Austen Taylor adds to his total of 10 points in the win over Covington. (Press Pros Feature Photos By Julie McMaken Wright)
Troy Christian gave neither inch nor yard to Covington’s offense, stifling them in a 44-25 tournament win. The young Eagle squad will play for a third straight district title on Friday.
Troy, Oh – How do you replace a senior class that scored 3,623 points and accumulated 82 combined tournament game appearances?
Alan Brads writes OHSSA sports and sports at large for Press Pros Magazine.com.
You don’t. You can’t.
And yet Troy Christian, led by just one senior and a pair of juniors, will play for a third consecutive district title on Friday. A suffocating defensive effort from the Eagles’ young squad in the district semis earned a 44-25 win over Covington and bought them 32 more minutes of basketball.
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They may not have the roster talent or experience of the past. But they do most of the same things. First and foremost, they play tough defense. Max Barnishin and Brennan Hochwalt took shifts chasing Covington’s star scorer Brogen Angle in a box-and-1. They contained Hochwalt, forcing him to make looping, tiring cuts to get his hands on the basketball. Hochwalt scored just nine points.
“The experience of playing him nine times and playing him for four years, we kinda know his tendencies,” TC Head Coach Ray Zawadzki said. “We were definitely trying to force him to do things that we felt were not comfortable for him. And then it became a group effort to make sure he didn’t get his looks.”
Austin Stengel hit four 3-point shots in the win over Covington.
The defense didn’t create as many takeaways as they’d no doubt like to. Anyone who’s been around Troy Christian basketball knows they feast on transition points like horses on oats. They may need the fast break to make a reappearance down the line to get to a regional championship or beyond. But the defense was fundamentally sound to the point where Covington couldn’t crack it for an easy bucket.
To Covington’s credit, its half-court defense was also sticky and forced tough first shots, especially in the first half. But the inability to rebound on either end gave the Buccaneers too few looks, and the Eagles far too many.
The Eagles, as usual, rebounded prolifically, grabbing double-digit offensive rebounds. Without the likes of Frank Rupnik or James Anderson’s massive frame to corral every rebound within a country mile, Troy Christian has to scrap and gang-rebound.
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“They have the heart of Frank and James,” Zawadzki said. “When you have heart, rebounding is pretty simple. You gotta have passion, and you gotta pursue it. If you have those two things, you’re gonna get some boards.”
The Eagles don’t roster a player taller than 6’3”. That’s not the end of the world against Covington since the Buccs also peak at 6’3”. But don’t be surprised if TC still rebounds its fair share against taller opponents.
Troy Christian’s Ristan Taylor passes the ball to one of his teammates.
“That’s definitely something we struggled with at the beginning of the season coming in,” Riston Taylor said. “We have to focus on it more than a lot of other things we do.”
6’0” sophomore Austen Taylor’s tenacity on the offensive glass earned him his first career double-double.
“Getting those offensive rebounds is a lotta work,” Austen Taylor said about rebounding with the inconvenience of a height disparity. “We do a lot of toughness drills and just know we gotta be tougher than the other team.”
Like Rupnik’s rebounding, you can’t just replace a shooter like Parker Penrod. But Austin Stangel did his best impression, sending home three 3-pointers in the first quarter. Hochwalt added a triple, and TC held a 14-4 lead after the first quarter.
“I was not surprised to see four 3’s go in the hoop early,” Zawadzki said. “That’s something we rely on a lot. But with a young team, it’s always good to get a good start to let them calm their nerves and settle in.”
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They rely on the deep ball for good reason. Freshman Stangel leads the TRC in 3-point percentage at 46.4%. He’s followed by three more Eagles, Riston Taylor, Noah Fecher, and Hochwalt, sweeping the top four spots.
That’s recreating lost players in the aggregate, as Brad Pitt would say in Moneyball.
Covington’s Tanner Palsgrove keeping Zach Zeman in check.
Long, patient, fruitless possessions dominated the second quarter for both sides. Covington held the ball up top waiting for Angle to break free to get him the rock. Often he never did. Meanwhile, Troy Christian’s ball movement was sharp enough to not turn it over, but not quite clever enough to create many open looks.
Covington shaved a 20-11 halftime deficit to 20-14 after two scoreless minutes of the third quarter passed. But Troy Christian’s lead ballooned back to 32-18 by the end of the third, a comfortable lead on a night where the Buccs hadn’t put together a run bigger than 4-0.
The Eagles Boa-constricted the clock in the fourth, holding the ball for over a minute twice,, aided by offensive rebounds. The TRC’s second-leading defense won the day – 44-25 – with contributions of 12 points from Stangel and 10 from Austen Taylor and Riston Taylor.
Brennan Hochwalt hit a three in the first quarter.
Angle led Covington with a hard-earned nine. No other Buccaneer surpassed five.
In these teams’ two prior meetings this season, TC won by eight and three points. But four quarters of rock-solid defense kept heart rates steady among the Eagle faithful … at least for three more nights.
Friday the Eagles take on a familiar foe, #1 seeded Miami Valley Christian Academy, with a third consecutive district title on the line.
“We’ve really been focused and preparing on getting back to this spot,” Austen Taylor said. “We wanna be back in the district finals and win another district title and prove all the people wrong that said we were gonna struggle losing all those seniors. That’s what motivates us.”
Troy Christian ended Miami Valley Christian’s season in last year’s district final by a score of 58-32. But only nine of those 58 points will step back on the hardwood Friday night.
“Just playing in this tournament is a lot different,” Riston Taylor said. “It’s that mindset that we gotta have coming out into these games that it’s gonna be tougher than it was last year without those guys we had. But as long as we stay strong mentally I think we’ll come out pretty strong like we did tonight.”
Free for all on this loose ball….
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