Lehman’s Shane Frantz hit this three-pointer in the second half of Wednesday’s win over Legacy Christian to score his 1000th career point as a Cavalier. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
Big runs to start the games marked Wednesday’s Division VII district semi-final round at Garbry Gym…Lehman and Jackson Center win and earn right to play for district title.
Piqua, OH – A month ago on a nasty January night in West Milton, Lehman coach Jeremy Hughes smiled and said, “You haven’t seen us play our best basketball yet.” And he said it knowing that if and when that day came he would not have Turner Lachey available to play.
Minster Bank proudly sponsors the best in area sports coverage on Press Pros Magazine.com.
Lachey changed schools at the end of the first semester, and left Lehman to attend a baseball academy in Nashville, Tennessee.
Publisher Sonny Fulks writes OHSAA and Ohio State sports for Press Pros Magazine.com.
Five years ago, venerable coach Scott Elchert was working through a tough stretch of his own, trying to hone his Jackson Center basketball team for yet another post-season tournament run that didn’t look likely for the Tigers. Asked about it, Elchert scowled and said, “Don’t ever count out the Tigers.”
Back to the present, Hughes and Lehman have won six of eight, stand 19-5, and with Wednesday night’s 73-56 pasting of Legacy Christian, the Cavaliers gave every indication that Hughes has made good on his word. They looked like they were playing their best basketball.
Likewise, in the second game at Garbry Gym Wednesday, Aaron Klopfenstein’s Jackson Center Tigers, who’ve seen their share of ups and downs since December (14-10), gave defending state champion Russia a forgettable end to their season, taking the rubber game of three with the Raiders this year, 47-40. Ironically, Russia and Jackson Center had split the first two games by the identical score of 46-39, and JC came within a point Wednesday of doing it again.
Lehman’s CJ Olding scores 2 of his 26 points off a Legacy Christian turnover in Wednesday’s district win at Garbry Gym.
That much was fluke. What’s not fluke is the way the Tigers played.
But first, this is a different Lehman team than you might remember under previous regimes. The Cavs are athletic, loose, and while not blessed with great depth, those that do play do it with the nerves of a cat burglar.
They came out Wednesday against Legacy Christian (11-12), and immediately went on a 20-6 run in the first quarter, CJ Olding and Shane Frantz firing at will, the defense doing hit-and-runs on helpless Legacy ball-handlers, feasting on turnovers and transition buckets on their way to 39-17 halftime lead.
Legacy did have a size advantage, and played with some pride in the second half to cut Lehman’s lead to 12 points at one point (52-40). But another spurt by Olding, Evan O’Leary, and Frantz – including a three-pointer by Frantz that accounted for his 1,000th point as a Cavalier – pushed the Lehman back over twenty points and eventually to 73-56, the final.
As tournament games go, it offered little in terms of keeping people on the edge of their seats. But to Hughes’ proclamation back in January, one does wonder, as the Cavaliers are now within a game of district title…who else besides Delphos St. John in southwest Division VII, is capable of running, and gunning, and scoring like Lehman?
Piqua athletic director and tournament director, Chip Hare, recognizes Shane Frantz’s 1,000th career point.
Who else has the likes of CJ Olding, who finished with 26 points Wednesday, Frantz, who finished with 23, and Evan O’Leary, who chipped in a meager 15 points, accounting for 64 of their total of 73 points.
That would be 87.5% of their 73 points, which to most basketball savants would seem out of proportion. But to Hughes, who’s played more gyms than Red Panda, the unicyclist, he doesn’t seem concerned.
And indeed, four of their five losses have come against teams that match them in athleticism and the ability to put up an enormous number of shots – Northridge (twice), Urbana, and Troy Christian. Teams that can run with them and shoot threes.
“It’s who we are,” Hughes said last week. “We shoot a lot of threes because we get good looks through our ball movement. We want our kids to shoot the three-point shot.”
Bunny’s Pharmacy, in downtown Sidney, supports the Shelby County League on Press Pros.
Jackson Center might have something to say about that, a 47-40 winner of Wednesday’s second game with Russia, a typical Jackson game that saw Klopfenstein’s Tigers take care of possessions, work to get good shots, and play defense like prom dates were at stake.
And like Lehman in the first game, Jackson came out hot, jumped on Russia, ran out to a 16-2 run, and closed the first quarter with a 16-7 lead. One could rightly say don’t count out the Raiders, either…but Russia worked all night to get to within four points of Jackson Center in the fourth quarter, and never got any closer.
Jackson Center’s Preston Serr gets hung up by Russia’s defense during Wednesday’s district semi-final game at Garbry Gym.
Preston Serr, Carter Klopfenstein, and Ian Stengel all banged in three-point shots for the Tigers, and they owned the early rebounding advantage off the offensive boards, as well. 16-2 came easy for them as Russia struggled to get their footing.
