Braden Keating finished his high school career with 18 points for the Patriots. (Press Pros Feature Photos By Julie McMaken Wright)
When they met in mid-February, it was for the WOAC title. This time, Tri-Village and Preble Shawnee had a lot more on the line in a sizzling Division III regional semifinal that went down to the final minutes.
Veteran columnist Bruce Hooley writes Ohio State basketball and sports at large for Press Pros Magazine.com.
Kettering, OH – When a game with the weight of a regional semifinal turns on a single play, tilting the outcome one way when it looked just about ready to turn the other, the decisive circumstance often traces back in time beyond the moment it occurred.
That’s how Preble Shawnee senior Mason Shrout explained his four-point play with 2:27 left Wednesday that made the difference in an eventual 57-48 triumph over Tri-Village in the boys Division III regional semis at Trent Arena.
The Koverman Staley Dickerson agencies sponsor the Three Rivers Conference on Press Pros Magazine.com.
While Shrout’s triple and accompanying free throw will be remembered for fighting off a Tri-Village rally within two points at crunch time, he actually planted the seed for it long ago.
“We’ve been working on that since our freshman year,” Shrout said of the high screen-and-roll with 6-8 teammate Logan Hawley. “He didn’t play much varsity his freshman year, but we worked on it after practice almost every day, because we both knew our junior and senior year it would come in handy. That’s our go-to for sure.”
So much so that Shrout and Hawley used the exact same play to free Shrout for a three-pointer from almost the exact same spot with 1:11 left in the third quarter.
That triple put Preble Shawnee in the lead, 34-32, for the first time since the midpoint of the first quarter.
Tanner Printz finished on a high note…15 points in the regional loss to Preble Shawnee.
Tri-Village (24-3) made the Arrows work much harder for this one than had been the case on Feb. 13 in the Western Ohio Athletic Conference championship game.
The Arrows coasted to a 49-35 win in that one after breaking on top, 20-9, after one quarter.
This time, the Patriots dictated after using Braden Keating’s three first-period three-pointers to claim control, eventually running their margin to 25-16 late in the half.
Make that, very late in the half.
Only 30 seconds remained when Keating struck again from beyond the arc to build Tri[-Village’s nine-point margin.
Brady Morton cancelled that with a triple of his own on Preble’s next possession – just its second field goal of the quarter.
Then the Arrows pressured Patriots’ point guard Tanner Printz, who had driven them daffy with repeated scoring drives to the hoop, and forced him to lose his balance just across midcourt.
Wilson Health proudly sponsors the best in area sports coverage on Press Pros Magazine.com.
As he tumbled across the sideline, Printz passed to a teammate in the backcourt for a turnover. When Tri-Village coach Josh Sagester protested the lack of a foul call against Printz, officials assessed a technical foul.
Shrout hit both free throws and Brayden Robinette knocked down a three at the buzzer, completing an eight-point Preble Shawnee burst over the last 19 seconds.
Still down, 25-21, the Arrows went to the locker room with momentum they lacked a half-minute of clock time earlier.
Trey Sagaster scored 12, despite being hounded all night by Preble’s Case Roell.
“We felt like we were getting into them a little at the end of the first half and caused some issues,” Preble Shawnee coach Jake Turner said of his team’s third-quarter strategy. “We wanted to get into them a little more, speed them up and see if they could handle our pressure.”
Freeing Shrout would also help, given that Printz’s shadowing throughout the first half had limited the Arrows’ 2,000-plus point career scorer to just eight through two periods.
The 6-5 Shrout, announced as an Ohio Mr. Basketball finalist earlier in the day, never showed any frustration and didn’t force the action, despite Tri-Village’s early dominance.
“I’ve seen box–and-ones and diamond-and-ones since my freshman year,” Shrout said. “My freshman and sophomore year I pressed it a little bit. My junior year I got a little bit better with it.
“This year, our coaching staff has done an amazing job getting me open, so I really don’t have to press as much. I really don’t have to force as much. And it helps that I’m 6-5 and can rise up and shoot over the top.”
Bunny’s Pharmacy, in downtown Sidney, supports the Shelby County League on Press Pros.
Yes, that “helps,” but the Arrows also found assistance elsewhere.
Hawley began to assert himself offensively in the third quarter, and Brody Morton hit his second triple to give Tri-Village more to think about than Shrout.
“They went 18-of-20 from the line and 7-of-14 from the arc, so they shot it well,” Sagester said. “They’re a tough out. (Shrout) requires so much attention.
Senior Jayden Hollinger, finished his last high school career game with the Patriots.
“Then they’ve got 6-8 on the block and if another kid or two can make an open shot, you have to pick your poison. He’s made some big plays against us and he did it again tonight.”
The biggest sequence was the four-point play, with Shrout coming off Hawley’s screen, leaning into Keating’s defense and selling the call with a bit of theatrics as the shot went down.
“It was a huge play,” Turner said. “He handles the ball for us, rebounding, guarding, five assists. That’s who he is. He’s a gamer, a winner and a big-time player.”
Shrout, who finished with 19, and the Arrows will seek a trip to the state semifinals at 7 p.m. Saturday against Versailles (15-11), which throttled Mariemont, 68-43, in the other semifinal.
Tri-Village rode Keating’s 18 and Printz’s 15 in the final game of their high school careers. Trey Sagester scored 12, despite being hounded all night by the effective face-guarding of Preble’s Case Roell.
The Arbogast family of dealerships is pleased to sponsor your favorite sports on Press Pros.
“Our seniors really rose to the occasion,” Josh Sagester said of Keating, Printz and his two other senior starters, Reed Wehr and Jayden Hollinger. “We really wanted to spread the floor and get their length out of the paint so we could drive the basketball and create some open lanes.
“We have a group of tough, gritty hard-nosed kids that played to their strengths, executed game plans, believed in their roles and accepted their roles with pride.
“Twenty-four wins, most teams in Ohio would take. Playing until March 13, a fourth year in a row in the regionals and one of those years we got to Dayton…You’re not going to win every one of these.”
Logan Services sponsors the best area sports stories on Press Pros Magazine.com.