{"id":99634,"date":"2018-03-08T13:14:44","date_gmt":"2018-03-08T18:14:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=99634"},"modified":"2018-03-08T13:14:44","modified_gmt":"2018-03-08T18:14:44","slug":"district-finals-crestview-vs-hicksville","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2018\/03\/08\/district-finals-crestview-vs-hicksville\/","title":{"rendered":"District finals: Crestview vs. Hicksville"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Crestview and Hicksville will meet in Elida Friday night (7 p.m.), with a district championship and a trip to next week\u2019s Division IV regionals at Bowling Green State University on the line.<\/p>\n

Crestview (21-3) advanced to Friday\u2019s district title game with a heart stopping 72-67 double overtime win over Ottoville on Tuesday. Javin Etlzer\u2019s triple with 15 seconds left in regulation sent the game to overtime, then the Knights used late treys by Kalen Etzler and Drew Kline to second the game to a second overtime. From there, the Knights hit 10 of 14 foul shots to cement the victory. It was the 17 straight win for the Knights, and it avenged a regular season loss to Ottoville.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Derek Stout and the Knights will play for a spot in the “Sweet 16.”<\/strong> Wyatt Richardson photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cOur kids are excited, they get another opportunity to play for a district title,\u201d Crestview head coach Jeremy Best said.<\/p>\n

After a very physical game against the Big Green, the Knights have had a short week to prepare for the Aces.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe keep practices very focused on our next opponent (Hicksville), not long, but intense, sharp focused practices,\u201d Best said.<\/p>\n

The Knights and Hicksville met February 3 at Hicksville, and the end result was a 72-51 Crestview win. Derek Stout scored 25 in the game while Javin Etzler finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds. Hicksville was without Parker Thiel (injury), but Payton Tunis scored 21 points, but now, the Aces are fully healthy.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery team at this point in the season is different,\u201d Best said. \u201cEach game is different and that\u2019s what makes tournament basketball what it is. Hicksville is and has been a very, very good ball club all season. They have continued to prove this into the postseason. We respect this and are excited to play another game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hicksville qualified for the district championship game with Tuesday night\u2019s 54-43 win over Wayne Trace. The victory avenged a regular season loss to the Raiders. The two teams wound up sharing the Green Meadows Conference championship.<\/p>\n

While looking at his team and the season, Hicksville head coach Tony Tear found a silver lining in the team\u2019s late season injuries.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe injuries helped from the standpoint of it got guys some experience, and forced them into spots where they had to be more aggressive,\u201d Tear explained. \u201cIt also helped the guys that got hurt, as they got some time to rest and get some fresh legs. They had logged a lot of minutes, and it may have been a blessing in disguise to get them a rest and help them feel fresh going into the tournament.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite being at full strength now, Tear knows the Aces are facing a big challenge.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are an elite team, and it\u2019s hard to find any weaknesses,\u201d Tear said. \u201cThey have great guard play, guys that can shoot all over floor, and they have size at every position. They are a physically strong team that plays great defense, executes offensively, and they are well coached.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will have to be on point in every aspect of the game to compete with these guys, but we are looking forward to the challenge,\u201d Tear added.<\/p>\n

Friday\u2019s Crestview vs. Hicksville game will air live on WKSD 99.7FM, and will stream live at www.thevwindependent.com.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent sports editor Crestview and Hicksville will meet in Elida Friday night (7 p.m.), with a district championship and a trip to next week\u2019s Division IV regionals at Bowling Green State University on the line. Crestview (21-3) advanced to Friday\u2019s district title game with a heart stopping 72-67 double overtime win over Ottoville on […]<\/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-99634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-01 19:40:04","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\/99634","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=99634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99634\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}