SPENCERVILLE-It has been since 1987 the last time the Spencerville Bearcats were in the sweet sixteen of high school basketball. However, 39 years later they will have a chance to rewrite history on Friday night at beautiful Defiance high school when they take on a familiar foe, and fellow NWC member, the Crestview Knights.
Spencerville is coming off a hard fought win on Tuesday night when they trailed by as many as 14 against St. Henry before storming back for a 51-44 victory.
“We played really poorly in the first quarter,” said Spencerville head coach Kevin Sensabaugh. “We got down big. If you want success in the tourney, you must overcome adversity. Our guys were tough enough to do that. We kept defending, kept rebounding, and eventually took control.”
As for the Crestview Knights they had to shake off some rust as they haven’t played a game in 13 days till Wednesday night’s 54-47 victory over Ayersville. Hayden Perrot led the Knights with 21 points while Will Sheets added in 10.
“It was good to get a week of practice in and try to work on some of the things that we needed to improve on,” said Crestview head coach Doug Etzler. “We also battled some sickness last week so it was good that we had a little extra time to recover from that. But, having the extra time off sometimes leads to rusty play and I think some of that showed last night. We weren’t as sharp as we could have been, but I also think we had some nervous energy – for some of our guys this was their first time playing in a high school tournament game.”
The Bearcats and the Knights are very familiar with one another as fellow NWC members. The Bearcats took down the Knights in Convoy back on December 12th with a 65-39 victory. Will Sensabaugh led the ‘Cats with 32 points in the victory. Further more, this will be the first time that they will meet in the postseason since 2010 when Crestview picked up the 57-45 victory.
Both coaches talked about how both teams are different since then.
“I didn’t spend any time watching our first game,” said Etzler. “Both teams have settled into their tendencies now so we focused more on how Spencerville played against their most recent opponents.”
“Crestview is completely different than they were back in December, as are we,” commented Sensabaugh. “These are two different teams than the first meeting. This is a whole new game.”
For Crestview it has been the presence of St. Francis commit Hayden Perrot. Perrot a 2nd team all NWC selection while junior Will Sheets was also a 2nd team all NWC selection this season. Perrot has averaged 15.2 points per game while Sheets has averaged 12.4 points and 6.6 rebounds per game.
“It is very important to get both Hayden and Will going,” commented Etzler, “To be successful we have to have a good inside and outside punch where the defense has to guard both the paint and perimeter. When those two get going, it also helps open things up for the rest of the team.”
Despite the long district championship drought for the Bearcats, this is Spencerville’s 4th district final in 5 years. Sensabaugh talked about what it would mean for this group to get the district crown.
“It would mean a lot,” explained Sensabaugh. “We have been through a lot, but it would mean a lot for the guys that came before us too. We’ve had some great teams not make it out of districts, this would mean a lot.”
“Our crowd really travels well,” commented Sensabaugh. “I am expecting a big crowd Friday night. I’m looking forward to the atmosphere.”
Both coaches talked about the keys to victory on Friday night.
“Some keys for us to win tomorrow night are for us to make them take tough, contested shots,” concluded Etzler. “Spencerville does a great job of running their sets and putting you in tough situations where they like to set a back screen and then have the screener come off a double screen. We have to do a great job of bumping their cutters and then helping on the double screen. Offensively, we have to not let them bump us off our spots and force us to play faster than we want. We need to dictate the tempo of the game.”
“1. Take care of the ball 2. Rebound the basketball 3. Execute your stuff” concluded Sensabaugh.
If you can’t make it to the game tune in to Zsports 3 as Nate Stidham and Shane Falke have all the action with the pregame show at 5:45pm followed by tipoff scheduled for 6pm
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