And Versailles did that in bunches Wednesday night. Heitkamp led the easy-bucket brigade with a career-high 21 points to lead the Tigers to a 68-43 drubbing of Cincinnati Mariemont in the second Division III region semifinal at Trent Arena.
“He’s been fired up here this last month or so, so we need to have him continue to do really good things,” Versailles coach Travis Swank said. “He is just tenacious right now. He doesn’t want the season to end.”
Swank has led his team to seven district finals and four district titles in his eight seasons. But this was his first win in the regional tournament.
“It’s a good feeling to finally maybe get the monkey off my back a little bit,” he said. But it’s not about me. It’s our kids. Our kids are just playing really well. When things like that come together, you get runs like this.”
The Tigers (15-11) play Preble Shawnee (23-3) at 7 p.m. Saturday at Trent for a trip to the state semifinals at UD Arena. The Tigers only trips to state came in 2013 and 2004.
The Arrows present a tall task with 6-foot-5 Mason Shrout and 6-8 Logan Hawley. Shrout is a two-time Southwest District Division III player of the year and a Mr. Basketball finalist.
“Mason is a great player to begin with, but they’ve got other players that surround him that can do some stuff,” Swank said. “And they frustrate teams defensively as well. I think that’s what they hang their hat on more than anything else. So we got to be ready to play because they’re going to come after us for 32 minutes.”
Mariemont (19-7) felt good at 6-6 barely two minutes into the game and at 14-14 at the end of the first quarter. But frustration began to build for the Warriors in the second quarter. Heitkamp keyed a 6-1 run to end the half with five points for a 28-19 lead.
“We just weren’t on point with our defense, and then we switched up to a little bit of zone again and that that was our ticket,” Swank said. “It seemed to frustrate them a little bit. I know there are a three-point shooting team, but we were contesting all their three-point shots for the most part.”
The Tigers used a 21-10 third quarter, keyed by Jace Watren driving the lane for several of his 19 points, to carry a 49-27 lead into the fourth quarter.
The Tigers shot 62.2% from the field, including 73.9% in the second half. It didn’t matter that Watren made the team’s only 3-pointer in seven team attempts. Or that they made only 11 of 20 free throws. What did matter was making those close shots and outrebounding the Warriors 40-16.
Despite their record, the Tigers feel they belong in the regional finals. They play in the rugged Midwest Athletic Conference and lost non-league games to Russia, Lima Central Catholic and Miami East. Swank said it was league losses to Delphos St. John’s in late January and Coldwater in early February that began the turnaround. The Tigers are 8-2 since.
“We couldn’t win those tight ballgames, and even though we lost, those are our turning points of our season,” Swank said. “We started understanding that we’re pretty good team because those teams are quality teams, and we’re right there. We just got to do stuff a little bit better.”
And don’t make it complicated.
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