WILLARD — St. Peter’s defended its district championship Friday night, but upstart Colonel Crawford made the Spartans sweat.
Tyson Kent scored a team-high 18 points as top-seeded St. Peter’s rallied from a halftime deficit for a 59-42 district final win at Robert L. Haas Gymnasium.
The second-ranked Spartans (23-2) won back-to-back district crowns for the first time since winning four straight from 1990 to 1993 and will play North Baltimore (16-10) in the regional semifinals at 6:15 p.m. Tuesday at Bowling Green State University’s Stroh Center. North Baltimore beat Arlington 66-53 to win the Liberty-Benton district Friday.
The second-seeded Eagles (18-7) used an 11-0 blitz to end the first half, holding St. Peter’s without a point over the final 4:58 to squeeze in front 27-26 at intermission. Colonel Crawford moved in front 30-28 midway through the third before the Spartans erupted for 10 unanswered points in the span of less than two minutes.
Coach Joe Jakubick’s squad took a 40-35 advantage to the fourth and scored on nine of 12 possessions in the final eight minutes to win going away.
“Our kids came out swinging, but in the third quarter we just didn’t have enough punches to get over the hump against a very good basketball team,” Colonel Crawford coach David Sheldon said. “That’s a good basketball team … but I felt we went down swinging.”
Quick Start: Kent and Elijah Cobb combined for 13 first-quarter points as the Spartans built a 17-13 lead. A Jared Jakubick 3-pointer gave St. Peter’s a 26-16 advantage, but the Eagles dominated the rest of the half to move on top.
Heath Starkey, Colonel Crawford’s 6-foot-10 senior center, ignited the run with a two-handed dunk with 3:40 to play in the half. Freshman point guard Cameron McCreary capped it with an acrobatic layup in traffic as the horn sounded.
“They did a good job defensively,” St. Peter’s coach Joe Jakubick said. “We just panicked. We jacked up shots and didn’t play defense.”
Loud and Clear: With his team facing its first halftime deficit of the postseason, Jakubick delivered a spirited halftime talk. The message hit home as the Spartans outscored the Eagles 33-15 in the second half.
“Coach was on us,” Kent said, “He said, ‘If you want it, you’ve got to go get it.’ ”
St. Peter’s connected on 13 of 19 field goal attempts in the second half. Mason Campbell scored nine of his 11 points after the break, while Jared Jakubick had seven of his 12 in the fourth. Cobb had 10 points, while Jake Gurski added eight points, five rebounds and superb defense on Starkey, despite giving away five inches.
McCreary led the Eagles with 19 points, including four 3-pointers. Fellow freshman Gavin Feichtner had eight points while Harley Shaum added seven. Starkey, bound for Ashland University, was limited to four points but contributed a game-high six rebounds.
Trust the Process: Starkey was the only senior on Colonel Crawford’s roster. The Eagles started three juniors and a freshman.
“This is the first Division IV team we lost to all year,” Sheldon said. “I kept telling the guys just trust it and it got us back to our sixth district championship game in the last nine years.
“This is a program. This isn’t a three- or four-year thing from us. This is 11 years and I’m so proud of the way they trusted the process.”
Back to Bowling Green: The Spartans advanced to the regional championship game last March at BGSU before falling to eventual state runner-up Van Wert Lincolnview.
“It feels great,” Gurski said. “I’m excited for regionals.”
The regional foe, North Baltimore, won its first district championship on Friday night. It defeated Arlington (14-12), a team that subdued the Tigers in the season opener.
Getting its baptism into the Sweet 16 means “a lot to the school, a lot to the town, everybody,” coach John Kloepfer told the Findlay Courier.
Other Regional Semifinal
Holgate (20-4) plays Delphos St. John’s (19-4) in the second game Tuesday night at Bowling Green. The 16th-ranked Tigers upset third-ranked Ayersville 56-50 in the Napoleon District final on Friday night.
“Our goal this year was to win districts,” Holgate coach Brad Hurst told the Toledo Blade. “Everything on top of this is gravy.”
Top-seeded Delphos St. John’s beat second-seeded Convoy Crestview 48-36 to win the Elida District. No one has come within 10 points of the Blue Jays, who feature a 6-foot-8 center and a stellar point guard, yet in the postseason.
“That’s where they get you; they have the ability to shoot the ball and stretch the floor,” Crestview head coach Jeremy Best told the Van Wert Times Bulletin.
If St. Peter’s stops North Baltimore, it plays the survivor of the Holgate-St. John’s tilt on Saturday for a regional championship and a ticket to the Final Four.
