{"id":190117,"date":"2025-02-26T22:41:47","date_gmt":"2025-02-27T03:41:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=190117"},"modified":"2025-02-27T11:29:51","modified_gmt":"2025-02-27T16:29:51","slug":"knights-hang-on-against-columbus-grove","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2025\/02\/26\/knights-hang-on-against-columbus-grove\/","title":{"rendered":"Knights hang on against Columbus Grove"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

ELIDA — No. 1 seed Crestview led No. 4 seed Columbus Grove from start to finish, but that doesn\u2019t mean it was easy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After leading by as many as 10 in the second half, the Knights (20-4) needed four straight free throws by Hayden Perrott and Tommy Heffner late in the fourth quarter to secure a 42-37 Division VI district semifinal win at the Elida Fieldhouse on Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Columbus Grove (13-8) had chances in the fourth quarter but scored just four points, all by Trevor Baxter, and misfired on six three point attempts and three layups in the final period. Some of those misses came when the Bulldogs trailed 38-37.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Wreen Sheets (33) goes to the hoop during Wednesday’s district semifinal game against Columbus Grove. Bob Barnes\/Van Wert independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cWe did a good job defensively keeping us in the game,\u201d Crestview head coach Doug Etzler said. \u201cWe did a good job of making them shoot jump shots, which was our game plan going in and we did a great job rebounding the basketball out of their zone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were forced to take some outside shots tonight and unfortunately for us they didn\u2019t fall,\u201d Columbus Grove head coach Connor Kohls lamented. \u201cWe got a lot of good looks\u2026we had some boneheaded mistakes \u2013 we had some easy transition points that turned into turnovers for us because we couldn\u2019t finish or we made a bad pass. It was a lot of little things that were uncharacteristic for us and we just kind of shot ourselves in the foot.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCrestview\u2019s really good,\u201d Kohls added. \u201cThey\u2019re really physical and athletic and they do a great job. It\u2019s not like we lost to a bad team, they\u2019re a really good team.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Columbus Grove struggled to score in the fourth quarter, the Knights had trouble at the offensive end as well. After a Wren Sheets layup just over two minutes into the fourth quarter, the Knights didn\u2019t score again until Perrott and Heffner hit their foul shots with 35 and 22 seconds left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen Tommy made his two free throws, I felt a lot more comfortable,\u201d Etzler quipped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crestview finished with three double digit scorers. Sheets finished with 12 points and nine rebounds, Heffner had 11 points and Liam Putman chipped in with 10 points and six rebounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cLiam did a great job,\u201d Etzler said. \u201cHe scored some buckets for us and rebounded the heck out of the basketball for us. He was one of our stars tonight and was one of the guys that got it done for us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the Knights connected on 50 percent of their shots (19-of-38) and won the rebounding battle 29-22, they were plagued by 21 turnovers, compared to 13 by Columbus Grove. Two Bulldogs finished in double figures \u2013 Brady Basinger had 11 points, including five in the third quarter and Trevon Baxter finished with 10. Columbus Grove converted just 16-of-47 shots (34 percent) and 3-of-7 foul shots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Knights bolted out to a 7-0 first quarter lead and led 11-6 at the end of the period. The Bulldogs staged a rally in the second quarter and at one point scored six straight points and trailed 18-17 before Crestview countered with six consecutive points of their own. A slam dunk by Basinger with 25 second left before halftime pulled Columbus Grove to within five, 24-19, but Heffner zipped in a trey from the top of the key on the following possession and Crestview carried a 27-19 lead into halftime. Thanks to late buckets by Basinger and Baxter, Columbus Grove trailed by just three, 36-33 entering the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crestview will face No. 2 seed Lima Central Catholic in the district finals at 7 p.m. Friday at Elida. The Thunderbirds defeated No. 3 seed Bluffton 70-56 in the second game Wednesday night. Crestview and Lima Central Catholic met during the regular season February 7 and the Thunderbirds claimed a 53-50 win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think this is going to be a really good basketball game,\u201d Etzler said. \u201cThe athleticism that LCC brings to the table will present some challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Box score<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Knights    11  16   9   6 \u2013 42<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bulldogs    4  13 14   4 \u2013 37<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crestview:<\/strong> Hayden Perrott 1-3-5; Braxton Leeth 1-0-2; Liam Putman 5-0-10; Tommy Heffner 3-3-11; Will Sheets 1-0-2; Wren Sheets 5-2-12<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Columbus Grove:<\/strong> Brady Basinger 5-1-11; Trenton Barraza 3-0-6; Trevon Baxter 4-2-10; Landon Best 1-0-3; Kyle Hopkins 3-0-7<\/p>\n\n\n

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Tommy Heffner (10) finds himself surrounded by all five Columbus Grove Bulldogs. Bob Barnes photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent sports ELIDA — No. 1 seed Crestview led No. 4 seed Columbus Grove from start to finish, but that doesn\u2019t mean it was easy. After leading by as many as 10 in the second half, the Knights (20-4) needed four straight free throws by Hayden Perrott and Tommy Heffner late in the fourth […]<\/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-190117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-26 04:26:13","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\/190117","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=190117"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":190136,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190117\/revisions\/190136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}