Long known for playing Scott Elchert defense, the chip hasn’t fallen far from the block since his protege, Aaron Klopfenstein, took over the program after Elchert’s retirement from coaching in 2023. Giving up 7 points in the first quarter was impressive, but giving up 5 points in the second quarter made it look like the Ides of March for Russia. The halftime score was 23-12.
There are no secrets in Shelby County League basketball, and there is no greater pride to be found, either. Russia managed to keep itself within striking distance with its own defense by holding Jackson Center to 7 points in the second quarter. And the Raiders came out in the third with Cash Grojean, Michael Voisard, and Grant Bergman accounting for 10 points on five buckets in close, and from mid-range.
Allenbaugh Insurance, in Jackson Center, supports the SCAL on Press Pros Magazine.
But Jackson matched those 10 points with buckets from Dane Reese, Carter Klopfenstein (a cousin of the coach), Anderson Fark and Brendan Serr.
At 33-22 to start the fourth, Russia went to more pressure and amped up the contact on defense. It worked.
Russia’s Cash Grojean squeeze through the Jackson Center defense to score during the Raiders’s run to cut the lead in the second half.
Carter Hoehne hit a three. Grant Bergman hit a three, And Bergman, Cooper Unverferth, and Grojean all chipped in buckets around the paint. Voisard scored a basket. The Raiders were getting into the Tigers’ lead, had it to four points…and then Brandon Serr snapped off a three-pointer that relieved the pressure and set the Tigers on another 6-2 run that pushed their advantage back to eight points.
Now the clock became the Raiders’ enemy, of course, and Jackson began a three-minute parade to the foul line, where they could have slammed the door. Instead, they hit seven, missed five, and left a bit of hope open for Russia.
Minster Dental is proud to sponsor the best in area sports stories on Press Pros Magazine.com.
Huffer Chiropractic can help your athlete perform at their best – with offices in Osgood, Jackson Center, Marysville, and Dublin, Ohio.
But down nine with a minute to play, Klopfenstein brought in subs, Russia hit a final basket, and began thinking about baseball as the clock hit 0:00.
Carter Klopfenstein led all scorers with 15 points, Preston Serr followed with 10 for Jackson Center, Brendan Serr had 8, Dane Reese had 7, Ian Stengel finished with 3 points, and Anderson Fark had 2. Jackson Center shot 43% from the floor, and hit 10 of 16 from the foul line (62%).
For Russia, the Raiders finished their year with a 12-13 record, shooting 39% for the game, but got to the foul line just four times for the game (2 for 4). Grant Bergman led them with 12 points, Cash Grojean had 11, Carter Hoehne and Michael Voisard both had 6, and Cooper Unverferth had 5.
Aaron Klopfenstein is one of the truly bright young coaches in southwest basketball, and was a hand-picked protoge’ of Elchert’s as an assistant to take over the program when the master retired three years ago. He played for Elchert, learned from him, and oozes much of the JC basketball philosophy that he’s witnessed over the years.
Both Russia and Jackson Center know something about defense in the Shelby County League.
“That’s a tough team to match physically,” he said of the win, with a twinkle in his eye. “But I don’t think we gave up many offensive rebounds, either…not as many as we did the second time we played them.
“And our guys came out and set the tone, initially.”
The 16-2 run, like Lehman did with Legacy Christian, put Russia in a hole that they were unable to escape.
“We knew we wouldn’t be able to maintain that for 32 minutes,” said Klopfenstein. “But it was enough cushion to withstand the run that they Russia had in the fourth quarter.”
They’ll match up with Lehman now on Saturday afternoon, 1 pm, at Piqua for an opportunity to be district champ, and regional bound. Lehman averages nearly 65 points per game, has scored 70 or more on eleven of their nineteen wins, and will severely test the long-standing Jackson Center axiom about basketball…that you can’t lose if the other team can’t score.
Probably listening to the Buckeyes’ game…..
“It always comes down to defense,” Klopfenstein added, before leaving the gym on Friday. “And regardless of how well you play you’re always going to have adversity in a basketball game. It all comes down to how well you handle it. Fortunately, we’ve been in a lot of close games this year… a lot of close games! So we always say in timeouts…we’ve been here before.
“Lehman showed tonight that they’re very good about generating offense with their defense and turnovers, so taking care of the basketball will be a priority. And for the last four weeks or so that word that keeps resonating among our team…is trust. And when you have great senior leadership you trust things will work out.”
And when teams struggle to score 40 points in modern basketball, things have a way of working out. Scott Elchert watched from the stands on Wednesday, and twice he was seen smiling – at halftime (23-12) and at the end of the game (47-40).
History dictates. Don’t count out the Tigers!
Wilson Health/Orthopedics proudly sponsors the best in area sports and the Ohio State Buckeyes on Press Pros.