Erhart, Kalida edge Lincolnview 52-49

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent sports editor

In a matchup between two unbeaten teams, a fourth quarter scoring drought proved to be costly for Lincolnview as the Lancers fell to Kalida 52-49 on Wednesday night.

Trailing 44-43 in the final period, a baby hook by Jake Bowersock gave Lincolnview a one point lead, 45-44, with 3:55 left, but it was final basket by the Lancers until the 2.9 second mark.

In the meantime, Tyson Siefker scored Kalida’s next six points, followed by two free throws by Ayden Warnecke. Lincolnview’s remaining points came on a foul shot by Collin Overholt with 23 seconds left and a deep triple by Overholt 20 seconds later. The 5-10 senior finished with 21 points.

“You can’t have spells like that in games like this, it just makes it tough to win,” Lincolnview head coach Brett Hammons said. “We have to learn from it and get better because we have another tough opponent coming up, but this is a learning experience and we have to learn to battle for four quarters and find ways to score when we’re struggling.”

“Lincolnview’s a great team and they have a lot of weapons,” Kalida head coach Ryan Stechschulte said. “We tried a few different things to try to slow them down and it really didn’t work well, but in the fourth quarter we really locked down our man-to-man defense. We told our kids when you’re playing teams like Lincolnview and you’re on the road, sometimes you have to string a lot of stops together to win the game.”

Kalida (8-0) opened the game with a 10-2 scoring run, with all ten points coming from Brandon Miller and Luke Erhart. However, the Lancers (4-1) scored the next 11 points, including treys by Overholt, Landon Price and Creed Jessee and led 13-10 at the end of the first quarter.

A triple by Overholt gave Lincolnview a 24-16 lead halfway through the second period, but the Wildcats fought back with eight unanswered points to tie the game 24-24. Jessee drained a three-pointer from the top of the key with 50 seconds left, a bucket that gave the Lancers a 27-24 lead at halftime.

A back and fourth third quarter ensued and ended with a half-court buzzer beater by Erhart that tied the game 38-38 entering the final period. The 6-5 senior forward scored ten of his game-high 24 points in the quarter.

“Erhart’s a heck of a player and they play around him,” Hammons said. “We tried to stop him and he had that big shot at the end of the third quarter and that hurt us.”

Erhart also pulled down seven rebounds and the Wildcats were 13-of-23 from the foul line, while the Lancers went there just five times and converted two.

As a team, Lincolnview connected on 19-of-40 shots, including 9-of-23 from three point land, while Kalida was 18-of-40 from the floor, but just 3-of-12 from beyond the arc.

Kalida will host Archbold on Saturday, while Lincolnview is scheduled to play at Ottoville on Tuesday.

“We have three practices before that game, three practices to get ready,” Hammons said. “We’re going to worry about ourselves and what we can do better. They’re a very tough team and they’ve proven that throughout this year, with their only loss being to Antwerp, so we’ll have to watch some film and learn some things, get better and hopefully improve and compete in that one and try to get a win.”

Scoring summary

Lincolnview 13 14 11 11 – 49
Kalida 10 14 14 14 – 52

Lincolnview: Clayton Leeth 1-1-3; Aaron Cavinder 2-0-5; Collin Overholt 8-1-21; Landon Price 1-0-3; Daegan Hatfield 1-0-2; Jake Bowersock 2-0-4; Creed Jessee 4-0-11

Kalida: Ayden Warnecke 1-2-4; Brandon Miller 4-1-10; Tyson Siefker 3-2-8; Jayce Horstman 1-2-4; Luke Erhart 8-6-24; Grant Vorst 1-0-2

JV: Kalida 46-45