McClain's upset bid stopped; season ends
Lead Summary
By
Stephen Forsha-sforsha@gmail.com
CHILLICOTHE — For one half, the McClain Tigers were on the verge of being the talk of the Southeast District, holding the No. 2-seeded Waverly Tigers to a five-point lead. McClain even cut the Waverly advantage to single digits in the fourth, but it was not meant to be, as MHS fell to Waverly 55-43 Saturday night at Southeastern High School in the Division II SE District sectional finals.
McClain entered the game as the No. 10 seed, winning their tournament opener against Miami Trace earlier in the week. On Saturday, they held Waverly to five points in the first quarter and 20 points in the entire first half.
Then Waverly, whose top player Jake Kretzer was injured following a dunk with 6:27 left in the third, had their best quarter of the night, outscoring MHS 21-9 in the quarter for a 41-24 lead.
McClain, who battled foul trouble throughout the contest, rallied to cut the Waverly lead from 17 points to as low as eight points in the final frame, but Waverly's athleticism proved to be too much for the MHS Tigers to overcome.
"(Waverly) had 15 wins, seven seniors and a Division I player on their team. We have six wins, no Division I player and one senior … I felt our kids outworked them," MHS head coach Brent Eaton said. "As the game went on, athletic ability took over … and that's the bottom line."
The opening frame by the McClain Tigers put away any doubt that the then 15-win Waverly Tigers (16-5) were going have an easy night against the six-win McClain squad, as the traditional MHS defense did everything in its power to keep Waverly at bay, leaving the score tied at five following eight minutes.
MHS senior Trey Lytle, who led MHS with 13 points, was first to score with a one-on-one layup at the 5:17 mark of the first, and there was no more scoring in the quarter until the 2:17 mark where Tyler Ward tied the game at two for Waverly.
"Trey … what do you say about Trey?" Eaton said. "First of all, he comes out of the game with 25 seconds to go, and instead of sitting down and crying, he goes to all the second team players, huddles them and says 'make one more basket.'
"I mean, c'mon … if you want to talk about character … that's character. That's not feeling sorry for yourself, that's character. We have character kids."
At the 1:17 mark, MHS sophomore Evan Mustard put MHS ahead with a layup. Mustard finished with 11 points.
Waverly answered with a 3-pointer by Kretzer 17 seconds later, but a free throw by McClain's Thomas Schrader, who scored seven points, tied the game at five once the first quarter ended.
Following the low-scoring, highly contested defense effort of the first frame, the two Tiger teams battled to a 15-10 second frame, with Waverly winning the quarter, leading the first half 20-15.
Mustard put the MHS Tigers ahead with two free throws to open the second, but eventually Waverly took a 9-7 advantage with points from the free-throw line. Mustard answered with a three-point play after being fouled while making a layup with 5:04 left in the opening half.
Waverly combined for five points, including a 3-pointer by Kretzer, for a 14-10 advantage, but MHS didn't trail by four points for long, with Lytle sinking a 3-pointer from the corner with 4:03 left on the clock, making it a one-point game at 14-13.
Devin Kelly put Waverly ahead with a 3-pointer, but MHS was there to answer with a layup by Schrader, cutting the Waverly lead to two points with 1:33 on the clock.
[[In-content Ad]]Kelly put Waverly by five with a 3-pointer near the end of the first half.
All the momentum at the start of the second half went to Waverly with Kretzer scoring eight straight points to open the quarter, but following two 3-pointers, Kretzer, who will play for the University of Akron next fall, was injured on a dunk while on a fast break, crashing into the ground after scoring the two points.
While crashing into the court, Kretzer was injured and did not return to action, forcing Waverly to play the remainder of the game without their leading scorer.
Kretzer, along with Kelly, led Waverly with 16 points each.
Well .. they finished the quarter by holding MHS to eight points, while scoring 13 more points, including five points by Jean Paul White (including a 3-pointer), a 3-pointer by Kelly and a three-point play from Brock Davis with 35.1 left in the quarter. White finished with nine points.
