ARCADIA — Six-foot-4 senior wing Kade Lentz scored 29 points and grabbed seven rebounds to lead Elmwood to its first Blanchard Valley Conference boys basketball win in school history, defeating Arcadia, 56-48, on the road Friday.
The Royals led by just one, 40-39, entering the fourth quarter, but pulled away by outscoring the Redskins, 16-9, over the final stanza. Lentz hit three shots from behind the arc for Elmwood.
Elmwood is 1-3 overall and 1-1 in the BVC, while Arcadia is 1-4 and 0-2.
Freshman point guard Owen Traxler had eight points, four rebounds and seven assists, senior post Micah Oliver had seven points and eight rebounds, and senior post Owen Seedorf had four points and four rebounds for the Royals.
Sophomore wing Mitchel Oliver and junior wing Evan Barringer scored three points each and junior wing Zach Gross added two points for Elmwood.
For Arcadia, Isaac Stoner scored 17 points, Owen Rader scored 12 points, and Koen Harris scored 10 points.
Elmwood’s three losses to open the season were to Bluffton (3-1), 86-46, Leipsic (4-1), 67-49, and in BVC play, to one of the league’s preseason favorites, Arlington (4-2, 1-1), 83-56 — three teams with a combined record of 11-4.
Lentz returns after scoring 17 points per game last year to go along with 5.1 rebounds and 2.1 assists.
Elmwood coach Ty Traxler says it may take some time for his team to gel, in part because they have players still out with injuries from football season.
“This season we will have a ton of inexperienced players at the varsity level,” coach Traxler said. “However, we have a strong piece to build around in senior Kade Lentz.”
“We are still recovering from some late season football injuries, but when we are healthy, we should be a deep and fun team to watch play night in and night out. We hope to be peaking at the end of the season to make a run in the tournament.”
Liberty-Benton (3-3, 2-0) and Pandora-Gilboa (6-0, 2-0) are also considered two of the top teams in the BVC this year.
“We look forward to competing in the Blanchard Valley Conference this year,” coach Traxler said. “We also play a really tough non-league schedule which should strengthen us for league play and tournament time.
“We are hoping that all of our new players get up to speed quickly so we can be competitive earlier than people may expect.”
Coach Traxler is entering his 24th season at Elmwood, including 16th year as head coach. So far, he has a career record of 187-164, and with a good season could reach his 200th career win.
Last year’s team was 7-17 overall and 2-12 in Elmwood’s final year in the Northern Buckeye Conference before moving to the BVC this year. The Royals lost to Ottawa-Glandorf in the Division III sectional final.
A ton of seniors and about 20 points were lost from last year’s team, including Hayden Wickard (9.9 points, 6.9 rebounds per game), Zach May (2.8 pts.), Jackson Childress (2.8 pts.), Will Harrison (3.1 pts.), Allen Sterling (1.5 pts.), Adam Meyer (0.4 pts.), and Tommy Curtis (0.8 pts.).
The team lacks significant height, but coach Traxler says overall team speed and transition offense and defense are its strengths.
Besides Lentz, other returning letter winners are 6-2 sophomore wing Landry Seedorf (1.3 pts., 1.8 reb.) and 5-9 junior wing Landry Seedorf (0.8 pts.).
Others contributing include the 6-0 Micah Oliver, the 6-0 Mitchel Oliver, the 6-1 Owen Seedorf, the 6-0 Barringer, the 5-7 Gross, the 5-10 Owen Traxler, 5-10 junior wing Griffin Piper, and 6-2 junior post Colton Bradford.
