Bluejays winless, but not losers

Despite going 0-21 record, J-M grew as a team looking forward to next season.

By PETE MOLLICA

VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF

STRUTHERS — The Jackson-Milton High boys basketball team had just finished a winless season, but there were no losers in the Bluejays’ locker room Tuesday night after their 66-41 loss to Heritage Christian in the opening round of the Division IV sectional tournament here.

The Bluejays had lost 21 straight, but the players and coaches were all upbeat and ready to get into the next season.

Jackson-Milton coach Adam Underhill praised his team after the contest.

“It’s been a long, difficult season, but these kids have been just tremendous,” Underhill said. “They’ve worked very hard and they’ve come a long way. It’s been a long year, but I really wish we still had a couple of more games to play.”

“We had five freshmen on the tournament roster and three of them started tonight,” Underhill said. “Everybody is coming back as we didn’t have a senior on the team. We also lost our top scorer and rebounder, Ben Carlile, in the next-to-last game of the season with a foot injury.”

Carlile, who was on crutches in the locker room, said he can’t wait for the offseason program to begin.

“We didn’t even have one a year ago, but we will this year,” added Underhill.

In Tuesday’s other action here, Southern held off Western Reserve 41-36 for the third time this season to advance to the sectional finals.

The Bluejays gave Heritage a game for most of the first half, trailing just 33-21, but then ran into problems in the third quarter where they didn’t score until just one minute remained in the quarter and by that time Heritage had built a comfortable 46-21 advantage.

Alex Pizor led Heritage (10-11) with 13 points, while Travis Charles added 12 and Derek Fostyk had 10. Heritage will meet Columbiana on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.

Freshman Bobby Schnellbach led the Bluejays with 12 points and Scott Campbell added 11.

Southern hadn’t won a sectional tournament game in nine years prior to George Whittaker taking over the head coaching duties, but the Indians (14-6) have now been to the sectional finals four straight years.

“We knew this was going to be a difficult game because the first two times we played it was just as close,” Whittaker said. “We won both games, but it was a battle both times.”

“I thought our defense was very good tonight and Tyler Baker had another outstanding game,” he added.

Western Reserve head coach Steve Miller was disappointed in his team’s play, especially in the first half.

“We played without any emotion and this is the tournament, a do-or-die game, and we really didn’t get into it until the second half,” Miller said.

“Give Southern credit they played well, but I thought when we finally tied up the contest that we would take control, but they made some clutch free throws down the stretch,” Miller said. “I though our first half might have been one of the worst we played all year.”

The Indians led from the opening tip and built a 21-13 halftime lead, but the Blue Devils closed the gap to 30-23 after three quarters.

A couple of 3-point goals by Justin Lude and Zach White helped close the gap further and then Shane Ewing’s basket with 3:29 remaining tied the game at 34-34.

But Southern hit on 8 of 12 free throws over those final three minutes and Jackson-Milton went just 1-of-6 from the field.

Baker finished with 23 points and was only 3-of-9 from the foul line to lead the Indians. Ewing finished with 11 points and Justin Lude added 10 for the Blue Devils, who finished the season 9-12.

Southern will now meet the winner of tonight’s East Canton-Lake Center contest in a sectional final on Saturday at 6 p.m.