PAULDING — Galion coach Tyler Sanders knew his team wasn’t supposed to win Saturday’s Division IV district championship.
The Tigers came in with eight wins — two of those coming in the postseason — and had a nearly two-hour drive to Paulding to face top-seed Van Wert ranked No. 8 in the state a mere 30 minutes north of the Cougars’ gymnasium.
But Galion didn’t get that memo battling Van Wert up until the very end in a 53-35 loss to finish as district runner-up. It was the Tigers’ best postseason performance since ’08-’09.
“It’s a cool moment,” Sanders said. “We didn’t bring a massive crowd, but I thought we brought a mighty crowd. They were loud and got into it for us there in the fourth quarter when we were trying to make a run to get back into it. Just try to soak it in because you don’t know if this is going to be it. You hope it’s not, but you just try to take in the moment.
“I told the guys to enjoy this opportunity, this crowd, and this environment.”
After matching the Cougars basket for basket in the entirety of the first quarter, Van Wert took a 13-10 lead into the second quarter where Sanders was forced into a timeout 40 seconds in after seeing junior Dominic Capretta tweak his bad knee on a turnover that led to a layup. He went to the bench for the remainder of the first half and that’s when Van Wert reeled off a 13-3 run to close out the second quarter.
“We got off to a hot start … but we’re a team where we have this bad quarter, which was the second, and we found ourselves down 15 at half,” Sanders said. “That second quarter was rough, and you see one of your guys go down — the rock of your team — and everybody in their mind is like, oh no, and you’re worried about them. To Dom’s credit, he came out in the second half and really played well to spark us.
“Then we crawled back into it to give ourselves the opportunity. That speaks about the resilience of our kids and how hard they’re willing to never give up and be out there for their teammates.”
It was still a 13-point deficit after three (40-27) but back-to-back baskets and stops at the other end got the Tigers within eight (40-32) with 5:20 remaining. That’s the closest it would get, though, as Van Wert settled and started to hit some shots and control possession down the stretch closing out on a 13-3 run.
“We knew watching them and preparing for them that they were tough minded and gritty kids that were going to come in here and compete,” Cougars coach Jeremy Best said. “We told our guys that, and we had stretches of basketball where we were really, really good … then we had some stretches where we weren’t, and some of that was from Galion. They did a really nice job taking us off the dribble and I don’t think we guarded the basketball very well.”
In a game where Galion was outmatched, the Tigers did everything they could to keep their season alive.
“It was one of those nights where guys were doing things that didn’t show up in the (scorebook),” Sanders said. “Parker (Tinch) was massive affecting shots, grabbing rebounds, getting in the passing lanes. (Colton) Flynn has been a spot-up shooter for us but he goes for 14 or 15 tonight.
“Diving on loose balls … there was one at the end of the third quarter where we could have give up and they would’ve laid it in, but Jamesin (Glew) dove and poked it out and it went to someone else and we went down the floor to get an and-one. That kind of stuff, when you’re down 15, can go one of two ways. And our kids decided it they were gonna make this a game. I was proud of that effort and their willingness to leave it all out there … it was fun to watch.”
Flynn led the way with 14 points, Glew added eight, Cameron Smith seven, Christian Bare and Capretta three apiece.
“We graduate two wonderful seniors in Evan Murphy and Cam Smith, I love them and I can’t thank them enough for their contribution to our program,” Sanders said. “But we have a lot of guys back and they’re hungry. It was a season that we finished the right way, but didn’t start off the way we were hoping.
“They got a taste of what they’re capable of and hopefully we’ll be back for more.”
zholden@gannett.com | 419-617-6018 | Twitter/X: @Zachary_Holden
This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Galion finishes as district runner-up, best postseason run since 2009
Reporting by Zachary Holden, Mansfield News Journal / Mansfield News Journal
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