Instead, they broke the game open with a second quarter surge that saw them make some history along the way.
Hudson led four players in double figures with 23 points as third-seeded Emmanuel Christian set a school record with its 22nd straight victory, beating sixth-seeded Twin Valley South 73-50 in a Division VI district semifinal game on Monday, March 2, at Troy High School’s Trojan Activity Center.
Emmanuel junior Jayden Thomas scored 17 points, senior Bryson Shirk had 14 and senior Darryus Myers, Jr. added 12 for the Lions (22-1), which advanced to a district final game for the first time since the 2019-2020 season.
They’ll play either ninth-seeded Northeastern or fourth-seeded Fort Recovery — who play at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Troy — in a D-VI district final game at Fairborn High School at a time to be determined.
The Lions advanced to the state’s round of 32 for the third time in program history. They also advanced in 2017-18 and 2019-20 — when the current senior class were sixth graders.
“The best thing that I could say is that it just feels right,” said Lions first-year coach Nick Morgan, who was an assistant coach on the prior district teams. “We don’t have anybody rolled over from that group. This just kind of feels like our own, and we can enjoy that. We’ve been talking about it all week that the work that we put in in March, April, May of last year has brought us here, and we earned the right to be here. I couldn’t be prouder of these guys.”
It took the Lions a little longer to get going than they’re used to. Twin Valley South played several different defenses, including a diamond-and-1 and a triangle-and-2, which saw them face guard junior sharpshooter Josh Witherow all over the floor.
The Panthers (13-11) entered the district semifinals having won six of their last seven games. Senior guard Aiden White had 17 points for Twin Valley South and junior Parker Howard added 11.
TVS led 21-13 in the second quarter until the Lions found the open areas in their zone defense.
Emmanuel went on a 22-4 run to close out the first half to take a 35-25 halftime lead. Hudson had 10 points and Thomas added eight points in the period.
“We knew going into tournament games, teams were going to have to prepare something for us,” Morgan said. “We just didn’t know what it was. We were speculating we were gonna see some zone, some some kind of junk (defense). But you only have so much time to prepare for everything.
“They stifled us a little bit early, hat’s off to them. They were locked in on what they needed to do, and they tried to take (Witherow) away and just tried to kill us at some pain points. But I think once we got a little bit of a foothold on the game, we started making some shots. We were running in transition a little bit, forced them to come out of the zone, and we were able to execute from there.”
They extended their lead to 18 points in the fourth quarter. The Panthers wouldn’t get closer than 13 the rest of the way.
The key was making the right reads, shooting it when he was open and finding an teammate when he wasn’t open, Hudson said.
“We were just taking it one play at a time,” Hudson said.
As Witherow was face guarded throughout the second quarter, he found a way to contribute by facilitating the Lions offense.
“Teams have played him aggressively, but if he gets open for (a 3-pointer), he’s gonna light you up,” Morgan said. “Teams often come out of that face guard pretty quick, and they stayed in it longer than we expected. He was eager to get into the right space and be asked to bring the ball up the floor and get his teammates the right shots. I think that was the catalyst to getting them to look like something that was a little bit more familiar (defensively). He was very selfless in that act.”
The senior class, which includes Hudson, Myers, Grayson Lisle, Drew Hoying and Grady Kohl, now has a chance to do something the other two district teams weren’t able to — bring home a district championship trophy. The Lions were district runner-ups in the program’s previous two appearances in the tournament’s round of 32.
“We’re just making the best of what we can with a really great senior group,” Morgan said. “You know, when you lose five seniors — we’re already kind of thinking about, peripherally, thinking about next year — and when you have certain lineups out there, you’re like, ‘We’re gonna miss Nate, we’re gonna miss Darryus, we’re gonna miss the energy that Lisle and Grady and Drew bring to the game.’ It’s a tall task to step up to what the senior class has done, as far as the hard work put in and sweat equity into having a 22-1 season."
Tri-Village 79, Miami Valley 34: In the first game of the doubleheader at Troy, the Patriots rolled to the running clock victory, improving to 24-0.
Tri-Village senior Trey Sagester had 20 points, surpassing 2,000 for his career. Senior Noah Finkbine had 14 points and Griffin Richards added 14 for the Patriots, who advanced to face the winner of Tuesday’s Georgetown vs. Oyler matchup in a D-VI district final game at 2 p.m. Saturday at Middletown High School.
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