ONTARIO — The magic of March Madness has eluded the Mansfield Senior boys basketball program for a dozen years.
That drought ended on Saturday night as the Tygers spun a web of enchantment with their scrappy resolve in a highly-charged 64-61 Division III Northwest District Championship upset of top-seeded Lima Shawnee.
“This is it. This is what Tyger basketball is supposed to feel like,” said coach Marquis Sykes amid the din of a jubilant scene at Ontario High School. “I’m just so happy for these kids. I’m so happy for this city.”
Playing before a packed crowd at the O-Rena, Senior High stood up to a much bigger Indians’ squad that dominated the glass to the tune of a whopping 40-24 rebounding bulge.
Yet the scrappy Tygers took advantage of their quickness and aggressiveness to pocket their first Sweet 16 trip since 2014. That matchup with Alliance will take place on Wednesday at 8 p.m. at the University of Toledo.
“(The district) has been a roadblock for us,” said senior D.J. Corbin, who hit a huge buzzer-beating trey at the halftime buzzer among his seven points, and grabbed five rebounds. “We knew this team was special. This is great for us, great for our fans.
“We’re going to squeeze this trophy tonight and get back to work tomorrow.”
The Tygers (18-7) have a tomorrow to look forward to thanks to a gutty effort that has prevailed in both district tournament games. Third-seeded Senior High eliminated No. 2-seed Oregon Clay earlier this week 55-47 after busting out to an 11-0 lead and then holding serve for the remainder of the game.
Beating No. 1-seed Shawnee was an entirely different animal.
The Western Buckeye League champions (19-6 overall, 9-0 in their league) boasted the bruising Bertke brothers. Senior Beckett Burtke is 6-foot-6, while his little brother Trevick is a 6-7 junior.
Those two were a handful all night. Beckett poured in a game-high 26 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, while Trevick added 17 points and five rebounds. Unofficially, Lima Shawnee recorded seven stickback baskets while picking off a jaw-dropping 19 offensive rebounds.
Such a stat almost always spells doom for any basketball team. Yet the magic of March finally found itself in the Tygers’ grasp.
“I thought we really played pretty good defense all night,” Shawnee coach Mark Triplett said. “But they really scrapped, came up with a lot of 50-50 balls, and were able to score in transition just enough.”
Mansfield Senior showed exactly how it had to execute in the first quarter, drilling 8-of-13 field goals, including 3-of-5 behind the arc, to forge a 21-16 first-quarter margin.
Triplett deployed the Indians into a box-and-one defense in the second period to slow Senior High’s sensational sophomore Kaylen Brooks, who finished with a team-high 21 points. While Brooks had seven points in the initial eight minutes, he managed just two free throws in the second quarter.
Meanwhile, Shawnee began to flex its inside power. The Indians didn’t allow a field goal through the first five minutes of the period, and the ensuing 9-2 spree led to a 34-32 halftime edge.
It could’ve been worse, but Corbin’s triple at the intermission horn gave Sykes’ squad a monster lift when it seemed to be wobbling.
“We really didn’t react very well to the box-and-one,” Sykes said.
However, the adjustment came in the third period when Mansfield Senior began to spread the floor, creating driving lanes for its quick ballhandlers that led to numerous easy shots. On the other end, the Tygers’ turned up the defensive pressure by pressing full court at times.
The result touched off an 11-4 Senior High spurt that culminated in a Brooks’ triple. That shot made it 45-40, and sent the Mansfield side of the gym into a frenzy. The Tygers rolled into the third-quarter stop with a 47-42 lead heading to the final eight minutes.
“We tried to stay with the box-and-one, but the problem was we weren’t scoring enough on the offensive end and they beat us down the floor a couple of times for some layups,” said Triplett, who is in his 13th year with the program and is the winningest coach in school history.
“We were 4-of-20 from three, and we’ve been a pretty good shooting team most of the year. You have to give some credit to their defense.”
The fourth quarter was a tense affair mostly because the Tygers struggled mightily at the line.
Brooks drained his third and final trey to get the decisive quarter off on the right foot, and then Andrew Brooks Jr. took over.
The 6-2 junior, who collected 16 points and five rebounds, worked his way to the goal for three baskets in four possessions, and capped it with a conventional three-point play that pushed Senior High on top 57-48.
But just when it looked like Mansfield Senior was about to blow it open, faulty free throw shooting kept the Indians in it.
“We’ve worked our tails off on the line this week,” Sykes said. “I don’t understand it. We made just enough to win.”
The Tygers missed seven free throws in the quarter, and Beckett Bertke’s 10 points rallied Shawnee.
It came down to a pressure-filled exchange at the end. The Tygers missed two more free throws with 17 seconds to play and the elder Bertke grabbed the rebound.
Senior High immediately sent two defenders after him, forcing the ball out of his hands. Shawnee was just as intent on getting it back to their standout for a potential game-tying trey, but again Bertke was double-teamed and the ball squirted free.
A rolling shot at the buzzer was not close and Mansfield Senior fans flooded the floor.
“This has been a long time coming,” Sykes said. “These guys came together, and now they’re district champs.”
Davion Mack chipped in 10 points and five rebounds for Senior High, while Rashad Reed Jr. added eight. The Tygers made 22-of-46 field goals to offset a 14-of-26 showing at the free throw line.
Sophomore Sullivan Hasting contributed 10 points for Shawnee, which suffered 14 turnovers.
“They certainly punished us for our mistakes,” Triplett said.
Next up for Mansfield Senior is a date with Alliance. The Aviators (23-2) dismissed Bedford 71-62 in Saturday night’s Strongsville District title game.
(Photos by Tom Theodore)
