{"id":114687,"date":"2019-03-11T13:35:03","date_gmt":"2019-03-11T18:35:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=114687"},"modified":"2019-03-11T16:33:18","modified_gmt":"2019-03-11T21:33:18","slug":"regional-preview-crestview-vs-hicksville","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2019\/03\/11\/regional-preview-crestview-vs-hicksville\/","title":{"rendered":"Regional preview: Crestview vs. Hicksville"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

For the third consecutive game in the postseason, Crestview will face a team it played during the regular season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Knights (24-1) defeated Delphos St. John\u2019s and Kalida in December and January, then topped both teams at the Elida district, paving the way for a rematch against Hicksville (23-2) at 8 p.m. Tuesday in the Division IV regional semifinals at the Stroh Center at Bowling Green State University. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both teams were ranked in the final Associated Press poll of the season, with Crestview finishing No. 2 and Hicksville No. 12. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The Knights celebrate their double overtime district championship win over Kalida.<\/strong> Wyatt Richardson\/Van Wert independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

When the two teams met on February 2, the Knights raced out to a 30-16 halftime lead and went on to win 60-35. Kalen Etzler scored 19 points, Wade Sheets finished with 15 and Kalen Etzler scored 14.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey played really well in our first matchup,\u201d Hicksville head coach Tony Tear said of Crestview. \u201cThey executed extremely well offensively and shot it really well. I thought they did a great job defensively as well, taking us out of what we wanted to do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHicksville was missing a key player (Travian Tunis) to an injury,\u201d Crestview head coach Jeremy Best noted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Knights and Aces have taken different paths to get to the regional semifinals. After defeating Delphos St. John\u2019s 53-34, Crestview held off Kalida 61-58 in double overtime, while Hicksville cruised to a pair of district wins at Napoleon, 53-38 over Edgerton and 68-51 over Pettisville.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

During the regular season Crestview averaged 58.9 points per game and allowed 38 points per outing. In the tournament, the Knights are averaging 57 points per game and giving up 38 points per game. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Aces averaged 55.7 points per game during the regular season and are averaging 63.7 points per game in the tournament. Defensively, Hicksville gave up 42.9 points per game during the regular season, compared to 45.7 in the tournament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur guys have done a really nice job of locking into details defensively and moving the ball offensively,\u201d Tear said. \u201cOur communication defensively has been really solid and our unselfishness offensively has allowed us to execute and get great shots.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parker Thiel and Landon Turnbull are Hicksville’s leading scorers, averaging 16.2 and 15.8 points per game respectively. Thiel also leads the Aces in rebounding, at nine per game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m just proud of my guys for demonstrating their genuine care and concern for each other,\u201d Best said. \u201cThis team has grown together, and focused on us. I\u2019m also proud of our Crestview community for being loud and proud and loving this team.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As expected, both coaches were complimentary of each other\u2019s team, especially at this point of the tournament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI can say they are one of the most talented teams I have ever seen, especially at the Division IV level,\u201d Tear said of Crestview. \u201cThey have everything \u2013 size, length, shooting, ball handling, great defense and a great offense. They are such a complete team, so hopefully we can make some adjustments and compete on Tuesday.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell, Hicksville is another excellent basketball team, so that is more of a concern rather than if we\u2019d played them earlier in the season,\u201d Best said of the Aces. \u201cThis is a new day, new game.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both coaches also noted that defense will be a key factor in Tuesday\u2019s game. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are going to have to be physical on defense and work to keep their guys from getting downhill on us into the paint and always have a hand in the Etzlers\u2019 faces,\u201d Tear explained. \u201cWe will also have to rebound the ball well, as they are great on the offensive boards.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOffensively we will have to be patient. With their length, they are so good defensively, so we will need to reverse the basketball in order to get good looks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe need our defense to travel to Bowling Green with us,\u201d Best said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tuesday\u2019s Crestview-Hicksville game will air live on WKSD 99.7FM.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The winner will play Columbus Grove or Maumee Valley Country Day on Friday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent sports editor For the third consecutive game in the postseason, Crestview will face a team it played during the regular season. The Knights (24-1) defeated Delphos St. John\u2019s and Kalida in December and January, then topped both teams at the Elida district, paving the way for a rematch against Hicksville (23-2) at 8 […]<\/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-114687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-16 10:13:47","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\/114687","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=114687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114687\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}