| Elmwood’s TJ Walkdock (33) takes a shot over Patrick Henry’s Shane Bostelman (20) and Kolby Seemann. (Photo: Andrew Weber/Sentinel-Tribune) |
FINDLAY — Elmwood dug itself out of a 13-point hole, but Patrick Henry scored the last six points of the
game as the Patriots slipped past the Royals 57-52 in a Division III boys sectional final at Findlay
High School Friday.
“You can’t win by playing only one quarter,” Elmwood head coach Ty Traxler said.
“They (PH) played confidently in the first three quarters and we didn’t,” he continued. “We played
tentative and to be honest with you I have no idea why. We had a great week of practice. We were loose
pregame. I liked the vibe they had and when the lights went on we froze a little bit.”
The Royals trailed by 13 points heading into the final eight minutes of the game and scored 22 points in
the final quarter. Elmwood’s final points of the game came on Kevin Hammer’s driving layup with 1:36
remaining to play. The basket, the seventh consecutive point for Hammer, gave Elmwood a 52-51 lead. It
was the only time Elmwood led in the game.
PH’s Kent Tietje, a 6-foot-5 senior who was bothered by foul trouble most of the game, scored on a layup
with 1:13 left to put the Patriots back in front.
The Royals missed three open 3-pointers in the final minute and Tietje was 4-of-4 from the line to close
things out. PHOTO
GALLERY
Trailing by three points, Elmwood appeared to get a five-second violation on an in-bounds call with 18
seconds remaining, but the official at three-quarters court ruled PH had called a timeout.
“Give our kids credit. They fought back. There are a lot of teams when you’re down 13 going into the
fourth quarter, a lot of teams pack it in and we didn’t pack it in,” Traxler said.
While Elmwood came back in the fourth quarter, the game might have really been lost in the early going.
The Royals turned the ball over six times in the first quarter and played very tentatively on offense,
which frustrated Traxler, who starts five seniors.
Patrick Henry was effectively using its 1-3-1 hybrid zone, which had the Royals flustered.
“It’s something that we’ve been operating fairly successfully over the last half of the year,” PH head
coach Kent Seemann said about the zone.
Traxler said the Royals had seen almost half of PH’s games this season, either in person or on tape, so
the zone was not a surprise.
“That’s all we prepared for zone-wise,” Traxler said. “We thought we had our gameplan down.”
The Patriots closed the first quarter on an 8-2 run to take a 13-7 lead after eight minutes.
Shane Boselman, a 6-2 junior, displayed a nice shooting touch, especially on his baseline jumpers, to
help PH take a 27-21 lead into halftime. Bostelman scored 14 of his game-high 21 points in the first
half, including eight points in the second quarter. Elmwood had closed to within 23-21, but PH scored
the final four points of the first half.
“When he comes to play, he’s tough to guard,” Seemann said about Bostelman.
Things might have been a lot worse for the Royals, but junior Tyler Rosendale came off the bench to hit
three 3-pointers in the opening half.
PH held a 31-27 lead after a pair of free throws from Elmwood’s Jay Hannah with 4:21 to play in the third
quarter. The Patriots closed the quarter on a 12-3 run to take a 43-30 lead into the fourth quarter.
Elmwood opened the fourth quarter on a 10-2 run, cutting PH’s lead to 45-40 and gaining some momentum.
The offensive success forced the Patriots out of their zone as Jack Waldock and Hammer each hit two
3-pointers in the fourth quarter.
“We knew, especially in that fourth quarter, that they were going to come after us,” Seemann said. “They
came out and they hit some big shots.
“We wanted to make them beat us on the perimeter. Throughout the season, watching them, they really did a
lot of things operating in the paint,” Seemann added.
PH recovered and was still up 51-45 before Hammer hit a deep three, scored off a lob pass, and then hit
his layup with 1:36 left.
However, the Royals didn’t score again.
“In the fourth quarter once we started playing aggressively and with some confidence, we got on a roll,”
Traxler said. “We had several chances under two minutes to win the game.”
Elmwood finished 14-6 overall.
Hannah scored 14 points for Elmwood. TJ Waldock added 11 and Hammer scored 10, all in the fourth quarter.
The Royals were 11-of-22 (50 percent) on 2-pointers, 7-of-20 (35 percent) on 3-pointers, and 9-of-13 (69
percent) from the free-throw line. Elmwood finished with 15 turnovers.
PH, 14-6, advances to the district at Elida.
Austin Christman added 10 points for the Patriots and Tietje scored eight points, all in the fourth
quarter.
The Patriots were 20-of-34 (58 percent) on 2-pointers, 3-of-7 (43.9 percent) on 3-pointers, and 8-of-11
(72.7 percent) from the free-throw line. PH had nine turnovers in the game, including two in the first
half.
PATRICK HENRY 57, ELMWOOD 52
ELMWOOD
Davis, 0-2—2; J. Waldock, 0-2-0—6; Hammer, 2-2-0—10; Hannah, 5-4—14; TJ Waldock, 4-3—11; Rosendale,
0-3-0—9; Zyski, 0-0—0. TOTALS: 11-7-9—52.
PATRICK HENRY
Gibson, 4-0—8; Christman, 2-2-0—10; Youngmann, 1-2—4; Bostelman, 9-1-0—21; Tietje, 1-6—8; Nafziger,
2-0—4; Seemann, 1-0—2; Klein, 0-0—0; Gershutz, 0-0—0. TOTALS: 20-3-8—57.
ELMWOOD 7 14 9 22 —52
PATRICK HENRY
13 14 16 14 —57
