Knights playing for NWC co-championship

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent editor

CONVOY — It’s come down to Friday’s regular season finale between Crestview and Leipsic and it’s a pretty simple scenario.

The Vikings can’t win the title but they can play the role of spoiler. If the Knights (14-6, 6-1 NWC) defeat Leipsic, they’ll claim a Northwest Conference co-championship with Bluffton (18-2, 7-1 NWC), but a loss to the Vikings means the Pirates will be crowned as outright conference champions.

In some ways, it seems as though it’s been a quiet run to a possible co-championship.

After losing last year’s top two scorers (Kalen Etzler, Carson Kreischer) to graduation, but knowing several other players (Gavin Etzler, Rontae Jackson, Mitch Temple, Carson Hunter, JJ Ward, Nate Lichtle) were returning, head coach Doug Etzler had mixed thoughts.

“I didn’t know what the season would hold as far as the Northwest Conference,” Etzler explained. “We had a lot of teams that were similar to us with a lot of guys coming back but they weren’t the main guys last year. I saw some good things during the summer and I thought we had a chance to be pretty good but could we do it on game night in front of a crowd?”

“I did think we had a chance to be pretty competitive,” the coach added.

Crestview’s lone conference loss came on the road at Bluffton, 49-48, on January 7. Four Fridays later, the Pirates suffered their only NWC loss, 57-46 to defending champion Columbus Grove, putting the Knights right back in the title chase.

Three of Crestview’s six losses came in a midseason six-game span and that’s when Etzler decided to put 6-5 freshman forward/post Wren Sheets on the floor more often.

“He had a big game for us against Minster (nine rebounds, two blocked shots, four points) and I thought it was time to give us a little more size inside so Rontae could guard a guard instead of guarding the post and we could have a true post player inside, a back to the basket type of guy,” Etzler said. “Everybody has gotten better and we’ve mixed the lineup up a little bit and we’ve been playing some good ball down the stretch.”

The coach said scoring has been by committee, which has meant getting the ball to whichever player has the hot hand that night. Another big factor in the run to a possible co-championship is the defensive play of the Knights, who have held 14 opponents to 47 points or less this season.

To earn a share of this year’s NWC crown, the defense will have to be ready for Leipsic’s Mason Brandt. The 6-4 senior, who has committed to play collegiate basketball at the University of Findlay, is averaging 28.8 points per game.

“Brandt’s the best player in our league,” Etzler stated. “He’s averaging close to 30 points per game and he’s going to score, so we have to try to make it tough for him to get clean looks. They have some complimentary players to go with him with (Paul) Maag inside and the have (Dillan) Niese who’s coming back from an injury.”

Brandt is a load and he’s scored 40 a couple of times this year, and they’ve been very competitive (14-7, 4-3 NWC) their first year in the conference,” Etzler added.

Should the Knights win Friday’s game, it would be the program’s 19th NWC basketball championship or co-championship, tops among all conference schools.