KETTERING – The Versailles Tigers dropped a 53-32 regional final OHSAA DIII tournament game to the Preble Shawnee Arrows ending its bid for a state final four appearance after an 11-11 regular season.
“Just wasn’t meant to be here tonight because of their defense,” said Versailles coach, Travis Swank following the game. “Their defense stifled us on the offensive end.”
Versailles, a Darke County school known for its tournament runs in boys and Lady Tigers sports made it to the elite eight as the No. 11 seed with an impressive four-game tournament win streak including wins over 2 seed Indian Lake and 3 seed Mariemont.
In the opening frame, the Tigers kept pace with the Arrows with the teams tied at 11-11 with 3:21 showing on the first quarter board.
Preble Shawnee locked down on both ends of the court with a 13-2 run through the end of the first half with the Arrows Mason Shrout raining down 3’s in the closing minute of first-half sending the teams to the break with Shawnee taking double-digit 24-13 lead to the break.
“Their defense is very underrated and what causes teams more problems,” Swank stated. “We literally couldn’t hit a shot from outside and we had some good looks early and just couldn’t connect with them.”
After a 2-point second quarter, Versailles battled back to match the Arrows 15-15 in the third led by seven Jace Watren points including a 3-pointer, five AJ Griesdorn points, and a Gabe White triple. Preble Shawnee maintained its 11-point lead, 39-28 with one period to play.
The Arrows Mr. Ohio finalist Mason Schout with more than 2,000 career points led Preble Shawnee with seven fourth-quarter points including his fifth trey of the contest to take the final period of the night 14-4 sending the Arrows to the state final four at UD Arena.
“They are a talented team,” said Coach Swank of Preble Shawnee. “They have one of the best players around in our area, especially at our level – he makes the go. I thought we made him work pretty hard for everything – he was very good tonight.”
Coach Swank took time to comment on his three seniors: No. 2 AJ Griesdorn, No. 15 Gabe White and No. 24 Carson Heitkamp.
“AJ’s been our steady guy for us, we’ve asked a lot out of him this year,” said Swank. “He’s the only senior that had any experience. He’s done it on the football field, the basketball court and he’s probably going to do it on the baseball field. He’s been asked to be a dude at all three levels. That’s hard to do. He’s been one of our steady players in all three sports here at Versailles.”
“Just showing his leadership skills and his communication with the players, that is going to benefit him the rest of his life,” Swank said of Gabe White. “He’s going to be able to be successful because of those things.”
“Carson had a great last month of the year,” Swank noted. “Developed and decided that he didn’t want his season to end early and just kept on being tenacious to the rim. I am just so happy how it ended for him. He deserves a lot of credit because he completely revamped his game and took it to the next level.”
“All three of them are fine young men,” Coach Swank concluded. “They are going to be very successful in life.”
Shrout led Preble Shawnee and all scorers with a game-high 28 points.
BOXSCORE:
PREBLE SHAWNEE – M. Shrout 28, B. Morton 11, B. Robinette 6, L. Hawley 5, K. Mills 3 – 7 12-18 9 53
VERSAILLES – J. Watren 10, D. Ahrens 6, C. Heitkamp 6, AJ Griesdorn 5, G. White 3, E. Wilker 2 – 9 2-6 4 3
3-POINTERS
Preble Shawnee 9 (5, B. Morton 2, K. Mills 1, B. Robinette 1)
Versailles 4 (J. Watren 2, G. White 1, C. Heitkamp 1)
SCORE by QUARTERS
14-10-15-14 53 Preble Shawnee
11-02-15-04 32 Versailles
