Knights win D-IV district title in 2OTs

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent editor

ELIDA — Simply put, Friday night’s Division IV district championship game at the Elida Fieldhouse was one for the ages. No. 1 seed Crestview rallied from a 14-point third quarter deficit then outlasted No. 3 seed Ottoville to win the Division IV district championship 63-61 in two overtimes.

A driving layup by Mitch Temple with four seconds left proved to be the game winner.

The win puts the Knights (22-3) in the regional semifinals against Mohawk at 8 p.m. Tuesday at Bowling Green State University. Ottoville’s season ended at 19-6.

The seemingly improbable comeback began when the Knights were down 39-25 with approximately two minutes left in the third quarter. Wren Sheets hit four consecutive free throws to make it 39-29 entering the fourth quarter, then Crestview scored the first six points of the fourth quarter on buckets by Carson Hunter and Sheets and a pair of foul shots by Gavin Etzler. Later in the fourth, Nate Lichtle hit a trey that tied the game 47-47, then Kellen Schlagbaum split a pair of free throws, giving Ottoville a one point lead. However, Sheets hit a foul shot with 9.6 seconds left, enough to force an extra session.

“I think getting it back to 10 was big for us going into the fourth quarter but I thought our effort defensively in the fourth quarter was the best it had been all night,” Crestview head coach Doug Etzler said. “We have a lot of seniors that don’t want to go home and I think they played like that in the fourth quarter. I wish it would have been like that all game.”

“I think it was just a slow march with foul situations and some things kind of caught up to us a little bit,” Ottoville head coach Keith Utendorf said. “We had a couple of turnovers here and there in that stretch but we had some really good looks, they just didn’t go down. Credit Crestview to come back from 14-down in the second half…they earned it.”

The first overtime ended 54-54, but the Knights scored the first six points of the second overtime, including four by Sheets. The Big Green didn’t score until the 1:06 mark, then tied the game 61-61 on a triple by Schlagbaum, only to see Temple score with four seconds left. The Big Green got a three-pointer off at the buzzer but it glanced off the rim.

Temple led Crestview with 17 points, all in the second half, including 13 in the fourth quarter and both overtimes.

“At halftime I really challenged him and Wren,” Etzler said. “I thought they weren’t playing as good as they could play for us and he really stepped up and Wren really stepped up and those two did a great job for us in the second half and played how we think they’re capable of playing. When you get challenged like that it can go one of two ways and I thought both of them went the right way and got it done for us.”

Sheets finished with 15 points, with 13 coming in the second half. Gavin Etzler added 14 points and Lichtle finished with 11. Temple and Sheets each had seven rebounds and after being out-rebounded 16-8 in the first half, the Knights closed the gap to a respectable 31-28 margin by the end of the game.

“Rebounding is a lot of toughness and effort and the first three quarters I thought Ottoville owned that category, but we did a much better job late when we weren’t giving them second shots,” Etzler said.

Schlagbaum recorded a double-double with 26 points and 10 rebounds, while Carter Horstman added 16 points for Ottoville.

“I’m proud of our guys for playing their butts off,” Utendorf said. “They responded every time and that’s all we’ve asked of them. They countered and we countered back. This gym has seen a lot of special games and I think this one has to rank up there somewhere.”

Ottoville raced out to a 20-10 lead at the end of the first quarter, with Schlagbaum scoring 13 and Horstman seven. The scoring pace slowed in the second quarter and the Big Green took a 27-19 lead into halftime. Gavin Etzler accounted for seven of Crestview’s points in the second period.

“Ottoville came out and hit us in the mouth for three straight quarters and we didn’t have an answer,” the elder Etzler said. “I’m just glad our guys kept fighting and gave us a shot in the fourth and the overtimes.”

Crestview’s regional semifinal opponent, Mohawk (22-3), defeated Hopewell-Loudon 46-45.

“The toughest thing about it is we had already played our first three (tournament) opponents so we had a little better idea going into it, but we haven’t played them, so there’s a lot of film work tonight,” Etzler said. “We’ll get a game plan together and start work on it tomorrow but tomorrow has to be a little bit of rest too. We really battled here and it’s been a grind for our guys but maybe we’ll try to walk through some things but hopefully we can come up with a game plan that’s good enough to make us compete on Tuesday.”

Box score

Crestview 10 9 10 19 6 9 – 63
Ottoville 20 10 12 9 6 7 – 61

Crestview: Gavin Etzler 4-3-14; Mitch Temple 4-9-17; Carson Hunter 1-0-2; Nate Lichtle 4-0-11; Wren Sheets 4-7-15; Nasir Easterling 1-2-4

Ottoville: Jace Langhals 1-1-3; Grant Leis 1-0-2; Kellen Schlagbaum 8-6-26; Alex Suever 1-2-5; Carter Horstman 7-2-16; Michael Turnwald 1-2-5; Keaton Schnipke 1-2-4