MHS had points by Lytle and Schrader in the third, with each player hitting a 3-pointer. Schrader also made a layup, and Faulconer sank a free throw to end the third.
McClain, though trailing by 17 points at the start of the fourth, scored seven of the first nine points of the quarter with Faulconer, John Turner and Mustard combining to cut the Waverly lead to 10 points with 5:10 left on the clock.
Following two points by Waverly, Lytle hit another 3-pointer, bringing MHS within nine points of WHS. Later MHS cut the lead to eight with a three-point play by Brent Shannon, but Waverly outscored MHS 7-4 in the 1:39 to seal the win.
Eaton spoke about what this performance means for the future of the MHS program.
"We defend … and if teams aren't ready for that, like they (WHS) were at the beginning of the game, they are in for a shock. Like I said … (WHS) wore off that shock and figured it out, but I'm so proud of the kids.
"We have to get stronger. We got to handle the basketball, we have to shoot it … we just can't come back in November and not put the time in. We have to put the time in."
Though MHS did win only six games, a close look at the overall scores of their games tells a different story.
"The point differential for the year is around 38 points," Eaton said. "Like I told them … if they want to change that … they have to put the time in. If they do that … maybe we can be 16-6 instead of 6-16."
BOX SCORE
SCORE BY QUARTERS
MHS 05 10 09 19 — 43
WHS 05 15 21 14 — 55
INDIVIDUAL STATS
WHS (55)
T.Ward 2 (0) 0-1 4
D.Kelly 1 (3) 5-8 16
J.White 1 (2) 1-2 9
Z.Corcoran 1 (0) 0-0 2
P.Hart 0 (0) 5-9 5
J.Kretzer 1 (4) 1-2 16
B.Davis 1 (0) 1-1 3
TOTALS: 7 (9) 14-23 55
MHS (43)
B.Shannon 1 (0) 1-1 3
T.Lytle 2 (3) 0-0 13
R.Faulconer 1 (0) 3-6 5
T.Gossett 1 (0) 0-0 2
T.Schrader 3 (0) 1-2 7
J.Turner 1 (0) 0-1 2
E.Mustard 3 (0) 5-5 11
TOTALS: 12 (3) 10-14 43
McClain entered the game as the No. 10 seed, winning their tournament opener against Miami Trace earlier in the week. On Saturday, they held Waverly to five points in the first quarter and 20 points in the entire first half.
Then Waverly, whose top player Jake Kretzer was injured following a dunk with 6:27 left in the third, had their best quarter of the night, outscoring MHS 21-9 in the quarter for a 41-24 lead.
McClain, who battled foul trouble throughout the contest, rallied to cut the Waverly lead from 17 points to as low as eight points in the final frame, but Waverly's athleticism proved to be too much for the MHS Tigers to overcome.
"(Waverly) had 15 wins, seven seniors and a Division I player on their team. We have six wins, no Division I player and one senior … I felt our kids outworked them," MHS head coach Brent Eaton said. "As the game went on, athletic ability took over … and that's the bottom line."
The opening frame by the McClain Tigers put away any doubt that the then 15-win Waverly Tigers (16-5) were going have an easy night against the six-win McClain squad, as the traditional MHS defense did everything in its power to keep Waverly at bay, leaving the score tied at five following eight minutes.
MHS senior Trey Lytle, who led MHS with 13 points, was first to score with a one-on-one layup at the 5:17 mark of the first, and there was no more scoring in the quarter until the 2:17 mark where Tyler Ward tied the game at two for Waverly.
"Trey … what do you say about Trey?" Eaton said. "First of all, he comes out of the game with 25 seconds to go, and instead of sitting down and crying, he goes to all the second team players, huddles them and says 'make one more basket.'
"I mean, c'mon … if you want to talk about character … that's character. That's not feeling sorry for yourself, that's character. We have character kids."
At the 1:17 mark, MHS sophomore Evan Mustard put MHS ahead with a layup. Mustard finished with 11 points.
