Minster sophomore Beckhem Stephey hit four three-pointers on his way to a team-high 17 points in Thursday night’s district tourney win over Upper Scioto Valley. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
Not the prettiest of wins, but it was a tournament win and at times looked like swimming upstream. Minster prevailed in round two of the Division IV districts, knocking out Upper Scioto Valley.
Elida, OH – Minster basketball coach Mike McClurg can be a stickler for execution and playing like you practice.
But he would never turn down a state tournament win that was something short of being a Rembrandt, either, even on a night like Thursday, when the Ides of March might have determined his team’s immediate basketball future.
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But that’s what it was, a 61-41 win for the 17-7 Wildcats over Upper Scioto Valley (14-10) in the second round of the Division VII district tournament at the Elida Fieldhouse.
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Minster was the #2 seed, Upper Scioto Valley was the #3, and there was some anticipation – expectation – over which team would derive the most from its talent – Cole Albers and Cole McClurg for Minster, and Beau Sanders for Upper Scioto. Sanders is a 15-point-per game junior, first team all Northwest Central Conference, and first team All District 8. The kind of player for which Mike McClurg would be highly wary.
The Wildcats had won nine of their last ten games, and from the outset Thursday showed that they were better prepared to compete. Nerveless, Sophomore guard Beckhem Stephey took the opening tip and quickly drained a three-pointer.
On the following possession Andrew Ketner buried another three from the opposite corner.
Moments later center Cole Albers dropped in a touch bucket at the rim, Minster led 8-0…and the 6’8″ Albers began sucking up defensive rebounds like five dollar bills in a wind tunnel. In addition, he would score 6 points for the quarter and the ‘Cats were out to a confident 14-5 lead by quarter’s end. You could not have asked for a better start.
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Well, in fact you could if you were a Rams rooter.
Upper Scioto went into the worst imaginable shooting funk at the start of the second quarter, and largely because of the defensive effort from the Wildcats, who literally smothered the basketball, or the man with the basketball, creating turnovers, missed shots, confusion, and frustration on the part of the Rams. They would go on to shoot 4 of 32 for the first half, 12.5%, and literally dig themselves a hole too deep to escape, regardless of what they, or Beau Sanders was able to do in the second half.
And they would have had their chances.
Because Minster didn’t exactly light things up, themselves.
The ‘Cats kept throwing up three-pointers in the second quarters, and to no avail. Clank, clank, clank…they came up short, long, or hit nothing at all. Minster would make just 4 of 15 shots from the field for the quarter, and 9 of 31 for the half, 3 of 15 from behind the arc, and still had a comfortable 25-12 lead at the break. Ides of March?
“We hit the two three-pointers and hit a two to start the game, and it felt like we were shot out of a cannon,” McClurg said, afterwards. “But to be honest with you, we struggled offensively for the entire game. We were disoriented. We took a ton of bad shots. But defensively…tonight was as hard as I’ve seen us play.”
An understatement.
Minster’s defense was that good…”Tonight, defensively, was as hard as I’ve seen us play.” – Coach Mike McClurg
Playing in a league where hard defense is a cornerstone, Minster’s effort Thursday night stood with the best in the MAC. They pressured the ball, they pressured the ball-handlers, and by half’s end Cole Albers had already accumulated 11 of the team’s 27 rebounds. And that’s 27 rebounds for the first half! Minster would eventually finish the game with what must have been their best rebounding night of the year…49.
Rembrandt? It was barely Technicolor. But there were some better moments to come.
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Junior Taylor Fancher, who three weeks ago was playing on the JV team, had been elevated to varsity to serve time for players down with injuries. And in the third quarter, while the rim had shrunk for all but Stephey (7), Cole McClurg (6), and Cole Albers (7), Fancher entered the game and picked the right spot to score 7 of his 9 points on the night.
In addition, he would scarf up 12 rebounds for the game (6 in the half) and spent a fair share of his time on the floor battling for loose balls and turnovers. He played like a Tazmanian Devil, and his impact was just what the Wildcat lineup needed as an antidote for some of their shooting issues.
Taylor Fancher (#4) rips the ball away from Upper Scioto’s Jesse Prater during Thursday Division VII district tourney game.
“I just wanted to play hard and help us win,” he said later, with a shrug. And by his smile, he enjoyed his contribution immensely.
Beckhem Stephey, who hit the first shot of the game from three-point range, hit the first shot of the second half by canning another three from the top of the key. And subsequently, he played boldly, attacking the rim and accumulating a team-high 17 points along the way.
“It was an amazing thing, for me and my teammates,” said Stephey, in danger of breaking his face with an ear-to-ear smile. “I felt good going into the game, and we couldn’t have asked for a better start. They had a little run in the second half, but we went right back at ’em.”
The little run that he spoke of came in the final two minutes of the third quarter and the first two minutes of the fourth. Beau Sanders, who scored just 4 points in the first half, suddenly caught fire to score 10 in a span of about eight minutes, cutting a 20-plus Minster lead to 39-28 at 4:25 of the fourth.
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But enter Stephey, who again picked the right spot for his fourth three-pointer of the game.
And on back-to-back possessions Cole McClurg found Cole Albers running the floor for a layup, Minster scored 6 consecutive points, and in the span of two minutes Minster had erased Upper Scioto’s run, and wiped out any chance of a comeback with a 15-0 run of their own.
Minster center Cole Albers collects two of his 14 points over Upper Scioto’s Beau Sanders.
“We played hard start to finish tonight,” McClurg would reiterated, post-game. “I didn’t think we rebounded it all that well, but we played hard and we caused them a lot of chaos. We had the obvious height advantage, but we had scouted the Sanders kid and knew he was talented. And I think we did a good job of just staying down and using our hands and making him shoot over the top of us.”
And the play of Fancher – the boost they had to have when points were coming hard? Despite Minster scoring 36 points in the second half, they only shot 35% for the game.
“Taylor was playing JV for us three weeks ago,” said McClurg. “And we brought him in, he’s owned this opportunity, and we told him to defend, rebound, and make layups, and that’s what he’s doing – 12 rebounds tonight for a kid who was playing JV three weeks ago.”
“And Beck’s a ball of energy. He can go in big spurts for us, and I’m proud of what he did tonight.”
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Stephey led them in a winning effort with 17 points (4 threes), Cole Albers had 15, Cole McClurg and Taylor Fancher each finished with 9 points, Andrew Ketner had 6, Jackson Colona had a late 3-pointer off the bench, and Parker Kerrigan had 2.
For Upper Scioto, Beau Sanders got his average with 14 points, while Caiden Lowery had 12 and Andrue Kindle finished with 11 points. Minster’s defense limited the Rams to just 29% from the field.
Minster moves on to play Kalida next, who advanced while Minster was playing with a 66-38 win over Delphos Jefferson.
“We’ve seen them and know that they play a backcut, Princeton style of basketball,” said McClurg. “They know basketball and they do things the right way.”
They’ve now won ten of their last eleven, and it’s not all that bizarre that they’re getting unusual contributions at tournament time. And odds are they’re going to shoot it better on most nights than what they did Thursday.
Odds are, too, that they might play more of that defense. It works.
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