Jackson Center’s Nolan Fark drives as Fairlawn’s Drew Westerbeck defends during a Division IV sectional final on Thursday at Piqua’s Garbry Gymnasium. Fark scored eight points for the Tigers, which will try for their fifth consecutive district title berth on Saturday.
Luke Gronneberg | Sidney Daily News
PIQUA — If you didn’t notice “Ansonia” on the front of Fort Loramie’s opponent’s jerseys on Thursday night at Piqua’s Garbry Gymnasium, you couldn’t have been blamed for wondering if the Redskins had skipped ahead to a matchup with Jackson Center.
The Redskins had to grind out a 39-27 victory against the orange and black Ansonia Tigers in a Division IV sectional final to get a chance to do the same on Saturday against the orange and black Jackson Center Tigers.
Ansonia may have brought strong defense, but Fort Loramie knows from experience Jackson Center will bring even stronger D — and a more potent offensive attack.
Jackson Center, which was ranked No. 2 in the final D-IV state Associated Press poll of the season, advanced to Saturday’s district semifinal by beating Fairlawn 47-14 in Thursday’s first sectional final.
Jackson Center beat the Redskins 50-42 and 49-37 in Shelby County Athletic League matchups in regular season.
“We’ve got our backs against the wall on Friday night,” Fort Loramie coach Corey Britton said. “They’re really good. …We’ve got to find a way to score. To be honest, we haven’t guarded them very well at all during the regular season. They’ve gotten us both times, relatively handedly.
“They shot it really well both times. We’ve got to find ways to make sure the ball doesn’t go in the basket nearly as much for them.”
Fort Loramie, which is the Piqua D-IV sectional’s No. 3 seed, led 8-7 at the end of the first quarter and 13-12 at halftime on Thursday. Ethan Keiser hit two 3-pointers early in the third quarter to help push the advantage to eight points.
“Any time the ball goes in the basket, it loosens things up a little bit,” Britton said. “We were able to get things in transition a little bit. That’s always point of emphasis, getting the ball out of their hands and finding shooters up the sideline in a hurry. …Ethan’s a really nice shooter from 3-point range when he gets his feet set.”
Ansonia cut the gap to six points in the fourth, but the Redskins hit 8-of-12 free throws in the quarter to secure the win. Austin Pleiman made a put-back after a missed free throw by Carter Gasson in the final minute to push the gap to double digits.
Caleb Maurer led Fort Loramie (18-6) with 13 points and hit 5-of-6 foul shots in the fourth quarter. Keiser finished with 11.
Garrett Stammen led No. 6 seed Ansonia (13-11) with 18 points.
Britton said he was happy how the Redskins played late when the Tigers hit a couple shots to stay in it.
“I was really proud of the way the kids fought through some things,” Britton said. “I don’t think we played necessarily well or necessarily clean, but it showed some growth from earlier in the year. I thought earlier in the year, things could go sideways a little bit, but defensively, we’ve come a long way. That’s a credit to our kids.”
It’s the 11th consecutive season Fort Loramie has earned a district semifinal berth. They’ve lost in semifinals the last two years, including last year to Jackson Center on a buzzer-beater.
Jackson Center 47, Fairlawn 14
The No. 1 seed Tigers scored the first 22 points on Thursday and cruised to a victory in a D-IV sectional final.
It’s the 23rd consecutive victory for Jackson Center, which hasn’t lost since a one-point loss at Russia in a season opener. The squad will aim for its fifth consecutive district final berth on Saturday against Fort Loramie.
The Tigers won both SCAL matchups against the Redskins by eight points in regular season; they beat Loramie on a buzzer-beater in a district semifinal last year.
“We have battles with them all the time,” Jackson Center coach Scott Elchert said. “… We both know each other really well. They have a lot of seniors, we have a lot of seniors. These kids have been competing against each other since fifth- and sixth-grade basketball.
“Loramie has good coaches and has a good plan. We’ll have to be at the top of our game, that’s for sure.”
Jackson Center led 12-0 at the end of the first quarter and 22-2 at halftime. The Tigers outscored Fairlawn 13-8 in the fourth and 12-4 in the fourth.
“I was pleased with the energy we came out with tonight,” Elchert, who has announced he’ll retire at the end of the season, said. “It’s tournament time. I don’t care who you have to play, you have to play with energy. The fact that we did that is a credit to our kids.”
It was the third lopsided win this season for Jackson Center over the Jets; the squad won 49-25 at Fairlawn on Dec. 28 and 65-20 on Feb. 3 in Jackson Center.
“Our guys were geared up for this game,” Elchert said. “We’ve got a lot of respect for Fairlawn. This is the third time we’re playing them, and they had a bye and 10, 12 days to get ready for this. I think it’s a credit to Fairlawn that our guys came out with this energy, because (Fairlawn) is well coached and is going to come at us.”
Bryson Roberts led the Tigers with 11 points while Nolan Fark scored eight and Jace Mullenhour scored seven.
Fairlawn finishes 3-20. The Jets, which are under the guidance of first-year coach Dennis Davis, have no seniors and are set to return a 10-player varsity roster.
