Miller City’s Brayden Niese, left and Delphos St. John’s Aaron Moenter compete for a loose ball during Tuesday’s Division IV district semifinal at the Elida Fieldhouse.
Richard Parrish | The Lima News
ELIDA — There are not many storylines that take precedence over a win in the district semifinals, but an injury to a star player is definitely one of them.
With 6:36 to go in Delphos St. John’s 46-38 win over Miller City, Cameron Elwer went down under the basket with a leg injury. He returned to the bench three minutes later and checked back in with 2:21 to go, but played the rest of the game without putting weight on or cutting off of his injured leg.
“It looked like he slipped and took a tough spill. I think he maybe did something to his hip,” Delphos St. John’s coach Aaron Elwer said. “That’s all I know at this point. He’s as tough as they come, but we held him out as much as we could down the stretch.”
Elwer scored his final two points just before he exited in the fourth quarter to put St. John’s ahead 39-28.
Miller City (20-5) immediately went on a 10-2 run to draw within three at 41-38 once Elwer left the floor, but one Blue Jay took it upon himself to close the game out.
That player happened to be reserve guard Tyce McClain.
McClain stepped through double teams and protected the ball in the final three minutes, drawing five trips to the free-throw line in the process.
McClain scored the final seven of Delphos St. John’s nine fourth-quarter points and willed his team to an eight-point win over the Wildcats.
“He’s always been that way,” Elwer said of McClain. “He’s tough, fearless, and he’s a gutsy competitor, all the things you want in a point guard. He proved that tonight on the big stage.”
McClain finished with nine points, second in scoring to Cameron Elwer’s 17. Andrew Elwer hit a pair of first-quarter threes and finished with eight.
Delphos St. John’s (22-2) meets Pandora-Gilboa in district finals on Friday. Tip-off is set for 6 p.m. back at the Elida Fieldhouse. The Rockets held on to beat Ottoville 53-48 on Tuesday night.
Delphos St. John’s led 22-19 at the break and added on in the third quarter behind nine points from Cameron Elwer, including his lone three-pointer of the game.
They also limited Miller City to its lowest-scoring quarter of the game in the third with seven points.
“They made things tough all around on us,” Miller City coach Ross Kaufman said. “They knew what we wanted to do, so it was our job to create as the game went on. We put ourselves in some uncomfortable situations offensively, but I’m proud of our guys for how they fought until the end.”
Brendan Barlage scored six points during Miller City’s 12-4 fourth-quarter run, finishing the night tied with Ethan Barlage with a team-high 13 points.
Both teams struggled from the floor. Delphos St. John’s made 13 of its 35 shots (37%), while Miller City had 15 makes out of 37 field goals (40%).
The longer and lengthier Wildcats out-rebounded the Blue Jays 26-20 but committed more turnovers at 14-8.
Elwer said that the first step for Cameron Elwer’s injury will be to see how he feels in the morning, then his training staff can evaluate what his playing status for Friday might be, but he praised his team’s resiliency in the moment on Tuesday night.
“It’s part of the game; injuries and adversity,” he said. “It’s no fun for anyone and that was a first for us when we lost Cam with that much time to go in a big game. We did a lot of growing up tonight and that’ll be good for us on Friday night when we’re back here.”
Delphos St. John’s 46, Miller City 38
Score by quarters:
Delphos St. John’s 15 7 15 9 — 46
Miller City 10 9 7 12 — 38
DELPHOS ST. JOHN’S
Cameron Elwer 17, Tyce McClain 9, Andrew Elwer 8, Aaron Moenter 8, Austin Moenter 4, Totals: 13-17-46
MILLER CITY
Ethan Barlage 13, Brendan Barlage 13, Jude Otto 5, Will Otto 3, Andon Ruhe 2, Brayden Niese 2, Totals 15-5-38
Three-point goals: DSJ — A. Elwer 2, C. Elwer ; MC — B. Barlage 1, E. Barlage 1, W. Otto 1.
Records — Delphos St. John’s 22-2; Miller City 20-5
Reach Chris Howell at 567-242-0468 or on Twitter at @Lima_Howell
