FINDLAY - Liberty-Benton High School is a beautiful building, and everyone at the school treats all of the teams that play in the Division IV district tournament here very well.
But for Toledo Christian, playing district final games here had turned Liberty-Benton into a house of horrors.
Until Friday night, that is, as the Eagles exorcised a lot of demons by posting a 46-31 victory over Van Buren.
Before Friday night Toledo Christian had lost four straight district finals here, including back-to-back losses to the Black Knights the past two seasons. It didn't help that Eagles star Ethan Michael was iffy because of a severely sprained left ankle suffered Tuesday.
But the Eagles purged all that bad karma by scoring 19 unanswered points in a five-minute span midway through the first half, then cruised to the victory that clinched the school's first-ever regional appearance in boys basketball.
"It was about today," Toledo Christian coach Dave McWhinnie said when asked about those prior losses. "Past years are past years, and you can't worry about that. You don't worry about next year, either. We're living in the moment.
"We're not going to be scared of the moment."
Van Buren jumped out to a 7-2 lead five minutes into the contest, but the Eagles took command from there. They scored the final 11 points of the first quarter, then eight more in the first two minutes of the second. They finished the half with six unanswered points to lead 29-14 at the break.
"There was no stopping us on that run," said senior Cory Brittenham, who scored nine of his 14 points in that 19-point run. "We started out bad, but once we got rolling we weren't going to stop.
"We pestered them the whole game. We knew we had the lead, so we just tried to pressure them and not let them up."
Toledo Christian's full court pressure forced the Black Knights to commit 20 turnovers and allowed them to make just 12 of 37 shots from the field (32.4 percent).
"The pressure was constant," Van Buren coach E.J. Frost said. "You had to battle them 90 feet up the court, and in the half court they covered our shooter on the outside [Jude Palmer]. I thought we had open looks in our base offense, but we weren't seeing it."
The Black Knights managed to slice TC's lead to 34-25 with two minutes left in the third period, but the Eagles scored eight straight points early in the fourth and cruised to a win that improved their record to 17-6.
"We had a chance to cut the lead to seven points late in the third quarter, but we turned the ball over a couple of times in a row," Frost said. "Then they went on that 8-0 run, and that did us in. Now we were digging another hole instead of fighting our way out of it."
Palmer scored 13 points, thanks in large part to three 3-pointers, to lead Van Buren, which ended its season 15-9.
Michael finished with 14 points and eight rebounds before leaving the game with 2:52 left after reinjuring his ankle. The 6-7 senior said he expects to be ready for Tuesday's regional semifinal game against McComb, but the credit for yesterday's win belongs to his teammates.
"The guys today were just awesome," Michael said. "Cory Brittenham hit some crazy big shots. Grant [Sims], Jake [Rightnowar] and Levi [Hutmacher] were all amazing.
"Jeremy [Weemes] played really hard, and all of our guys step up. They made big plays when we needed them, and we played amazing defense."
Contact John Wagner at:
jwagner@theblade.com
or 419-724-6481.
NAPOLEON - McComb outscored Pettisville 30-22 in the second half to win a D-IV district title 52-43.
Mason Roth led McComb (20-3) with 16 points. Kevan Westenbarger added 15 and Chase Drewes had 14.
Quinn Nofizger scored 17 to lead Pettisville (20-3). Jordan Klopfenstein added 11.
SAND CREEK, Mich. - Brandon Albright scored 20 points and Jake DuPree added 10 as Whiteford defeated Adrian Madison 54-44 for a Class C district title.
Defense was the key for Whiteford (17-6), which led 15-6 after one quarter and 23-13 at the half.
Jamison Webster led Madison with 19 points.
First Published March 14, 2009, 9:51 a.m.
