East All-Stars sweep West boys

By Jim Metcalfe, The Delphos Herald
Published:  Friday, March 21, 2008 (1 month, 2 weeks ago)
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ELIDA — The area’s senior boys basketball players strutted their stuff for the final time on the Union Bank Court at the Elida Fieldhouse Wednesday night in the 34th annual District 8 All-Star clashes.
The East squads had the better of the proceedings, downing the West 109-95 in the Division I-II-III battle and outscoring their foe 121-114 in the Division IV nightcap.
As has been the case in the past, all four squads pushed the pace and let fly from anywhere and everywhere.
Players who generally played inside in their high school careers and never ventured out beyond 15 feet to shoot were bombing triples in the entertaining affairs.
For example, the Division IV East fired up 110 shots and made 51 — 16-of-44 from beyond the arc — while the West was 47-of-103 from the floor, 18-of-46 long range.
Tri-County-area players finishing their careers on the West side were the Fort Jennings duo of Aaron Chandler (15 markers, 8 rebounds, 3 assists) and Derek Geise (10 markers, 8 caroms) and Jefferson’s Michael Wiltsie (9 points, 2 assists, 2 steals).
With all four teams subbing a 5-man group every five minutes or so, it made for generally close games outside of an occasional run.
In the first 20 minutes of the nightcap, the largest lead was 44-38 (West), with the East taking a 57-53 halftime advantage.
That all changed in the second half as the East exploded for a 25-11 spurt in the first five minutes, led by eight from Arlington’s Jacob Drerup (15 counters, 12 boards) and seven from Van Buren’s Matt Phillips (game-high 21).
The next five minutes, the West rallied behind eight counters from Austin Luck of Division IV state champion New Knoxville (16 points) and two 3s from Wiltsie to get their unit within 92-88 before they left the court.
After six exchanges of the lead, the East got it back for good and slowly built up a double-digit lead — with a pair of slams from Clayton Leimeister and one from Ada’s Nate Vermillion (14 markers) as exclamation points — to secure the win.
Leimeister (Lima Temple Christian) added 20 markers for the East, while Nick Lee (Vanlue) contributed 19 (6 assists, 6 rebounds) and Michael Howell (Pandora-Gilboa) 11.
New Bremen’s Scott Schnelle tossed in 20 markers and 14 boards for the West, while Clint Tobe (Fort Recovery) added in 12 points and seven boards.
The first contest was very similar to the nightcap: the biggest margin was 45-39 (East) and the West led 48-47 at the end of the first 20 minutes.
That trend continued the first 10 minutes of the second half, though the East, with Liberty-Benton’s Andy Smith (16 markers, 7 caroms) and Lima Senior’s Dongale Long (11 points, 8 boards) leading the way, began to open up a lead of 85-75 halfway through.
That lead would reach 94-77 on a 3-ball from Defiance’s Jordan Mack before the West tried to rally. However, the closest they could get was 104-95 late on a triple by Parkway’s Derik Snyder (4 assists).
Elida had two representatives for the East: Steven Swick (18 markers) and Stephan Shurelds (5 points). Jake Meyer (20 counters) and Justin Schomaeker (15 points, 10 boards) of Division III state champion Ottawa-Glandorf led the way, with LCC’s Travis Kottenbrock (5 steals) and Bryan Lehman of Defiance (6 assists) leading the floor game.
The West had three others in twin digits: Marion Local’s Jordan Winner (16 markers, 14 caroms) and 11 each by St. Henry’s Ryan Wehrkamp (8 boards) and Coldwater’s Kurt Riethman. Marion Local’s Chris Stucke had five assists and four steals and Zach Brown of Wapak added five assists.

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