{"id":203412,"date":"2026-03-04T23:00:34","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T04:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=203412"},"modified":"2026-03-04T23:01:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T04:01:07","slug":"crestview-headed-to-district-title-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2026\/03\/04\/crestview-headed-to-district-title-game\/","title":{"rendered":"Crestview headed to district title game"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

DEFIANCE — Entering Wednesday\u2019s Division VI district semifinal game at Defiance High School, it had been nearly two weeks since Crestview had played an actual basketball game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second seeded Knights finished their regular season against Lima Central Catholic on February 20, then elected for sectional bye, which played them in the district semifinal against Ayersville. Aside from some early jitters, the layoff didn\u2019t seem to affect Crestview too much as the Knights downed the No. 4 seed Pilots 54-47 and earned a spot in Friday\u2019s district championship game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m proud of our guys for making enough plays to get the win,\u201d Crestview head coach Doug Etzler said. \u201cIt was the first time playing in a tournament game for several of our guys and we made some nervous mistakes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Will Sheets eyes the basket during Wednesday’s game against Ayersville. Wyatt Richardson\/Van Wert independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Lead by Jeremiah Peake\u2019s 11 first quarter points, Ayerville led 16-15 after the first quarter. For the Knights, Hayden Perrott scored eight points in the opening quarter and Owen Heckler dropped in a trey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Knights ramped up the defensive pressure in the second quarter and held the Pilots to just three points on a trey by Peake, who went on to finish with a game high 24 points. Perrott scored six of Crestview\u2019s 10 points in the quarter, all on free throws, and the Knights led 25-19 at halftime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Liam Putman stepped up in the third quarter with six points and Perrott added four more and the Knights held a 39-35 lead entering the final stanza. To their credit, the Pilots (14-10) stayed within striking distance for most of the fourth quarter. Early in the quarter, a bucket by Dylan Dunn and a foul shot by Dane Ewers trimmed Ayerville\u2019s deficit to 39-38, but Crestview never relinquished the lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was big to play with the lead,\u201d Etzler said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back-to-back baskets by Will Sheets pushed the lead to 43-38 and a short time later, a trey by Perrott and another bucket by Sheets made it 48-41.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perrott finished the game with 21 points and Sheets had a double-double with 10 points and 13 rebounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cHayden got off to a great start offensively and Will stepped up down the stretch to get us some inside baskets,\u201d Etzler said. \u201cAnother big key to our win was Liam\u2019s defensive performance. To hold Ewers to six points was huge.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Knights were 19-of-35 from the floor and 13-of-23 from the foul line, while Ayersville was 17-of-39 shooting and 8-of-13 from the free throw line. Crestview finished with a commanding 30-18 rebounding advantage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crestview (14-9) will face Spencerville in an all-NWC district final at 6 p.m. Friday at Defiance. The two teams met in the conference opener on December 12, and the Bearcats rolled to a 65-39 victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey have a great team and are very well coached,\u201d Etzler said. \u201cThey are very skilled on the offensive side of the ball and extremely physical on defense. It\u2019s a big challenge in front of us on Friday but we will do our best to be prepared and ready to compete.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Friday\u2019s Crestview vs. Spencerville game will air live on WERT 1220AM\/104.3FM.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Crestview  15  10  14  15 \u2013 54<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ayersville   16   3  16  12 \u2013 47<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crestview: Hayden Perrott 6-7-21; Liam Putman 4-0-8; Cash Hammons 2-2-6; Hudson Perrott 1-2-4; Owen Heckler 1-2-5; Will Sheets 5-0-10<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ayersville: Owen Lloyd 1-1-4; Jeremiah Peake 9-2-24; Dylan Dunn 3-2-8; Dane Ewers 2-2-6; Jackson Stambaugh 2-1-5<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent sports DEFIANCE — Entering Wednesday\u2019s Division VI district semifinal game at Defiance High School, it had been nearly two weeks since Crestview had played an actual basketball game. The second seeded Knights finished their regular season against Lima Central Catholic on February 20, then elected for sectional bye, which played them in the […]<\/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-203412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-06 14:38:39","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\/203412","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=203412"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":203432,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203412\/revisions\/203432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}