Crestview wins 2 OT thriller, district title

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent sports editor

ELIDA — It was an unbelievable sequence of events during Friday night’s Division IV district championship game at the Elida Field House.

Trailing Crestview 42-29 midway through the fourth quarter, Kalida hit five consecutive three pointers and forced a 46-46 tie at the end of regulation.

A pair of free throws by Trevor Lambert gave the Wildcats a 54-51 lead with 7.6 seconds left in overtime, but Javin Etzler drilled a trey at the buzzer to force a second overtime. It was almost the same spot where Etzler hit a shot that beat Hicksville in last year’s district title game.

Etzler and Drew Kline combined for all seven of Crestview’s points in the second overtime and the Knights wouldn’t allow Kalida to get a shot off in the final 57 seconds of the second extra session.

When the dust settled, Crestview won the game and the district title 61-58 and advanced to next week’s regional semifinals.

“We were up 13 and it just snowballed on us,” Crestview head coach Jeremy Best said of the fourth quarter. “We couldn’t get a stop, we missed a couple of free throws, but they’re a really good basketball team.”

“They’ve got some grown men, athletes out there and a lot of credit goes to Kalida for being resilient, but since these are my guys, I’m going to going to give my guys more credit for hanging in there, making plays when we needed to,” an elated Best continued. “I’m just proud of our guys.”

Etzler actually stumbled a bit before hitting the trey that sent the game to a second overtime.

“It’s a good thing he tripped otherwise he might have been long on it,” Best said.

“I guess they should just write my name right there with a Sharpie,” Etzler said with a grin, referring to the spot where he hit last year’s game winner and Friday’s shot.

In the second overtime, Kline hit a short a basket, then was fouled on a steal and hit one of two free throws. He followed up with a pair of foul shots to give the Knights a 59-54 lead with 2:38 left.

“He (Kline) said at the end of the first overtime ‘we’re not losing this game, we are not losing this game, we are not’ and by gosh we didn’t,” Best said.

Once again though, Kalida (19-6) fought back as Owen Recker hit two foul shots and Lambert connected on two more with 1:22 left to pull the Wildcats to within one, 59-58.

Etzler hit a pair of his own free throws a short time later, and Crestview’s defense took over from there.

“They clamped us down,” Kalida head coach Ryan Stechschulte said of the final 57 seconds. “We were patient and got it inside, but they covered us up and we called a timeout and had a play at the end but they guarded well and we couldn’t get one off.”

“They’re 24-1 for a reason,” Stechschulte added.

The Knights opened the game with six straight points, but Kalida cut it to three, 12-0 before Etzler drained a triple to give Crestview a 15-9 lead after the first quarter. The Wildcats made it a two point game, 19-17 late in the second quarter, but Derick Dealey hit a three pointer off an offensive rebound and Kalen Etzler grabbed an offensive rebound and dunked it for a 24-17 halftime lead. By the end of the third quarter, Crestview enjoyed a 36-25 lead.

Kalida’s Luke Erhart led all scorers with 22 points, including eight in the fourth quarter. Javin Etzler scored 14 of his team high 17 points in the second half, Kalen Etzler had 14 points and 10 rebounds and Kline scored 13.

Crestview will play Hicksville in the regional semifinals at 8 p.m. Tuesday at Bowling Green State University. The two teams met on February 2, with the Knights recording a 60-35 victory.

Scoring summary

Crestview 15 9 12 10 8 7 – 61
Kalida 9 8 8 21 8 4 – 58

Crestview: Kalen Etzler 6-1-14; Wade Sheets 4-1-9; Javin Etzler 5-4-17; Drew Kline 5-3-13; Colton Lautzenheiser 0-1-1; Derick Dealey 2-2-7

Kalida: Zach VonderEmbee 1-0-2; Gabe Hovest 2-0-5; Trevor Lamber 3-6-13; Owen Recker 1-4-6; Evan Roebke 2-0-5; Luke Erhart 9-2-22; Grant Laudick 2-0-5