{"id":114296,"date":"2019-03-04T13:52:39","date_gmt":"2019-03-04T18:52:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=114296"},"modified":"2019-03-04T13:52:46","modified_gmt":"2019-03-04T18:52:46","slug":"d-iv-district-preview-knights-vs-dsj","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2019\/03\/04\/d-iv-district-preview-knights-vs-dsj\/","title":{"rendered":"D-IV district preview: Knights vs. DSJ"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong>independent sports editor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crestview and Delphos St. John\u2019s reached Tuesday\u2019s Division IV district semifinal game at Elida in different ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The No. 1 seed Knights (22-1) cruised past Temple Christian 57-22 in Friday night\u2019s upper bracket sectional championship game at Van Wert High School, then the No. 5 seed Blue Jays (16-7) used a last second three pointer by Brady Parrish to defeat Lima Central Catholic 30-29 in the lower bracket sectional title game. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Crestview’s Drew Kline puts up a shot against Delphos St. John’s during the first matchup between the two teams.<\/strong> Wyatt Richardson\/Van Wert independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Crestview and Delphos St. John\u2019s aren\u2019t strangers to each other. The two teams met on December 28, with the Knights posting a 61-49 win, a game that Blue Jays head coach Aaron Elwer recalls well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI remember the physicality Crestview played with on the defensive end,\u201d Elwer said. \u201cAs the game wore on they made it difficult for us to get good looks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, Crestview head coach Jeremy Best knows the Blue Jays won\u2019t back down from anyone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey are well coached, with each player understanding their role and how they can help their team,\u201d Best explained. \u201cThey are battle tested with their MAC schedule and understand how to compete. They have always been a program that we\u2019ve had the utmost respect for.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Delphos St. John\u2019s had to deal with some injury issues during the regular season, but the Blue Jays appear to be back to full strength heading into district competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are healthy,\u201d Elwer acknowledged. \u201cBrady Grothaus (1.9 ppg,1.9 rpg) is back from surgery and Brady Parrish (4.7 ppg, 3.1 rpg) is back from an ankle injury, and we now have more depth and size.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur team has been tough and resilient all year long,\u201d Elwer added. \u201cNothing has been easy for us but our guys have found a way all year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6-4 senior Jared Wurst continues to lead the Blue Jays, averaging 17.8 points and eight rebounds per game, while Curtis Schwinnen averages 11 points per game. As a team, Delphos St. John\u2019s averages 51.5 points per game and allows 48.3 points per outing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDelphos St. John\u2019s is a very good team that presents many issues for us,\u201d Best said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Knights will enter Tuesday night\u2019s game averaging 59.2 points per game, while allowing just 38.7 points per contest. Javin Etzler continues to lead the team in scoring (14.2 ppg), with younger brother Kalen Etzler right behind at 12.5 ppg, followed by Wade Sheets and Derick Dealey, at 9.1 and 8.2 ppg respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey are experienced, long, athletic, well-coached and skilled,\u201d Elwer said of the Knights. \u201cAll of these make for a great basketball team.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI like the fact that we are a team of seniors that understands the sense of urgency that this time of year brings to the table,\u201d Best said of his team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both coaches agreed that the Elida district is a meat grinder with four tough teams. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis district is deep and wide open,\u201d Best said. \u201cYou have four teams that have prideful tradition and past tournament success.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is one of the best districts in the state and we are proud and excited that we are one on the four teams remaining,\u201d Elwer said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The winner of Tuesday\u2019s game will play the winner of the second game between Wayne Trace and Kalida at 7 p.m. on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crestview\/Delphos St. John\u2019s and Wayne Trace\/Kalida will air live on WKSD 99.7FM.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent sports editor Crestview and Delphos St. John\u2019s reached Tuesday\u2019s Division IV district semifinal game at Elida in different ways. The No. 1 seed Knights (22-1) cruised past Temple Christian 57-22 in Friday night\u2019s upper bracket sectional championship game at Van Wert High School, then the No. 5 seed Blue Jays (16-7) used a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-114296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-04 04:12:34","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114296\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}