NORWALK, Ohio — In less time than it takes to boil an egg, Western Reserve had built a lead Galion couldn’t overcome.
The third-seeded Rough Riders scored the first 11 points and kept up the heat in a resounding 65-47 win over the Tigers in the late game of a Division III district semifinal doubleheader at Norwalk High School.
Western Reserve (16-7) will take on No. 1 seed Edison at 7 p.m. Saturday at Norwalk in the district championship game. Edison dispatched No. 6 Willard 57-40 in Thursday’s early game.
The Riders connected on three 3-pointers in the opening three minutes, building an 11-0 lead at the 5:16 mark of the first quarter. Freshman guard Jaret Griffith led the early onslaught, knocking two of his three first-quarter treys before most of the fans had found their seats.
“It sort of punched them in the mouth a little bit and stunned them,” Western Reserve coach Chris Sheldon said. “It’s like we hit them with a big right hook and they weren’t expecting it.”
Junior sharpshooter Tyler Bartlett got into the act as well. His triple at the 5:16 mark gave Western Reserve an 11-0 lead.
“I’m really good friends with one of their assistant coaches and he said, ‘Hey, we were hitting shots. Some of these guys weren’t shooting like that all year,’ ” Galion coach Colby Bright said. “They hit a lot of shots and played really, really well.”
Getting Defensive: The Rough Riders hounded Galion point guard Houston Blair all evening long. Two defenders shadowed Blair the length of the floor.
“They kind of knew the inside scoop. If you get it out of Huey’s hands and we struggle,” Bright said. “They didn’t let him do anything all night. He’s the key to our whole operation, so that hurt.”
The Rough Riders limited Blair to five points, almost nine below his season average.
“We said we’re going to go double him from baseline to baseline and we’re going to make somebody else beat us,” Sheldon said. “We put in two different packages in our man and zone pressure and we just said we’re going to mix it up and see what works best for us.
“Not only did it take him out of his game, but it took their entire team out of their offensive flow.”
Picking Up the Slack: After falling behind 11-0, the Tigers outscored Western Reserve 11-5 the rest of the first quarter and trailed 16-11 going into the second. Senior Colton Moore scored all 11 of Galion’s first-quarter points.
The Tigers trailed 35-19 at the half, but made it interesting in the third. Gallon outscored the Rough Riders 16-10 in the period and trailed 45-35 going to the fourth. A traditional three-point play by Gavin Ratcliff cut Western Reserve’s advantage to 47-38 early in the fourth, but the Tigers could get no closer.
“They are giving us an advantage (by double-teaming Blair),” Bright said. “We’ve got four on three, but we never took advantage. We didn’t play with confidence.
“If we would have taken advantage of that and made them pay, they would have had to play us straight up and then it’s a ball game.”
Leaders: Moore led Galion with 25 points. Ratcliff added 12.
Griffith connected on six 3-pointers and scored a team-best 20 points for the Rough Riders. Aaron Logan had 15 and Bartlett added 13.
