Willard smashes Tigers in sectional hoops play

By JON KLEINKNECHT

Inquirer Sports Editor

sports@galioninquirer.com

BUCYRUS — The Willard Crim­son Flashes blasted the Galion Tigers 70–44 in boys’ Divi­sion II sec­tional tour­na­ment play here Wednes­day night.

The loss con­cludes the sea­son for the Orange-and-Blue who posted a 10–12 record.

Willard — which thumped the locals by a 22-point mar­gin in a regular-season meet­ing — improves to 17–6 and will play in Fri­day night’s sec­tional title game ver­sus the win­ner of Wednes­day night’s Clear Fork and Tif­fin Columbian match-up.

The Crim­son Flashes never trailed against the Tigers. Five first-half field goals on offen­sive rebounds were key to the win­ners hav­ing a 31–26 half­time lead.

Galion’s Ridge Durbin began second-half scor­ing with a 3-point bomb, trim­ming the deficit to two points, 31–29. But, Willard fol­lowed with a 17–0 run that cov­ered a lit­tle more than six min­utes and fea­tured a quar­tet of 3-pointers — three by Nick David­son. By the end of the third period, the vic­tors were on top by 22 points, 54–32.

Willard also claimed the last frame 16–12 to account for the final score.

Whether it was inside the point or behind the arc, the Crim­son Flashes dom­i­nated the Tigers. Galion had vir­tu­ally no inside pres­ence and was out-rebounded 31–20. Twelve of Willard’s boards were off the offen­sive glass. From 3-point range, the win­ners were 7-for-18, 5-for-8 in the sec­ond half. Galion was just 5-for-21 on treys — 2-of-9 in the first half and 3-for-12 in the second.

All totaled, the Crim­son Flashes con­verted 25-of-50 action shots (50 per­cent) and 13-of-18 free throws. They turned the ball over just 8 times.

The Tigers were a poor 14-for-41 from the field (34 per­cent) and made 11-of-12 char­ity tossses. They coughed the ball up 13 times.

Austin Prosser — a senior in his final game as a Tiger — led the locals in scor­ing with 14 points, 13 in the first half. Durbin net­ted 12 tal­lies on four 3-pointers. Round­ing out Galion’s scor­ing were Tony Kirk, 6 points; Hous­ton Blair and Spencer Frizzell, 4 each; plus Austin Chap­lin and Stephen Nog­gle, 2 each. Chap­lin and Nog­gle are also seniors.

Willard placed a quar­tet of play­ers in double-digits scor­ing. Matt Cok led the charge with a game-high 18 points. Hay­den Adams added 15, Nick David­son, 13; and Car­son Ebert, 12. Cok also handed out a game-best 6 assists.

Posted by Jon Kleinknecht on Feb 27 2013. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.