin Etzler 1-7-9; Drew Kline 3-4-13; Derek Stout 8-4-20; Derick Dealey 1-0-3; Wade Sheets 4-3-11; Jace Vining 1-0-3; Colton Lautzenheiser 0-2-2

MVCD: Dez Jett 0-2-2; Zeb Jackson 6-4-16; Steve Coleman 4-3-11; AJ Johnson 1-1-3; Parker Chatman 3-1-8; Sam Crane 2-0-5