Waverly answered with a 3-pointer by Kretzer 17 seconds later, but a free throw by McClain's Thomas Schrader, who scored seven points, tied the game at five once the first quarter ended.
Following the low-scoring, highly contested defense effort of the first frame, the two Tiger teams battled to a 15-10 second frame, with Waverly winning the quarter, leading the first half 20-15.
Mustard put the MHS Tigers ahead with two free throws to open the second, but eventually Waverly took a 9-7 advantage with points from the free-throw line. Mustard answered with a three-point play after being fouled while making a layup with 5:04 left in the opening half.
Waverly combined for five points, including a 3-pointer by Kretzer, for a 14-10 advantage, but MHS didn't trail by four points for long, with Lytle sinking a 3-pointer from the corner with 4:03 left on the clock, making it a one-point game at 14-13.
Devin Kelly put Waverly ahead with a 3-pointer, but MHS was there to answer with a layup by Schrader, cutting the Waverly lead to two points with 1:33 on the clock.
[[In-content Ad]]Kelly put Waverly by five with a 3-pointer near the end of the first half.
All the momentum at the start of the second half went to Waverly with Kretzer scoring eight straight points to open the quarter, but following two 3-pointers, Kretzer, who will play for the University of Akron next fall, was injured on a dunk while on a fast break, crashing into the ground after scoring the two points.
While crashing into the court, Kretzer was injured and did not return to action, forcing Waverly to play the remainder of the game without their leading scorer.
Kretzer, along with Kelly, led Waverly with 16 points each.
Well .. they finished the quarter by holding MHS to eight points, while scoring 13 more points, including five points by Jean Paul White (including a 3-pointer), a 3-pointer by Kelly and a three-point play from Brock Davis with 35.1 left in the quarter. White finished with nine points.
MHS had points by Lytle and Schrader in the third, with each player hitting a 3-pointer. Schrader also made a layup, and Faulconer sank a free throw to end the third.
McClain, though trailing by 17 points at the start of the fourth, scored seven of the first nine points of the quarter with Faulconer, John Turner and Mustard combining to cut the Waverly lead to 10 points with 5:10 left on the clock.
Following two points by Waverly, Lytle hit another 3-pointer, bringing MHS within nine points of WHS. Later MHS cut the lead to eight with a three-point play by Brent Shannon, but Waverly outscored MHS 7-4 in the 1:39 to seal the win.
Eaton spoke about what this performance means for the future of the MHS program.
"We defend … and if teams aren't ready for that, like they (WHS) were at the beginning of the game, they are in for a shock. Like I said … (WHS) wore off that shock and figured it out, but I'm so proud of the kids.
"We have to get stronger. We got to handle the basketball, we have to shoot it … we just can't come back in November and not put the time in. We have to put the time in."
Though MHS did win only six games, a close look at the overall scores of their games tells a different story.
"The point differential for the year is around 38 points," Eaton said. "Like I told them … if they want to change that … they have to put the time in. If they do that … maybe we can be 16-6 instead of 6-16."
BOX SCORE
SCORE BY QUARTERS
MHS 05 10 09 19 — 43
WHS 05 15 21 14 — 55
INDIVIDUAL STATS
WHS (55)
T.Ward 2 (0) 0-1 4
D.Kelly 1 (3) 5-8 16
J.White 1 (2) 1-2 9
Z.Corcoran 1 (0) 0-0 2
P.Hart 0 (0) 5-9 5
J.Kretzer 1 (4) 1-2 16
B.Davis 1 (0) 1-1 3
TOTALS: 7 (9) 14-23 55
MHS (43)
B.Shannon 1 (0) 1-1 3
T.Lytle 2 (3) 0-0 13
R.Faulconer 1 (0) 3-6 5
T.Gossett 1 (0) 0-0 2
T.Schrader 3 (0) 1-2 7
J.Turner 1 (0) 0-1 2
E.Mustard 3 (0) 5-5 11
TOTALS: 12 (3) 10-14 43