VANDALIA — The pace was exactly where Jake Turner wanted.
His team just didn’t make as many plays down the stretch as Meadowdale and No. 2 seed Preble Shawnee fell to the No. 3 seeded Lions 50-45 in a boys Division III district semifinal on Saturday, Feb. 27 at Vandalia-Butler High School.
”Tough game. I felt like we played well enough at times to win,” Turner said moments after his team’s season ended. “And I think we had a couple bad breaks. Couple bad calls, I’m not gonna blame it on that, it had nothing to do with us losing. I just don’t think we made enough plays down the stretch to win.”
The Arrows (18-5) wanted to keep the pace slow and force the Lions to shoot from the outside.
”I thought our game plan was great. I thought we executed it. They made some shots. Stat wise, shooting from three, they’re not a great percentage but they stepped up and made some huge threes,” Turner said. “Number one, (Kalerio) Reaves, he played a heck of a game and I thought we did a good job guarding him. I just thought he stepped up and made some big time shots when they were kind of struggling to score a little bit and he’s a good player.”
Shawnee was led by sophomore Mason Shrout’s 27 points and 13 rebounds. Freshman Isaac Blakenship added seven points and six rebounds. Senior Xavier Adams ended his career with a seven point, eight rebound performance.”
Shawnee held an 8-7 lead after the first quarter and held a 21-19 lead at the half.
In the second half, Reaves took over. He scored 20 of his team-high 21 points after the break, but the Arrows still held a 34-32 lead into the final quarter.
”We wanted to slow it down a little bit, pack it in, we thought that would help with rebounding, we’d have guys in there. We kind of mix it up with man and zone kind of try to throw them off, slow them down,” Turner said. “It was definitely the pace that we wanted tonight. We just didn’t make enough plays to win a game.”
Shawnee held a 44-40 lead with 2:57 left, but the Lions close the game on a 8-1 run.
”I tell the guys we’ve been through a whole lot that a lot of people don’t know about what we went through and all that with sickness and all that kind of stuff and other things. It’s been a roller coaster year, but these guys at the end of the day like I told him I’m so proud of them just always coming into work,” Turner said. “I told them there’s no reason not to walk out of this locker room with your head high. You had a heck of a season just tonight didn’t go our way. But I’ve said there’s nothing to be down or upset about just walk out with a lot of confidence, head high because they played their tail off.”
Shawnee will graduate four seniors in Adams, Ethan Woodard, Dane Klapper, and Jackson Haney.
”I told them in there I love them to death and I wish I had him for three more years,” Turner said. “They’ve done a whole lot and I told them how proud I was of them and they’ve helped mold these younger guys. I told them this feeling sucks tonight. I said but next year when we go to that district final game, you seniors are the main reason why we’re going there. We got a lot of young guys but our seniors did a lot of good things.”
