{"id":85165,"date":"2017-03-09T09:10:03","date_gmt":"2017-03-09T14:10:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=85165"},"modified":"2017-03-09T09:10:03","modified_gmt":"2017-03-09T14:10:03","slug":"knights-blue-jays-meet-for-district-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2017\/03\/09\/knights-blue-jays-meet-for-district-title\/","title":{"rendered":"Knights-Blue Jays meet for district title"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

It\u2019s been a hotly contested series, and there\u2019s no reason to think the next game will be any different as the Crestview Knights and Delphos St. John’s Blue Jays meet Friday with a district tournament title up for grabs.<\/p>\n

Heading into their 45th meeting, Delphos St. John\u2019s has won 24 of the matchups, while Crestview has won 20, including a 50-48 decision on December 30, 2016.<\/p>\n

The two teams will square off again in Friday night\u2019s Division IV district championship game at the Elida Fieldhouse, with the winner advancing to next Tuesday\u2019s regional semifinals at Bowling Green State University.<\/p>\n

Both teams were in action Tuesday night. Crestview (17-6) edged Kalida 41-37, and Delphos St. John\u2019s (18-4) cruised past Continental 53-31.<\/p>\n

In terms of numbers, the two teams are similar.<\/p>\n

\"Basketball\"Top-seeded St. John\u2019s averages 56.5 points per game, and allows just 45 points per game. The Blue Jays are led by 6-8 senior center Tim Kreeger, who averages 17.8 points, 6.5 rebounds and two blocked shots per game.<\/p>\n

\u201cKreeger is a very tough matchup in the post, and can really protect the rim for them defensively,\u201d Crestview head coach Jeremy Best said.<\/p>\n

The Blue Jays also receive scoring help from several others, including 6-4 sophomore Jared Wurst (10.7 ppg) and 6-1 senior Owen Rode (8.1 ppg).<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have many options on the offensive end, starting with their ability to stretch the floor from the three-point line,\u201d Best explained. \u201cThey share the ball well and have the ability to get shots for each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll need to play with confidence and play with attitude,\u201d Best added.<\/p>\n

The second-seeded Knights average 52.6 points per contest, while giving up 46.5 points per game. Crestview is led in scoring by 6-6 sophomore Javin Etzler (13.9 ppg), \u00a06-4 junior Derek Stout (10.7 ppg) and 6-2 sophomore Wade Sheets (8.8 ppg).<\/p>\n

St. John\u2019s coach Aaron Elwer expects a defensive struggle.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth teams are defense-oriented and have the ability to make things difficult for other teams at the offensive end,\u201d Elwer explained. \u201cI am sure both teams will want to impose their will at the defensive end to start the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCrestview is very well coached and they make things extremely hard for you on the offensive end,\u201d Elwer added. \u201cThey have good team quickness and length to go along with relentless effort that forces you to execute offensively at a high level.\u201d<\/p>\n

Friday\u2019s game will tip off at 7 p.m., and will air live on WKSD 99.7, and will be streamed live on The Van Wert Independent (www.thevwindependent.com<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent sports writer It\u2019s been a hotly contested series, and there\u2019s no reason to think the next game will be any different as the Crestview Knights and Delphos St. John’s Blue Jays meet Friday with a district tournament title up for grabs. Heading into their 45th meeting, Delphos St. John\u2019s has won 24 of […]<\/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-85165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-02 14:35:31","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\/85165","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=85165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85165\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}