Crestview players react after winning Friday night’s Division IV regional final against Marion Local at Bowling Green State University. See more high school basketball photos at LimaScores.com.
BOWLING GREEN – Crestview never led until the fourth quarter and it fell behind 13-0 to start its Division IV boys basketball regional championship game against Marion Local on Friday night.
But somehow, some way, the Knights (24-3) were the ones cutting down the net at Bowling Green State University’s Stroh Center and on their way to the state tournament after a 41-40 win over the Flyers.
Mitch Temple led Crestview with 12 points and delivered the game-winner when he hit the second of two free throws with half a second left on the clock. Luke Pohlman’s 12 points led Marion Local (22-5).
Marion Local launched a long pass and there was some contact on the intended target of the pass, but no foul was called as time ran out.
Marion Local jumped out to leads of 9-0 and 13-0 in the game’s first 4 ½ minutes but scored only seven more points in the last 11 ½ minutes of the first half.
Pohlman led the Flyers’ hot start by hitting three 3-pointers in the first four minutes of the game but they were only 3 of 13 overall and 0 of 3 on 3-pointers in the next quarter and a half.
Crestview held Marion Local to three points in the second quarter, all by 6-9 post player Jack Knapke, and Crestview gradually found its footing offensively.
The Knights made it a one possession game at 20-17 when Gavin Etzler was fouled while attempting a 3-pointer with 1.7 seconds left in the first half and he hit all three free throws.
“We were going to really dig in (defensively) on their post players and they hit big threes to start the game. Offensively, we struggled a little but just to keep it to 13-0 and chip it to three at halftime was huge,” Crestview coach Doug Etzler said.
“Our guys were gritty enough in the second quarter and got enough stops to keep us hanging around just to give us a shot in the second half.”
The Flyers regrouped in the third quarter and led by seven points, 34-27, at the end of that quarter.
But Crestview’s defense limited Marion Local to six points in the fourth quarter and the Knights had their most productive quarter of the night in the final eight minutes.
The two teams were a combined 5 of 15 on free throws in the fourth quarter. Crestview was 5 of 11 and Marion Local was 0 of 4.
Marion Local tied the game at 40-40 on an offensive rebound by Knapke with fewer than 10 seconds to play.
Crestview called a timeout with 4.5 seconds to play and Temple was fouled as he drove to the basket.
After he missed the first of the two free throws, Marion Local called a timeout,
“I told him basically you do this every day. Step up and hit it and let’s go to Dayton,” Etzler said.
Crestview’s comeback came a week after a double overtime victory over Ottoville in a district championship game.
Asked what he was thinking when Crestview fell behind early, senior guard Gavin Etzler said, “We’ve done it before. My freshman year we did it against Delphos St. John’s at Bluffton. We did it against Ottoville two games ago. We just had to keep grinding away at it.”
Crestview will play Berlin Hiland at 5:15 p.m. Friday in a Division IV state semifinal.
Marion Local coach Kurt Goettemoeller said, “It was a bitter pill to swallow no question about it to come this close to the state tournament. Things didn’t go our way at the end. It’s a very, very difficult loss and it’s going to take a long time to get over it.
“A regional final is a more pressure packed game than a state tournament game. You know what’s on the line,” he said.
Goettemoeller chose not to dispute the no call on the final play of the game in his postgame press conference.
“I’m going to do the right thing and say we needed to do a better job prior to that to not be in that situation. That’s all I can say. We missed free throws, we were tentative on offense and we made some mistakes on defense. We really shouldn’t have been in that situation,” he said.
.
Reach Jim Naveau at 567-242-0414.
