Local Sports

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Division IV Boys District: Arlington falls 39-34 to Pirates

By BRIAN LESTER

STAFF WRITER

ELIDA -- With the third-quarter clock running out of time, Continental's senior guard Chase Ordway hit a 3-pointer.

At the time, it was only one shot that extended the Pirates' lead over Arlington to five.

In the big picture, it ultimately helped the Pirates survive a grueling Division IV district semifinal battle with the Red Devils Tuesday night at the Elida Fieldhouse.

Continental advanced to the district final against Kalida with a 39-35 victory. The Wildcats won the other semifinal matchup with a 59-44 drubbing of Ada.

Ordway's trey in the final seconds of the third quarter put a dagger into the rally Arlington had pieced together. The Red Devils had trimmed their deficit to 25-24 with 2:16 remaining on a jumper Jake Leonard.

Moments after John Spitnale split two free throws, Ordway delivered, arguably, the biggest shot of the game. Continental went into the fourth quarter with a 29-24 advantage.

"It was huge. We needed it," Ordway said. "I was able to get set up for the shot and hit it. It helped change the momentum."

Fifth-ranked Continental (21-2) had all of the momentum early on, building a 22-11 lead with just over two minutes to play in the half thanks to a 3-pointer by Ordway.

Continental thrived off a great defensive effort as well. It wouldn't allow the Red Devils (15-7) to get good looks from the outside and when Arlington tried to go inside, the Pirates would double team the shooter.

Although Kevin Homier was thrilled to see his team come away with a victory, he didn't think the Pirates played their best game of the year.

"We did a poor job of finishing inside and didn't play with a lot of emotion," Homier said. "I thought we played OK tonight. We're just glad to be moving on."

Continental never led by less than three points the rest of the way as it put away the Red Devils.

Ordway scored 15 points and was the only Pirates' player in double figures on a night when his team was 15 of 31 shooting from the field.

The Pirates did hold a 21-15 rebounding edge, and that was key against an Arlington squad that featured the inside threat of Thayne Recker and Kevin Rogers.

Rogers pumped in 12 points while Recker scored only four. The Red Devils were 14 of 25 shooting from the field and only 5 of 13 from the free-throw line. Continental was 6 of 13 from the line.

"We knew rebounding was going to be key," Homier said. "If we didn't rebound, we were going to be beat. I thought we defended fairly well inside, too."

While Continental was expected to reach this point of the postseason, Kalida's run has been somewhat of a surprise.

Tied at 5-5 early in the first quarter, the 10th-ranked Wildcats (19-2), the state runner up of a year ago but a team with only two seniors on the roster, picked up the pace on offense.

The inside attack of Kristopher Osterhage and Jordan Basinger fueled the run.

Both players got inside at will for layups en route to finishing with 16 and 14 points, respectively.

Kalida was up 18-9 at the end of the first quarter.

"No one really talked about Kalida at the beginning of the season," veteran head coach Dick Kortokrax said. "I am really proud of this team. We shouldn't be here. We shouldn't be having the season that we are having. It's a credit to the team."

Ada (8-14) was able to cut its deficit to 35-27 after a jumper by Konnor Baker but Kalida went into halftime ahead 42-31.

Ty Joliff pumped in 15 points to pace the Bulldogs and Baker dropped in 14. The Bulldogs were 14 of 43 shooting from the floor, taking most of those shots in the second half as they tried to get back into the game.

Kalida did turn the ball over 17 times but got a huge lift from Mike Bockrath's 10 points.

"Mike is a blue-collar senior and gave all he had to give tonight," Kortokrax said. "We played well enough to win but we are really going to find out what we are made of against Continental."

first game

arlington (35)

Z. Leonard 5-2--12, Morehart 1-0--2, Recker 1-2--4, Rogers 4-1--11, J. Leonard 3-0--6, Brown 0-0--0, Corbin 0-0--0. TOTALS: 14-25 5-13--35.

continental (39)

Homier 2-1--6, Ordway 5-3--15, Schmidt 3-1--7, Schwarzman 0-0--0, Spitnale 3-1--7, Weisenburger 2-0--4, Baden 0-0--0, Sharp 0-0--0. TOTALS: 15-31 6-13--39.

Arlington 11 5 8 11 -- 35

Continental 13 9 7 10 -- 39

3-Point GOALS: Arlington 2-6 (Rogers 2); Continental 3-6 (Ordway 2, Homier).

rebounds: Arlington 15 (Rogers & Recker 6); Continental 21 (Weisenburger 7).

turnovers: Arlington 11, Continental 8.

second game

Ada (44)

Jolliff 4-3--15, Baker 4-5--14, McBride 2-1--6, Al. Weber 2-0--5, Grimslid 1-0--2, Gibson 1-0--2, Simmons 0-0--0, Simon 0-0--0, Au. Weber 0-0--0. TOTALS: 14-43 9-12--44.

kalida (59)

Osterhage 5-5--16, Basinger 6-2--14, Bockrath 3-2--10, Kahle 3-2--8, Stechschulte 2-2--6, Schroeder 2-0--4, Unverferth 0-1--1, Recker 0-0--0, Roebke 0-0--0, Kortokrax 0-0--0, Jorrey 0-0--0. TOTALS: 21-37 14-21--59.

Ada 7 9 15 13 -- 44

Kalida 18 11 13 17 -- 59

3-Point GOALS: Ada 7-21 (Jolliff 4, Baker, McBride, Al. Weber); Kalida 3-7 (Bockrath 2, Osterhage).

rebounds: Ada 18; Kalida 32 (Basinger 8).

turnovers: Ada 12, Kalida 17.

Lester: 419-422-5151,

brianlester@thecourier.com

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