VANDALIA — Cedarville beat Tri-Village, the No. 1 Division-IV team in Ohio Tuesday, 67-56, in a regional semifinal at Butler High School.
Cedarville, which finished tied for seventh in the D-IV poll, will play Botkins — a 75-50 winner over Newark Catholic in the first semi — in Friday’s regional final at 7 p.m. at Butler.
Much like it did to win a district title on Saturday, Cedarville overcame a double-digit deficit to advance to its first regional final. Cedarville trailed by as many as 10 points in the third quarter but went on a 15-5 run to tie it at 43-43 after three. Cedarville (24-1) then went on a 10-2 run to start the fourth quarter and open a 53-45 lead with 5:12 left.
Caleb McKinion made a baseline jumper, Trent Koning made four free throws, and Isaiah Ramey scored on a rebound to make it 51-43 before Josh Scantland scored on a rebound to make it 51-45 with 5:24 left.
Koning and Tri-Village’s Layne Sarver traded buckets to make it 53-47 with 4:52 left, but Cedarville went on an 11-2 run to lead 64-49 with 1:30 left.
Ball game.
Koning finished with 22 points, Ramey 21, and Payton Herron and McKinion eight each. Sarver had 33 for Tri-Village (26-1).
In Saturday’s district title game, Koning didn’t score in the first quarter. But he didn’t waste any time getting going Tuesday. He scored 10 points in the first quarter as Cedarville led, 16-13, after one. He hit a pair of three-pointers and also stole an inbound pass at half-court and beat a defender for a one-handed power slam. Cedarville ended the quarter on a 6-0 run, which included the dunk with 45 seconds left.
Cedarville forced six first-quarter turnovers, the last one coming from Koning with about four seconds left. He passed ahead to a wide-open Hayden Hanson near the three-point line, but the buzzer sounded just before he could get a shot off.
A basket by McKinion off a nifty no-look pass from Koning gave Cedarville an 18-13 lead with 6:23 left in the half, but Sarver hit back-to-back three-pointers to give the Patriots a 19-18 lead with 5:30 left. Herron hit a three-pointer at the other end with 4:17 left and then Ramey made one of two from the line for a 22-19 lead with 3:51 left.
Justin Finkbine scored after a rebound to make it 22-21 Cedarville, but Hanson made a mid-range jumper to increase the lead to 24-21 with 3:19 left. Scantland scored on a traditional three-pointer on a fast break to tie it with 2:37 left, but Ramey made a bucket to give Cedarville a 26-24 lead with 2:19 left. Sarver scored on a spin move in the lane, was fouled and made the free throw with 1:47 left to give the Patriots a 27-26 lead.
McKinion scored inside to give Cedarville a 28-27 lead with 1:31 left but Sarver made a pair of shots, the last coming with less than a second left to give Tri-Village a 31-28 halftime lead. Koning did not score in the second quarter.
Tri-Village came out hot in the second half, and Cedarville missed its first four shots as the Patriots built a 38-28 lead two minutes into the third quarter. After a Cedarville timeout, Ramey sparked Cedarville run with a three-pointer with 5:44 left. Herron also hit a three, Hanson made a pair of free throws and Koning made a three-pointer to make it 41-40 with 1:38 left. Sarver and Scantland each made one of two from the line, while Drew Koning made one of two at the line and the score stood at 43-41 with 37.4 seconds left.
Cedarville had the ball in the waning seconds and Ramey rebounded a long three-pointer by Koning, was fouled with .02 seconds left and made two free throws to tie it at 43-43 after three.
Unofficially, Cedarville missed just one shot in the fourth quarter, while Tri-Village missed nine, including four three-pointers.
