PIQUA — Tyler Siegel missed playing in Fort Loramie’s first tournament game, but watching from the bench wasn’t all bad. With the show his teammates put on in a Division IV sectional quarterfinal against Mechanicsburg, Siegel certainly had plenty to watch.
Fort Loramie jumped in front of Mechanicsburg early and cruised to a 65-21 win. The Redskins, which are the top seed in the Piqua sectional, advance to play No. 13 Bradford in a second-round game on Wednesday at Piqua.
Siegel, a 6-foot-6 senior forward, suffered a back injury late in a game at Russia on Feb. 16 after a player collided with him as he went up for a shot. Fort Loramie coach Corey Britton said the team is awaiting further medical test results before any decision on Siegel’s playing future is made.
The Redskins played fine without him against the No. 12 Indians. Mechanicsburg scored the first two points of the game, but Fort Loramie scored the next 24 to take control.
Siegel’s brother Austin and Dillon Braun each led the Redskins with 18 points. Austin Siegel, a senior guard, shot 8-for-9 from the field and had four rebounds. Braun brought down five rebounds.
Nine other players scored for Fort Loramie.
“It was a little fun,” Tyler Siegel said of watching the game from the bench. “You see a lot more from when you’re not playing, pick up on a lot more. You can pick out some the bad things and see more of the good things.”
The Redskins (21-2) shot 29 for 58 (50 percent) from the field and outrebounded Mechanicsburg 34-20. Fort Loramie had 10 steals in the game and forced the Indians into 24 turnovers. The Redskins scored 31 points off turnovers.
“I thought we played hard,” Britton said. “Defensively I thought we played really, really good and fast. …We’ve been stressing the tempo and pace of play for the last two or three weeks. I thought we had it last Friday (against Russia) and kept on practicing and kept on repping. We were able to pass the ball and push the tempo, which was good.”
Tyler Siegel said if the team can keep playing at that pace, it should be able to make a long postseason run.
“We want to push the ball,” Siegel said. “That’s when we play the best.”
Mechanicsburg finished 1-22. Chris Taylor led the Indians with 11 points. Mechanicsburg shot 7 for 31 (22.6 percent) from the field.
