SHELBY — Greg Gallaway knew it and so did Mansfield Senior coach Marquis Sykes and Lexington’s Scott Hamilton.
No matter which team won the Division II Ontario district tournament, there were going to be some worthy squads sitting at home for the regional.
“We said there were going to be some very good basketball teams that didn’t make it out of our district,” said Gallaway, who piloted Shelby to wins over Mansfield Senior and Lexington at Ontario en route to a berth in this weekend’s Final Four. “Playing Mansfield Senior and Lexington prepared us for the regional tournament.
“It speaks to the level of competition in Richland County.”
The Whippets (25-2) needed a stirring second-half comeback to beat Senior High 60-55 in the district semifinals. Shelby trailed 29-21 at the half and 42-38 after three quarters before outscoring the Tygers 22-13 in the fourth period.
“When you looked at the brackets before the start of the tournament, you just knew,” Senior High coach Marquis Sykes said. “You had Shelby and Lexington and Willard all ranked in the state’s (Associated Press) top 10 and Bellevue had a really good season, too.
“Whoever was coming out of the district was going to have to beat a bunch of state-ranked teams just to get to the regional.”
As a player, Sykes led the Tygers to the 1999 Division I Final Four his senior season under coach Gregg Collins. But state tournament trips have been few and far between since then.
Take the Whippets for instance. This is their first state tournament run for the boys program, and it was a mighty tussle getting there.
The win over Mansfield Senior sent Shelby into the district championship game against fellow Richland County heavyweight Lexington. The Minutemen beat the Whippets 61-57 in late December.
Shelby won the rematch 62-52 to reach the Sweet 16.
“In our coaching office, when we were planning for the tournament, we really felt that the team that came out of this district had a good chance to compete for a regional title,” Hamilton said.
“No disrespect to any other districts, but we really felt the level of play in our district was very good this year.”
Shelby is the first area boys team to reach the Final Four since Hamilton led Lex to a regional title in 2018. Before that, the last area team to play in the state tournament was Mansfield Senior in 2005.
Shelby’s run could be a sign of things to come. Lexington started three sophomores and brought two more off the bench while winning an outright Ohio Cardinal Conference crown.
Sykes will welcome back three of his five tournament starters at Senior High, and junior Kyevi Roane and sophomore D.J. Corbin in particular flashed moments of brilliance against the Whippets in high-level district tournament pressure.
“There are definite peaks and valleys. I think boys basketball is on the upswing again in our area,” Hamilton said. “There are natural cycles when one sport seems to be favored over others, but the interest eventually comes back around.
“We had a little bit of a dip for a few years, but I think it looks promising again.”
Shelby will carry the banner for the entirety of Richland County into Saturday’s state semifinals. The Whippets will play Zanesville Maysville at 2 p.m. Saturday at the University of Dayton Arena.
“If a local teams makes it that far down the road, whether it’s a rival or not, everybody in this area is going to be rooting for them,” Sykes said. “We hope they come home with a couple of victories.
“It may be the only time I’m rooting for somebody other than the Tygers, but we wish them well.”