Boys advance to district finals
Even though they have seen and beaten them twice already this season, the Tippecanoe boys basketball team built a good lead against Xenia in the second round of the OHSAA Sectional Tournament last week, and finished off the Buccs 74-60 to advance into the Division III District Finals, which was played on Saturday at UD Arena.
Against Xenia, Bryton Otto led the way with 23, Hudson Ganger added 18 and CJ Bailey scored 15 for Tipp.
“We said going into the tournament, we wanted that chance to go win a district title,” Tipp coach Brock Moon said. “This was a step along the way and playing a team for the third time is never easy and we both know each other pretty well.”
“It took us a little bit of time but I thought the kids played pretty well with a lot of confidence,” Moon added that Xenia played the same gameplan with nothing surprising in this game.
Tipp built a 39-26 lead at the half as both Ganger and Otto reached double figures in the first half to set the tone offensively as Tipp began to build their lead.
“Our big thing going into halftime was trying to extend that lead and not let it become a game again,” Moon said. “I thought we did a great job of that coming out of the half and won the third quarter by ten.”
“Two of their kids had a majority of their points at halftime, we just needed to work to make their life a little tougher and I thought we did a great job with that.
Xenia battled back in the fourth period and actually controlled those eight minutes, shaving nine points off their deficit but it wasn’t enough as Tipp held on for the win.
“We turned the ball over a bit too much in the fourth quarter, the game was in the 25-point range and we gave them too many easy buckets in transition.” Moon said, and once Tipp settled down a bit, things were fine from there to close things out.
As reported elsewhere this week, four members of the squad were named all-Southwest District as Bailey was Player of the Year, Otto was second team, Turner and Ganger were honorable mention. Moon spoke on their honors.
Bailey- “it means a lot and a lot of it is his body of work and what it has meant to the Southwest. Being the all-time winningest player at Tipp, setting the three-point record, all of those things culminate to him receiving that award.” Moon mentioned his memory has Ben Knostman and Kellen Zawadski being two other Tipp players to ever win the award.
Otto- “to think about a kid who played JV as a junior with really no varsity experience heading into his senior year, he has been gigantic for us. We joke that we wish we could have him for another year with the way he grew from last year to this year.”
Ganger- “as a sophomore and full time starter, he will set the single season three-point percentage record here at Tipp as a sophomore which is huge. He has stretched the floor and has knocked down some big shots.”
Turner- “you ask any player we play against who is your favorite player we have and they say Colin Turner. He hustles and dives all over the floor, makes huge rebounds for us and does a ton of other things that don’t show up in the scorebook. It’s not just about scoring 20 points per game, there is so much he brings to us.”
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