LCC SHUTS DOWN UNDEFEATED PATRICK HENRY

BOWLING GREEN — With Jordan Priddy being the only returnee from the starting lineup of last year’s state semifinalist team, there wasn’t a lot of talk about Lima Central Catholic making a return trip to the boys state basketball tournament in the preseason. There was little or no buzz about the Thunderbirds’ chances when they started 6-6 with the final game in the loss column in those dozen games being a 34-point loss at Delphos St. John’s. But after beating previously undefeated Patrick Henry 43-35 in a Division VI regional semifinal on Tuesday night at Bowling Green’s Stroh Center, LCC is on the doorstep of back-to-back state semifinal appearances. The Thunderbirds (18-7) will play Colonel Crawford (24-1) in the regional championship game Saturday at the Stroh Center. Colonel Crawford won Tuesday night’s other semifinal 48-41 over Maumee Valley Country Day. Beating Patrick Henry was the biggest takedown of the tournament, probably of the season, for the Thunderbirds. Not only were the Patriots 24-0 going into the game, but they also had won 20 of those 24 games by 10 points or more. “Last year’s team was led by seniors. Going into games, it felt a little different. I had more leaders. We just go out there and swing. Sometimes we close our eyes when we do but we play hard for 32 minutes,” LCC coach Sean Powell said about this year’s team. LCC fell behind by as many as six points early in the second quarter before taking a 21-20 halftime lead. Patrick Henry went up 31-27 after three quarters before the Thunderbirds dominated the fourth quarter, outscoring the Patriots 16-4 in the last eight minutes. “We felt confident, we had a lot of confidence. Every team is beatable. We don’t look at any team differently,” LCC sophomore forward Brady Parker said. “We knew they were going to be a tough shot.” Priddy led LCC’s scoring with 25 points, including 11 of the Thunderbirds’ 16 fourth-quarter points on a 3-pointer, back-to-back drives for buckets and going four for four on free throws in the last 40 seconds of the game. “Jordan is a big-time player. We feel confident when the ball is in his hands that he’s going to make the right decisions. He shoots the basketball at a high clip. Whenever we can play off what he does, we’re usually in a good position,” Powell said. The stress LCC’s defense put on Patrick Henry’s shooters often put them in uncomfortable positions and played a huge role in the game. The Patriots shot 25 percent on field goals (12 of 47) and were 2 of 15 on three-pointers. “We did not play our best tonight and when you get this far and that happens against good teams, you’re going to lose,” Patrick Henry coach Bryan Hieber said. “We didn’t shoot it that well but hats off to LCC. We hadn’t seen that quickness this year. They were able to get us out of some of the stuff we wanted to do. We’re going to live and die by getting to the rim and opening things up for our shooters around the perimeter. We just weren’t to get to the basket as often as we wanted to. “We handled their first wave of pressure but once we got into our offense, they were just making it difficult to move the basketball,” he said. Lincoln Creager and Reid Creager each scored 12 points to lead Patrick Henry, which played only six players and only three of them scored. Mack Hieber, a 6-6 junior, scored 11 points, all of them in the second half, and had 10 rebounds. Powell said, “I thought during the first half we were trying to hit a home run with every possession on offense and when you do that it makes the ball stick. Without the flow, it’s hard for the ball to drop. But I felt like we went in at halftime, gathered our stuff, got our feet underneath us and came out in the second half and played solid.”

LCC SHUTS DOWN UNDEFEATED PATRICK HENRY

Photo Credit: Richard Parrish