PIQUA — The Jackson Center-Fairlawn matchup has been a frequent one in recent years at the Piqua Division IV boys basketball sectional.
Heading into Tuesday’s upper bracket semifinal, the two teams had faced each other four straight years and six times in the last eight in the tournament, with the Tigers winning all six, the last three by a combined margin of seven points.
This encounter would be no different as Jackson would take the lead for good late in the third quarter and hold on to defeat the Jets 32-27.
The Tigers, now 15-9 on the season, face Russia, a 61-35 winner over Lehman in the other semifinal, Friday at 7 p.m. for the sectional title. Fairlawn ends its season at 12-12.
It was all Drew Brautigam for the first six minutes of the contest as he put the Jets up 7-0 with three baskets, the final one resulting in a three-point play.
Jackson finally got on the scoreboard on a Jarron Reese basket with 1:49 remaining in the opening period, but a Skyler Piper three-pointer in the final seconds gave Fairlawn a 10-4 advantage.
But just when it looked like the Jets had the momentum, it swung in favor of the Tigers as they held Fairlawn scoreless in the second quarter. Neither team, though, scored until Jackson tallied seven points over the final 2:29, including an Aidan Reichert jumper as time expired, to put the Tigers up 11-10 at the break.
“The second quarter was huge for us,” said Jackson Center coach Scott Elchert. “We could have panicked there in the early going with them jumping out to the lead and us not scoring and forcing up shots, but our kids settled down and played much better after that first quarter.”
The Jets regained the lead at 17-15 midway through the third quarter following five straight points from Brautigam, only to see Bryce Sosby answer with four of its own to help Jackson hold a 19-18 edge going into the final period.
The Tigers stretched their lead to 27-20 on two Sosby foul shots at the 2:18 mark of the fourth quarter, but Fairlawn had one final run as Ashton Piper connected on a three-pointer and two free throws, with a Luke Hickman layup in between, to cut the deficit to 28-27 with still 1:12 to play.
The Jets had a chance to take the lead as Jackson missed two foul shots on its next possession, but a turnover and a later missed three resulted in the Tigers hitting four free throws to clinch the victory.
“Anytime you get two Shelby County League teams together for the third time in tournament, it’s going to be a battle and tonight was no different,” said Elchert. “Both teams played their hearts out and played solid defensively all night long.”
The Tigers shot just 33 percent for the game and were 14-of-23 at the line, 11-of-19 in the final period, compared to Fairlawn shooting 28 percent and making seven of 10 at the stripe.
Sosby led Jackson with 13, nine coming in the second half, while Brautigam led all scorers with 14 for the Jets.
“Bryce is our catalyst,” said Elchert. “He’s usually assigned to defend the other team’s best or second-best player, handle the ball for us, score and set up scoring opportunities for everyone else. He came up big and he needs to do that for us because he has more tournament experience than most of our other guys on the floor.”
BOXSCORE
Fairlawn (27): S.Piper 3, A. Piper 6, Hickman 4, Brautigam 14.
Jackson Center (32): Platfoot 6, Elchert 3, Sosby 13, Winner 1, Reese 2, Reichert 7.
Score by quarters:
Fairlawn`10`10`18`27
Jackson`4`11`19`32
Three-pointers: Fairlawn 2 (S. Piper, A. Piper); Jackson 2 (Elchert, Reichert).
Records: Fairlawn 12-12, Jackson Center 15-9.
Russia 61, Lehman Catholic 35
In the first game of the night, the Lehman Catholic Cavaliers led a back-and-forth affair 21-20 with 2:54 to go in the first half, only to see the Russia Raiders score 24 of the next 25 points en route to a 61-35 decision.
The Raiders scored the first eight points of the contest, including a pair of Jack Dapore three-pointers, but Lehman answered with eight straight of its own, the final six coming from Elliott Gilardi.
Dapore connected on another three to break the deadlock and Russia led until a Preston Rodgers three put the Cavaliers up 16-13 a minute into the second quarter. Another Rodgers three from the right corner gave Lehman a 21-20 edge with 2:54 remaining in the half.
The Raiders, however, started their decisive run from there, as two Jordan York threes helped Russia tally the final eight points of the period to go up 28-21 at halftime.
Dapore then scored 10 of the Raiders’ first 16 points of the third quarter as Russia built a 44-22 advantage.
“We expected to see the 2-3 zone from Lehman coming in and that was a concern because we just don’t see much of that during the regular season,” said Russia coach Spencer Cordonnier. “We also had some first-game tournament jitters and it took us a while to get going.”
“We didn’t do anything special late in the first half and in the third quarter, we just were patient on offense and found the open man,” added Cordonnier. “We hit some threes early, but went back to running our normal offense and took care of the basketball in the second half.”
The Cavaliers had five field goals in the opening period in shooting 42 percent, but managed just eight field goals the rest of the way in shooting 30 percent for the game. The Raiders, meanwhile, shot 55 percent overall, including seven of 14 from behind the arc, and made 12-of-17 free throws.
Dapore led Russia with 20 points while York had 14 and Daniel Kearns 10.
Gilardi paced Lehman with 13 points while Rodgers had 11.
BOXSCORE
Lehman (35): Roe 2, Gilardi 13, Rodgers 11, Lee 8, Bunker 1.
Russia (61): York 14, Cohee 6, J. Dapore 20, Kearns 10, A. Dapore 1, Stueve 2, Francis 2, Sherman 2, Monnier 4.
Score by quarters:
Lehman`10`21`25`35
Russia`13`28`48`61
Three-pointers: Lehman 2 (Rodgers); Russia 7 (J. Dapore 5, York 2).
Records: Lehman 9-15, Russia 14-8.
