MADISON TOWNSHIP — All the shots that fell for Ontario last week were off-target Wednesday night.
Top-seeded Upper Sandusky limited the Warriors to 15 first-half points and held on for a 54-45 win in the early game of a Division II district semifinal doubleheader at Madison Middle School.
The Rams (23-1) will play Norwalk for the district title at 2 p.m. Saturday at Madison. The Truckers dispatched Shelby 62-58 in Wednesday’s nightcap.
The fifth-seeded Warriors, who shot the lights out in a sectional final win over Lexington last week at Bucyrus, couldn’t buy a bucket Wednesday night. Ontario was just 18-for-57 from the field (32 percent) and didn’t attempt a single free throw.
“We just didn’t make shots,” Ontario coach Joe Balogh said matter-of-factly. “Give Upper Sandusky credit for how they defended, but also we missed a lot of open shots. We had several shots that kind of went in and came back out.
“The big thing that Upper did so well is they limited us to one shot. I think we had one offensive rebound in the first half. If you’re going to miss shots you’ve got to be able to get second-chance opportunities. We just weren’t able to do that.”
The Warriors (17-7) trailed 12-10 after the first quarter and 19-15 deep into the second before the Rams closed the half on a quick 7-0 run. Upper’s Cade Adams capped the spurt with a 3-pointer at the halftime buzzer for a 26-15 halftime lead.
“We like to finish quarters off,” Upper Sandusky coach Jeff Winslow said. “We went on that 7-0 run and executed our last-second play and making a shot with Cade Adams. He’s a gym rat. That’s all he does is shoot, shoot, shoot.
“That was the biggest part of the game. We go on that 7-0 run to make it 11 at the half.”
Upper led 37-25 after three quarters before Ontario started showing some signs of life. Back-to-back 3-pointers by Kolten Kurtz cut the Upper lead to 43-35 with 4:30 remaining. A triple by Griffin Shaver off a Shaquan Coburn assist made it 44-40 with 2:51 remaining.
“We had it at 44-40. We had some chances, but we just didn’t get it done,” Balogh said. “If we get that shot to go when it’s 44-40, you never know what’s going to happen.”
Shaver led Ontario with 15 points. Kurtz had 14.
“It’s tough. When you end a season, it hurts,” Balogh said. “It especially hurts when you have good kids and we have good kids who work hard.”
Evan Young led the Rams with 22 points. Cam McCreary added 11.
