The road to the DII and DIII OHSAA Final
Four went through Wright
State
University’s
Nutter
Center Saturday afternoon. In the early game Chaminade-Julienne’s
boys team defeated Bishop Watterson 46-44 and now will join their girls team up in
Columbus at the state
semi-finals.
CJ took the lead with
:50 second remaining and then clamped down on defense as Watterson had
three shots off of great offensive rebounding. But CJ pulls out the win thank to an
impressive defensive stand at the end of the game. Derrick Brown led the Eagles with 12
points. The later game at
the Nutter
Center featured the undefeated
Versailles Tigers against the defending state champions of Cincinnati
Reading.
No strangers to one another these teams
faced each other earlier in the season at
Versailles where the
Tigers pulled out a big win.
However, that win was not able to erase the memory of last seasons defeat
in the regional semis at the hands of
Reading. The Tigers are confident that had they
won that matchup the state championship would have
found a home in Darke
County. Now the Tigers have their rematch with a
chance to advance to the first state Final Four in school history and it
appeared the entire town of Versailles showed up for the
action.
Right off the tip off Ben Shappie of the
Tigers controlled the ball, but found an unfriendly welcome from the Blue Devils
Jeremy Overbeck, as Overbeck blocked the first attempt of the game into the
stands. However, Tiger scoring
machine, Kyle Gehle, got the inbound and knocked down an open jumper to get the
Tigers on the board. The Blue
Devils got on the board at the 5:15 mark when Johnny Gertz hit a three off an assist
from Overbeck.
The
Nutter
Center was alive with excitement and
both crowds were pumped and energized for their team. The Blue Devils took a 14-10 lead into
the second.
Reading executed their
halfcourt set and played strong defense at their end of the court to get the
early edge.
In the second
Versailles was able to
keep pace with the Blue Devils, but suffered a huge setback with an injury to
star junior, Joe Shardo. Shardo
went down awkwardly early in the quarter.
When play stopped, it was apparent that Shardo had seriously injured his
knee as the coach and trainer both came out to attend to the injured
forward. Amazingly, Shardo came
back into the game a few minutes later, but it was clear he couldn’t
continue. With Shardo out of the
game the lead was pushed back to seven as the quarter was drawing to a close,
but before the buzzer could sound, Gehle hit an acrobatic three to keep the lead
at four, 27-23 Reading.
The Tigers came out with a flurry in the
third. Ben Shappe came out and
immediately hit a three to cut the lead to one. Then
Versailles took its
first lead with 6:48 remaining when
Gehle hit another three. At that
time the Tigers led 29-28. Both
teams battled back and forth with several lead changes along the way. As the quarter came to a close the
energy and excitement in the arena was rising, but the margin between the teams
was narrowing.
Versailles took a 40-39 lead
into the final frame.
The Blue Devils shooting went cold at the
beginning of the fourth. The Tigers
were able to push the lead to five, 44-39 thanks to great defense and some
unbelievable play by Gehle.
Finally, Coach Bensman of
Reading had to call a
timeout with 5:38 remaining and the
momentum in Versailles
corner.
The Blue Devils finally got their first
point of the quarter when Tony Pike converted a free throw with
5:01 remaining. Bensman called another timeout with
3:27 remaining and facing a 47-42
Versailles’ lead. Coming out of the timeout the Blue
Devils went to a box and one defense to try and slow down Kyle Gehle. Coach McEldowney countered with a spread
offense that was designed to run clock until a foul was committed. The Tigers ran it to perfection, running
a hybrid weave that worked the Blue Devil defenders hard and got the Tigers to
the line.
With both teams in the double bonus, it
seemed the last two minutes of the game were going to mostly be played at the
free throw line. At the
1:48 mark, Shappie
pushed the lead to seven by hitting two free throws, 52-45. The Tigers continued to work the clock
extended the lead to nine with 38 seconds remaining.
At the 25.4 mark
Reading’s Pike hit a
three to make the score 55-49.
Reading took another timeout
to plan their final push. But it
was too little too late for the Blue Devils. The game was clinched when Gehle hit
another pair of free throws to push the score to 58-50. And that was the final as the Versailles
Tigers advance to the state final four for the first time in school
history.
All total, the Tigers attempted
40 free throws. Gehle himself
accounted for 12 of his game high 32 points at the line by going 21 of 25 at the
line. That was a testimony to how
well Gehle and his teammates handled the ball down the stretch and remarkable
free throw shooting. Shappie
stepped up his scoring as well, finishing with 20 points. Tony Pike of Reading scored 12 and
pulled down 12 rebounds to record a double-double in the loss and Johnny Gertz
scored 18 for the Blue devils.
Another hard fought and well
played game by two great teams.
Both teams showed a remarkable amount of class and respect for one
another. Also, both team’s fans
showed a tremendous amount of respect giving each other large ovations as
representatives of OHSAA handed out the hardware at the end of the
game.