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At
6-3, Versailles junior Damien Richard out jumps 6-7 junior Peyton
Aldridge of LaBrae at the rim on a tip in in the first quarter of the
Tigers 64-52 state semi-final victory in Columbus. Richard and
sophomore Kyle Ahrens scored 21points each. Versailles will play
Ottawa-Glandorf Saturday at 10:30 for the D-III state title. CNO photo
by George Starks
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Tigers heading into state final with huge
win over Vikings
Versailles
defense holds down strong LaBrae offense
By George Starks
COLUMBUS- With the Versailles offense struggling through the second
quarter, the Tigers walked off the the Value City Arena floor at
halftime, trailing the favored LaBrae Vikings, 37-33. Then, the Tigers
defense came to life and a 2-3 zone shut LaBrae down, holding the
Vikings to a mere 15 points in the second half as the Tigers rolled to
a 64-52 victory in the D-III state semi-final game Thursday.
“Awesome!”
“We knew it was two similar teams that plays great interior
defense,” said McEldowney. “It doesn’t matter if they’re playing zone
or man. This was just an awesome game.” Without a doubt, awesome could
very easily have described the opening frame for Versailles. With eight
minutes in the books, it looked as if Versailles would cruise to the
state final game.
Getting out to a quick start, Versailles had a lot to get excited
about. The Tigers held a nice 24-14 lead and it was junior Damien
Richard that was doing the bulk of the damage on offense, netting 11 of
his 21 in the game. If that wasn’t enough to get the Tiger fans’ blood
pumping, sophomore Kyle Ahrens got a steal in the frontcourt and
finished it with a one handed thunder dunk that literally bought the
house down.
“We got off to a great start,” said McEldowney. “We got off to a
great start early and hit a lot of shots early. Then they came rolling
back.” Rolling back is exactly what the Vikings did as LaBrae, led by
junior Peyton Aldridge (23 points) started to chip away at the
Versailles lead. Before the Tigers had time to think about it, the
Vikings had went on a 9-5 spurt, closing the gap to 26-23 with 5:19
left in the half. At that point, McEldowney had seen enough and took a
break.
The stoppage in play wasn’t enough to stop the Vikings as LaBrae
continued to attack. By the end of the half, the 10 point lead the
Tigers enjoyed at the end of the first quarter had turned into a 37-33
deficit. At the break, the Northeast Player of the Year had scored 16
points and the Tigers looked to be in trouble.
“Aldridge is a great player,” said McEldowney. “At half-time, this game
was still close and we were going to have to go into the zone and look
to shut them down. I told them at half-time to just keep scrapping for
everything we get. We’ve talk through this tournament run that we have
to go after every loose ball and get every tipped rebound. Those
possessions turn out to be huge in a game. We were able to make them
chase us in the second half and we got some easy baskets because of it.”
The zone turned the trick. Versailles went off on both ends of the
floor with the zone holding LaBrae scoreless until the 4:46 point of
the quarter when Carl Brown connected in the paint, giving the Vikings
their last lead of the game at 39-37.
Versailles would close out the stanza on a 10-6 run to take a 49-45
lead as senior Chad Winner drained a trey with 3:38 remaining.
LaBrae’s John Richards would answer just 15 seconds later with a three
of his own to knot things at 42-42.
Kyle Ahrens would give Versailles the lead for good with 30.6 seconds
left in the quarter with an eight foot jumper.With the Tigers coming
out on the run, the fast pace of the game was a little faster than
McEldowney might have wanted, despite the quick start.
“We like to play at a fast pace and they do to,” McEldowney said.
“Sometimes, it was a little too fast for me in that first half but it’s
a pace we typically like when we are going up and down like that. We
are at the point where everyone has to step up and Damien did that
tonight.”
With the zone getting the job done in the third frame, holding the
Vikings to only eight points, that same zone held LaBrae to seven in
the final eight minutes, with three of those coming right before the
final buzzer.
With the win, the Tigers go to 23-5 on the season with one hurdle left
to jump over in Ottawa-Glandorf (25-3), Saturday at 10:30 a.m.
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