ONTARIO — The mercury may have been plummeting outside, but the temperature was steamy inside the O-Rena on Tuesday thanks to St. Peter’s stifling defense.
The Spartans forced 31 Crestline turnovers and cruised to a 71-51 win over the Bulldogs in a Division IV sectional semifinal game.
Fourth-seeded St. Peter’s (13-10) will play No. 1 seed Buckeye Central (20-2) for a sectional title at 6:15 p.m. Friday at Ontario.
The first time we played Crestline, both teams turned the ball over about 30 times,” St. Peter’s forward Joe Rall said of the Spartans’ 75-71 win at Crestline on Dec. 19. “This time, we wanted to limit our mistakes but keep the pressure on them. We wanted to press them a little bit. We are at our best when we are running, so we like to get out and force turnovers and get some easy buckets.”
The Spartans raced out to an 18-8 first quarter lead and extended their advantage to 33-20 at the half. Crestline (3-20) committed 19 first-half turnovers.
“That’s been the story of our season,” Crestline coach Steve Lyons said. “We had 34 turnovers against them the first time and 31 more turnovers tonight. It’s hard to beat a good team when you are depriving yourself of that many possessions.”
The Spartans led by as many as 20 points in the third quarter and took a 56-40 advantage to the fourth.
St. Peter’s cruised despite connecting on just 30 of 73 field goal attempts. The Spartans did themselves no favors at the free throw line either, connecting on just 8 of 18 freebies.
“We were getting our shots, including layups, but we just weren’t making them,” St. Peter’s coach Pat Durham said. “It looked like we were a little tense, especially at the beginning of the game.”
Rall agreed.
“We’ve got a pretty young team and I think some of our guys had tournament jitters,” Rall said. “We didn’t shoot the ball all that well, but we battled and kept working hard.”
a 6-foot-2 senior, Rall led four Spartans in double figures with 16 points. MIchael Berick had 12 points and 12 rebounds, while Ryan Payne had 11 points and Adam Blunk added 10. David Hall had nine and Richard Shaw chipped in with eight.
“When we get that kind of balance, we’re hard to defend,” Rall said. “On any night we have five or six guys who could score 20 points.”
Blake Hunger led Crestline with 15 points. Nate Coffman added 14.
Follow Curt Conrad on Twitter @curtjconrad.
