WEST CARROLLTON — Sidney entered the season with one returning starter off of a 10-9 campaign. To say the Yellow Jackets weren’t a popular preseason pick for overall Miami Valley League champion is an understatement.
“Not many people had us in this position,” Sidney coach John Willoughby said. “We were unknown. We had a good JV game last year, but it’s a big step to playing varsity basketball.”
Sidney’s no longer unknown.
A big first quarter helped the Yellow Jackets earn a 64-51 win over West Carrollton in a makeup MVL game on Thursday. The victory kept Sidney on pace with Tippecanoe for the overall MVL title.
The Yellow Jackets could clinch a share of the title with a victory in its regular-season finale on Friday against Greenville (3-17, 3-13 MVL Miami Division).
Sidney improved to 17-4 overall and 15-2 in MVL play with Thursday’s win. It’s the sixth time in the last seven seasons Sidney has won at least 17 games.
“Credit to these kids,” Willoughby said. “They proved they can do it.”
If Sidney is victorious against Greenville on Friday, it will mark the second time in three years the squad has captured the overall MVL title.
Sidney won the overall league title in 2020, which was the first season of the league’s existence. The Yellow Jackets finished 19-5 overall and 15-3 in league play that season and earned the MVL title outright.
Tippecanoe (14-4, 13-2 MVL Miami) was the only other MVL team with two league losses this season entering a game against Vandalia-Butler on Friday. The game is one of three remaining league games for the Red Devils; if Tipp loses any of the three games, Sidney will again have sole possession of the overall MVL title.
Sidney senior center Jaden Swiger is the only remaining player who also played on the 2020 team — and he’s the only remaining player from last year’s squad, too.
He led the squad with 14 points on Thursday, 10 of which came in the first half and helped Sidney build a 38-22 halftime lead.
But the Yellow Jackets have reached 17 wins with a total collective effort, which again was on display on Thursday.
Senior forward Landon Davis scored 11 points, and his sophomore brother Mitchell Davis scored 11 points off the bench, including a thunderous two-handed dunk midway through the fourth quarter that sealed the result.
Junior wing guard Sam Reynolds scored 10 points, junior guard Myles Vordemark scored nine and freshman guard Julius Spradling scored nine.
That selflessness isn’t just on offense. Willoughby credited the squad with a “total team effort,” on defense in containing the Pirates (11-8, 10-7 MVL Valley).
A good start helped. West Carrollton, which was celebrating its senior night on Thursday, scored the first basket.
But Sidney didn’t give up another basket the rest of the quarter, thanks in part to solid defensive rebounding that limited the Pirates to one-shot possessions. Sidney scored 10 points in a row, then scored eight in a row after two West Carrollton free throws to take an 18-4 lead into the second quarter.
“This is the way we started games earlier in the year, getting a big lead early,” Willoughby said. “It was good to see.”
West Carrollton went on a 10-3 run to pull within 27-19 midway through the second.
But the Pirates racked up fouls in the first half, and Sidney hit a boatload of free throws late in the second quarter and finished on a 11-3 run to take a 16-point halftime lead.
West Carrollton’s full-court press forced Sidney to turn it over several times in the third. The Pirates went on a 7-0 run to pull within 42-35, but Sidney scored the next five points and led 47-37 heading into the fourth.
“West Carrollton’s pretty good, and playing down here on a Thursday on their senior night, it was a little odd for us,” Willoughby said. “Any time a team presses the whole game, they’re going to have runs of six, eight points.
“You have to collect yourself. We called a couple of timeouts and told the boys that we have to remain calm. …I thought we did an okay job holding the ball and running some time off the clock. We haven’t done that a lot this year, especially for that extended period of a time. But we did a decent job at it.”
The Pirates pulled within 50-42 early in the fourth, but Mitchell Davis made three baskets (including the dunk) during a 10-2 run that put the game away.
It’s the first time Davis, a 6-4 forward, has scored in double digits.
“The presence inside defensively he brought was great,” Willoughby said. “When we went to our 2-3 zone, we needed that backside rebounder, and that’s Mitchell spot. He helped us there. When Jaden got in foul trouble (in the second half), we moved Mitchell to the middle, and he contested a lot of shots inside.”
Sidney, which was voted the No. 8 seed in the 19-team Dayton Division I sectional, is scheduled to open postseason play on Wednesday against Lebanon at Vandalia-Butler’s Student Activity Center. Lebanon coaches and players were in attendance on Thursday in West Carrollton.
