ARCHBOLD WEATHER

Streaks Top Royals In Regional Semi





At left, Colton Martinez concentrates at the freethrow line in the Div. III regional semifinal with Bucyrus Wynford at BGSU. At right, Trey Smith dribbles toward the basket in the first half. Smith led all scorers with 13 points in the 47-42 Archbold victory. Martinez scored seven points. Both are seniors.- photos by Mary Huber

At left, Colton Martinez concentrates at the freethrow line in the Div. III regional semifinal with Bucyrus Wynford at BGSU. At right, Trey Smith dribbles toward the basket in the first half. Smith led all scorers with 13 points in the 47-42 Archbold victory. Martinez scored seven points. Both are seniors.- photos by Mary Huber

Bowling Green State University Anderson Arena: home of the Division III regional championship. Four teams enter, one team leaves.

Archbold (20-4) and Bucyrus Wynford (20-4) squared off Wednesday, March 5 for the chance to meet Ottawa-Glandorf in the final. The Titans beat Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy 58-47 in the Wednesday opener.

The Royals were making their third straight trip; the Streaks have made Anderson Arena somewhat of a homeaway from-home, appearing six times in the last eight years.

Wynford, under Tim Ehresman, head coach, came up short as the Streaks posted a 47-42 victory.

“I hope Archbold wins the whole shooting match,” said Ehresman.

“Wynford has won 20-some games, so these guys aren’t chopped liver,” said Doug Krauss, AHS head coach. “They have great shooters and guys inside. You just know you aren’t going to shut them out; they want the same thing we want.

“This is big win for us. Being able to battle back the way we did speaks well of our team.”

 

 

D. Rupp Cuts Into Lead

Knotted at 10 after the first eight minutes, the Royals took advantage of starters Gene Goering’s and Justin Rupp’s absences from the floor.

Goering was whistled for his second foul with 2:55 left in the first quarter, taking a seat on the bench, and Rupp was tagged for his second at the start of the second.

Goering checked back in with 4:07 left in the period after Kyle Shroll hit a jumper to up Wynford’s lead to 18-14.

David Rupp cut the deficit to 18-15 with one at the charity stripe, but Shroll buried a three-pointer, pushing the lead back to 21-15.

Trey Smith answered with a deuce; Wynford scored six unanswered points for a 27-17 advantage.

With 1.8 seconds left, D. Rupp was fouled deep in the corner. He calmly sank three foul shots, and AHS was down 27-20 at the half.

“David’s three foul shots at the end of the first half were big for us,” said Krauss. “Gives us that little bit of hope, being down seven.

“We don’t have a seven-point play, but that’s just a couple stops and conversions, and we did that.

“That first half Wynford outworked us, outplayed us, and deserved to be ahead. We could have easily been down 15 at half. We didn’t do a whole lot right, and Wynford did a lot of positive.

“The biggest thing that was frustrating in that first half for us coaches, was, we got outworked, and we do not get outworked too often. ”

Playing With Pride; Second Half Lifts Streaks

A 12-0 run in the third quarter, control of the defensive boards, back-to-back threes.

It all played out for the Streaks in the second half.

Wynford’s Brett Bauer opened the third with a jumper for a 29- 20 lead.

From there it was all golden for AHS. Goering grabbing four straight defensive rebounds; he finished with 11 defensive boards.

“When Goering went out it was an opportunity that we took advantage of in the second quarter,” said Ehresman. “He came back in the third quarter and sparked their run, hitting some big threes, and he cleaned up the defensive glass.

“We were getting offensive rebounds and then he took advantage of our missed shots, and Archbold got in transition.”

“We have had rough starts, with four losses, so we have been in tough situations before,” said Smith. “With Gene out in the first half, we had to bring it on ourselves.

“Gene came back and we got our momentum building. “(We) came out in the second half and said we were not going to let what happened in the first half happen in the second.

“We just took it into our own hands and played with pride.”

Smith started the ball rolling, hitting a 10-footer. Colton Martinez added a deuce and Smith hit again.

With just one point in the first half, Goering ignited the student section with a three at the top of the arc. Justin Rupp followed with another trey, capping off a 12-0 run.

Bauer finally broke the scoring drought for Wynford with a deuce from the foul line.

J. Rupp answered with a three, ending the quarter with a 35-31 AHS lead.

“Archbold has kids that are going to make plays just like we do,” said the Wynford coach. “The stretch in the third- we still got the looks like we had in the first half; they just didn’t fall. We have been able to play through that all year.

“We took a time-out and said that was their run, now let’s go back and get ’em. I thought we did that the rest of the half.”

Wynford hit just 28% from the field (7/25) in the second half, while the Streaks connected on 56 percent (9/16).

“We had a lot of wide-open shots and layups that just didn’t fall. Archbold made those shots, and that was the difference in the game,” said Ehresman.

“The biggest thing about the run in the third quarter- we locked them down defensively and gave Wynford one and done,” said Krauss.

“Justin Rupp hit a big three, and we had some breakaways in that run. It was just a combination.

“We told the guys we can play better than we did in the first half, and we did.”

J. Rupp connected again to start the fourth for a 37-31 lead. It looked as if AHS was going to pull away, but Wynford had other plans, going on a 7-0 run for a 38-37 advantage.

After J. Rupp hit another three, Shroll answered with a baseline drive to knot the score at 40.

Martinez, who had come up empty from the three-point line in the first half, followed with a three at the 2:20 mark.

“I wasn’t hitting earlier, so I really hesitated,” said Martinez, “but during warm-up I felt I could hit that shot. So I just took my time and saw it through before I shot it.”

Seeing their season slipping away and with six fouls to give in the final 1:58, the Royals started fouling as the Streaks were looking to spread the field.

After chewing up a full minute, Krauss called time-out. Smith was fouled and made both ends of a one-and-one with 29 seconds left for a 45-40 lead.

He led AHS with 13 points. Shroll drove the baseline for two and called time-out with 15 seconds left and the Royals down 45-42. Martinez was fouled and went to the charity stripe to shoot a one-and-one.

Missing the front end, the Royals grabbed the rebound. Bauer missed a three, but the rebound went out of bounds.

The inbounds pass went to Goering. Fouled with 2.6 seconds left, Goering added his eighth and ninth points to seal the 47-42 victory.

“Goering’s a load,” said Ehresman. “We held him to nine points. I would say we won the game, but they had other guys step up and make shots.”

“At halftime, when coach was talking to us, we were only down by seven, but we could have been down twice that much,” said Goering.

“Wynford outplayed us in that first half, but we got fired up at halftime.

“We knew if we came out and played the way we are capable of playing, then everything would take care of itself.”

BOX SCORE

ARCHBOLD (47) – Martinez 7, J. Rupp 10, D. Rupp 8, Goering 9, Smith 13. Totals 22-9-47.

WYNFORD (42) – Shroll 10, Etler 12, Bauer 4, Brause 5, Shifley 4, Eibling 7. Totals 21-4-42.

AHS 10 10 15 12 – 47
WHS 10 17 4 11 – 42


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