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Jace Barga shoots for two for Versailles Thursday as the Tigers
defeated LaBrae, 64-52 in the D-III state semi-finals in Columbus. Now
Versailles will play Ottawa-Glandorf today at 10:30 for the D-III state
championship. The game can be heard on 97.5 WTGR or wtgr.com. CNO photo
by George Starks
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Versailles looks to go undefeated in state championship
Titans-Tigers
square off at 10:30
By George Starks
COLUMBUS- When the OHSAA boys basketball tournament got underway,
Versailles coach Scott McEldowney said, “As of right now, we are 0-0.”
Three weeks ago, records didn’t matter for one reason. It was one and
done. One loss and the season was over.
Ignore the 23-5 mark that Versailles now sports or the 25-3 record
Ottawa-Glandorf has, both teams are 0-0 with one game left to play.
Glandorf was able to get past Ironton Thursday, 61-60, in overtime and
only had to wait and see who the opposition would be. Now, the Titans
know what they’re up against.
Against the Vikings, Damien Richard got the Tigers off to the quick
start and reflected on his performance. “In warm-ups I was feeling it.
I was dialed in pretty good,”said Richard in the post-game press
conference Thursday. “Once I hit a few shots, I got a lot of confidence
so I just kept shooting and they went in.” Somewhere along the line,
Richard tweaked his ankle putting a little fear in him.
“That scared me at the start,” Richard admitted. “It wasn’t good at the
start but once I came of and started walking on it, it felt a lot
better and I was able to come back and do as much as I could.” The bum
ankle didn’t stop the big Versailles junior as he netted 21, tying him
with teammate, Kyle Ahrens.
Ahrens is no stranger to playing in big games as he has played AAU ball
for many years.
Thursday was not just another game for him. “There’s nothing better
than playing in front of a huge crowd like this,” Ahrens stated. “The
fans are just so amazing. In AAU, you get the college coaches but you
don’t get the fans like this. It’s just so amazing to come out at the
top of the state and play. We have a great student section and this
team is awesome.”
Ahrens also commented on LaBrae junior Peyton Aldridge. “He’s a great
player and we had to make some adjustments on him on defense. Once we
started getting a hand in his face, he started missing and that’s when
we took our lead,” said Ahrens. “We just came up big when we stopped
him.”
McEldowney and the Tigers had one day (Friday) to get ready for the
biggest game of the season.
McEldowney stated the obvious. “These kids have scrapped all season,”
said McEldowney. “We have one more game left to play and we will enter
it just like we did today. We will not implement anything new. We’ll
play our man and 2-3 zone defenses and run our offense like we always
do. This is what the whole season is about. One more game left to play.”
Today at 10:30, the Tigers and Titans will both look to bring home the
gold.
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