CLAYTON – The No. 3 seed Versailles Tigers opened OHSAA Division V tournament play in impressive fashion, defeating the No. 14 seed Greenon Knights 65-39 in first-round action.
“A lot of guys contributed here tonight,” said Versailles coach Travis Swank. “That is good for us going into tournament as we keep on going down the road.”
Versailles wasted little time setting the tone, racing out to a 9-0 lead in the opening three-and-a-half minutes. Blake Monnin sparked the early surge with a two-point basket followed by a 3-pointer, giving the Tigers a 5-0 advantage at the 6:06 mark of the first quarter. Back-to-back layups from Kade Schwartz and Drake Ahrens extended the lead to nine.
With the early cushion in hand, the Tigers briefly let up as Greenon battled back to close the gap. Still, Versailles held a 19-11 lead at the end of the first quarter, with five different Tigers contributing to the scoring column.
“First game in the tournament, there are always jitters,” Swank said. “You can say what you want about teams and matchups, but you still have those nervous butterflies when you go out there. We missed a lot of easy ones early on, missed a ton of layups. Getting a game under our belt now, hopefully we start to settle down.”
Versailles found its rhythm defensively in the second quarter, limiting the Knights to just seven points while adding 14 of their own to take a comfortable 33-19 halftime lead.
“I just told them in the locker room what I heard the other day – I listened to Todd Monken in his press conference, and he made a comment that really stuck with me,” Swank said. “He said, ‘I’d rather win in Alaska than lose in San Diego,’ so it doesn’t have to be the prettiest thing in the world, but we found a way to win, and a win is a win at the end of the day. We’re still playing, and there are people at home right now that aren’t practicing tomorrow, so that’s the main thing, just continue on.”
The Tigers put the game out of reach in the third quarter. Mixing starters with bench players, Versailles outscored Greenon 22-9 in the period, stretching the advantage to 55-27 heading into the final frame. Seven Tigers scored in the quarter as the lead ballooned to nearly 30 points.
“That first four minutes of the second half were really good for us,” Swank noted. “We were on and stretched it out to about 30 for us at that time. People were playing harder, people were moving the ball a little bit more.”
With the outcome well in hand, Swank went deep into his bench in the fourth quarter, even giving junior varsity players the final three minutes of tournament experience.
“We left a lot on the table tonight,” Swank said. “Generally passing is one of our strengths and we just didn’t hit guys that were open – we clean those things up, we’re going to be fine.”
Versailles showcased a balanced scoring attack with 10 players denting the scoring column. Drake Ahrens led the way with 13 points, followed by Kade Schwartz with 12 and Blake Monnin with 11.
The Tigers advance to face No. 16 seed Middletown Madison in a Monday, March 2 matchup at Northmont High School. Tipoff is scheduled for 8:30 p.m.
“You don’t take anything for granted at this point and time,” Swank concluded. “They (Madison) played some people pretty tough and they play in a league that has a little bigger schools than what we have. They’ve played some good teams throughout the year, so we have to be ready to go.”
BOX SCORE:
VERSAILLES 65, GREENON 39
VERSAILLES – D. Ahrens 13, K. Schwartz 12, B. Monnin 11, E. Wilker 6, R. Raterman 6, M. Stonebraker 5, C. Ahrens 4, J. Borchers 4, E. Heitkamp 2, D. Barga 2 – TOTALS 22 6-11 5 65
GREENON – C. Best 11, K. Goodbar 11, K. Ricks 5, E. Rychnoski 5, T. Henry 4, B. Spangler 2, T. Bendell 1 – TOTALS 8 5-12 6 39
3-POINTERS
Versailles 5 (K. Schwartz 1, D. Ahrens 1, R. Raterman 1, B. Monnin 1, M. Stonebraker 1)
Greenon 6 (C. Best 3, T. Henry 1, K. Ricks 1, E. Rychnoski 1)
SCORE by QUARTERS
19-14-22-10 65 Versailles
11-07-09-12 39 Greenon
