TOURNEY ROUNDUP: Zane Trace, Adena to square off in D-III District Semifinals

Zane Trace 56, Piketon 50

Playing a team three times in a season is never easy, and the Zane Trace Pioneers were reminded of that on Friday.

After going 2-0 against the Piketon Redstreaks this season, the Pioneers – a two seed – played their SVC foe again on Friday but this time it was for a Division III Sectional Final. Despite Piketon – a 15 seed – only being down one possession within a minute left, Zane Trace ultimately closed them out to win 56-50 in Waverly.

“After I’ve watched the other teams play this week in the tournaments I can see why everybody pushed Adena and Piketon to us because Piketon, Adena, and us – we can beat three-fourths of the other schools,” said Zane Trace head coach Gary Kellough. “I knew it was going to be like this. They’ve got good athletes, they got good basketball players. Our games are tough, physical games.”

The first quarter was the Cam Evans show for Zane Trace on Friday. Hitting three three-pointers in the quarter, Evans ultimately scored 11 points for the Pioneers in the period to help his team jump out to an 18-12 lead at the end of one.

“[Colby Swain], my other teammates finding me open from the three-point line, I was just thankful to be able to knock them down, hitting Nick [Nesser] in the low post and being able to cut and get some easy layups,” Evans said. “It’s all because of them and coach’s trust in me. Trying to get to my spot as much as possible and trying to get to the free throw line.”

In the second quarter, Zane Trace jumped out to a 23-12 lead but after that it was time for the Levi Gullion show as he scored 11 points for the Redstreaks in the period and cut the score to 31-26 at halftime. Both Gullion and Evans had 16 points after two quarters.

“[Levi] is a kid that, the growth that he’s experienced from the start of this season to the finish of this season – he’s essentially a freshman, he missed his entire year last year with a back injury. So, to jump straight into varsity full time as a starter with a major role defensively and offensively, I think he just saw hopefully the tip of the iceberg for us for the next couple years,” said Piketon head coach Kyle Miller.

In the third quarter, whenever the Redstreaks went on a run to make it close the Pioneers went on a run of their own to pull away again. Piketon eventually made the score 40-38 with 2:05 left in the period, but a couple baskets by Evans and Nick Nesser gave ZT a 44-39 lead going into the fourth.

Despite Piketon making it 48-44 on a bucket by Tra Swayne with 4:58 left, another three by Evans stretched Zane Trace’s lead to seven with 3:10 left. Gullion and Chandler, however, then made two straight baskets to cut the score to 51-48 with 35 seconds left but free throws from Luke Johnson, Evans, and Swain eventually closed the Redstreaks out as ZT won 56-50.

Evans scored 26 points for Zane Trace while Swain had 10 points, four rebounds, and four assists. Swain also held Gullion to two points in the second half after he dropped 16 in the first.

“My responsibility going into every game is to my make my other teammates successful,” Swain said. “So, whenever I go in I’m looking for Cam in that corner, I’m looking for L.J. on that wing, that deep ball, I’m looking for Triton [Davidson] and Nick inside. If they get going it makes it a lot easier for me and then once they get going and I hit a couple shots, then it’s even easier for them. So, that’s just the biggest part is just trying to get us into our offense, trying to take care of the ball and also play defense in the half-court.”

Nick Nesser added eight points, six rebounds and four assists for the Pioneers.

Gullion finished with 18 points for Piketon while Tyree Harris had 11 and Brody Fuller had nine. Chandler added seven points for the Redstreaks.

Piketon (12-12) says goodbye to two seniors in Harris and Logan Nichols.

“We’re losing two seniors and it feels like we’re losing 10,” Miller said. “The growth that Tyree demonstrated from the beginning of this year to now and throughout his entire career has been exponential. Then Logan, to battle back from an ACL tear and I think this is maybe his eighth game back, ninth game back from an ACL that he suffered in the middle of the summer. It shows how tough he is and those are characteristics that will carry both of those guys for the rest of their life.”

For Zane Trace (20-3), they are headed to Ohio University for the second straight season as they will face another SVC foe in Adena for a district semifinal at 5:30 p.m. on March 1.

Adena 53, Alexander 41

Despite there being intense emotions throughout Friday’s contest, the Warriors left with an upset.

Adena’s boys basketball team – a 10 seed – played seven-seeded Alexander for a D-III Sectional Final on Friday and even after trailing at halftime and then only leading by two points after three quarters, the Adena Warriors used a big fourth quarter to get the 53-41 win at Jackson High School.

“We just had to come together,” said Adena’s Nate Throckmorton.

Defense dominated the first quarter for Adena as they held Alexander to only two points in the period and then used two three-pointers from Cade McKee to jump out to a 10-2 lead after one. The second quarter, however, was then the other way around as Alexander held Adena to five points and then scored 17 to take a 19-15 lead at the end of two quarters.

The Warriors then came out and used a couple buckets by Preston Sykes and a three by Jarrett Garrison to outscore Alexander 14-8 in the third quarter and they then took a 29-27 lead heading into the final period.

Then in the fourth quarter Adena ultimately put Alexander away to clinch their second straight trip to Ohio University’s Convocation Center. The Warriors scored 24 points in the final period – compared to 14 from Alexander – using seven points from Logan Bennett all on free throws and they went on to win 53-41.

Sykes also came up big in that fourth scoring five of his nine second-half points in the period as he scored 12 points in total and grabbed 10 rebounds.

“Coming into the game we wanted revenge from the last time we played them,” Sykes said. “That was probably our worst game of the year honestly. We played really bad. We knew we were the better team and we just had to come out and play hard to prove it. The whole game we were just playing for our guy (Brandon Smith).”

Bennett also scored 12 for the Warriors to go with five rebounds and three assists while Garrison scored 11 and McKee scored nine.

The Warriors now prepare to play the Zane Trace Pioneers for a third time this season.

“They’re a solid team,” Sykes said. “Both times we played with them and it was close at halftime and third quarter. We just had a bad fourth quarter last time we played and we can’t let that happen.”

Adena (16-8) plays Zane Trace for a D-III District Semifinal at Ohio University’s Convocation Center at 5:30 p.m. on March 1.

Fairland 48, Westfall 29

Despite keeping it close with one-seeded Fairland for the entire game, a big fourth quarter led to Westfall’s season coming to an end.

The 17-seeded Westfall Mustangs knew they had their hands full playing one-seeded Fairland for a D-III Sectional Final on Friday, but for majority of the game they held their own.

After trailing 11-5 through one quarter, Westfall outscored the one seed 10-8 in the second to go into halftime down 19-15.

The third quarter was then pretty even as Fairland only outscored them 10-9 to take a 29-24 lead into the fourth but that final period is where it showed why Fairland is the No. 1 overall seed. Holding the Mustangs to five points in the final period, Fairland scored 19 to go on to win 48-29.

Jay Wyman scored 12 points for Westfall on four three-pointers, breaking his own school record for three-pointers in a single season. Tyler Shipley added eight points for Westfall.

The Mustangs concluded their season with an 11-13 overall record.