Prep basketball: Badin beats VV, extends first-game sectional streak

Badin High School’s first-round tournament magic is an ongoing thing.

The Rams won their 12th straight sectional opener Saturday afternoon by rolling past Valley View 63-48 in Division II boys basketball play at Fairmont’s Trent Arena.

“It took us a while to get into that flow of a tournament game,” said Badin coach Gerry Weisgerber, whose team improved to 14-9 and extended its winning streak to five. “The first half was one of those where it’s the first game of the tournament and we only had two guys out there that have started a tournament game before.

“In the second half, we kind of relaxed a little bit more, and all of a sudden shots were going down. I just thought in the second half we played like we have been playing the previous four games.”

BOYS BASKETBALL COVERAGE

The Rams quickly pulled away from a 21-16 halftime lead, opening the third period with a 10-2 spurt that included back-to-back 3-pointers by Kyle Young and Sam Mathews.

Valley View piled up 13 of its 19 turnovers after the break and simply couldn’t sink enough shots to stay within striking distance.

“We tried to leave it all out there on defense. Our defense was there (in the first half),” said Young, a senior guard. “Second half, our offense just kept on flowing. We hit some shots and we got some layups and we played good.”

Young totaled 13 points and eight rebounds for Badin. Jakob Tipton had 16 points, six boards and three blocks, Caleb Meyer had 13 points, six rebounds, four assists and four steals, and Mathews had 10 points and four steals.

Tipton ran off 10 points in the opening period. Young’s point total marked just the second time he’s reached double figures in his career — he had 14 against Northwest on Feb. 6.

“Kyle can shoot. We’ve just got to get him relaxed like in practice,” Weisgerber said. “We saw that in the second half. It was more of a catch-and-rhythm to it. Everything was loose.”

The BHS coach chose not to play junior forward Justin Pappas, who was medically cleared after missing the entire regular season with a knee injury.

“I thought about it a couple times,” Weisgerber said. “He did have a good week of practice. We’ll give him a couple more days and see how he is for Tuesday.”

The fourth-seeded Rams will return to Trent Arena on Tuesday to meet Greater Catholic League Coed Division rival Alter in a 6 p.m. sectional semifinal. The 11th-seeded Knights, 61-46 losers to Badin on Dec. 8, knocked off No. 10 Ponitz 64-54 on Saturday.

“We’ll have our hands full,” Weisgerber said. “They’ve changed some of their offensive and defensive schemes over the last half of the season, but they still have guys that can shoot the ball.

“From what I’ve been seeing, they’ve been playing zone a lot more in the second half of the season, so I would think after seeing us today, they’ll play zone against us. We’ve got to take today’s second half and make that a full game.”

Valley View, the No. 12 seed, finished 9-14 after its fourth consecutive defeat. Ben Herman’s 15 points and seven rebounds led the Spartans, who shot 30.8 percent from the field. Clayton Erbaugh added 12 points.

“They beat us to every loose ball, and we just didn’t make shots,” Valley View coach Ben Buehner said. “They were the 4 seed, but I told the guys I wouldn’t have seen it as an upset if we beat them. It would’ve taken a good game to beat them, but I thought we were pretty evenly matched.

“We didn’t fully execute our game plan like we wanted to. They just made us uncomfortable, and we didn’t respond well enough to win.”

The Spartans are losing five seniors: Will Harshberger, Sam Whisman, Logan Hannah, Herman and Erbaugh. Valley View was 16-8 last season.

“I have high expectations for the guys. I never expect us to not have a winning season,” Buehner said. “I think we played six or seven Division I teams this year, multiple GCL teams, and I do it to be ready for the tournament. But I expect to win those games. We just haven’t consistently done what we need to do to beat a lot of those teams yet.”

Valley View 7-9-12-20—48

Badin 14-7-17-25—63

VALLEY VIEW (9-14): Gio Geiger 1 0 3, Clayton Erbaugh 5 1 12, Ben Herman 4 6 15, Logan Hannah 2 3 7, Max Shuey 1 0 2, Will Harshberger 1 0 2, Sam Whisman 1 0 2, Zach Hannah 1 3 5. Totals: 16-13-48

BADIN (14-9): Jakob Tipton 7 2 16, Daunte DeCello 2 1 5, Kyle Young 6 0 13, Sam Mathews 4 1 10, Caleb Meyer 6 0 13, Zach Switzer 0 1 1, Spencer Giesting 2 1 5. Totals: 27-6-63

3-pointers: V 3 (Geiger, Erbaugh, Herman), B 3 (Young, Mathews, Meyer)

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