One step short of state

By JON MOFFETT

jmoffett@vindy.com

CANTON

With a towel draped over his head, Cody Dillon watched as his Newton Falls High team struggled without him.

Then again, the team also struggled with him in its 67-56 loss to Orville High in the Division III regional final at the Canton Memorial Fieldhouse on Saturday.

Dillon, a sophomore, provided the only offensive spark for the Tigers (20-6) but was on the bench early because of foul trouble. Dillon earned his fourth personal foul with 2:29 left in the third quarter. He remained on the bench for the rest of the quarter and the first few minutes of the fourth.

Meanwhile, the Red Riders (20-5) used their height and physicality to limit the other Tigers.

“I’m not sure we shut [Dillon] down, but we did a pretty good job on [Brian] Sole,” said Orville coach Sly Slaughter. “Zach Wasson got going early on and then Jacob Bolyard hit some shots. We played well as a team.”

Dillon shot from all over the floor, including several 3-point attempts from very deep. But Dillon, who finished with a team-high 17 points, was outgunned by the Red Riders and their dual attack of Boylard and Wasson. Each had 23 points.

“We haven’t faced anybody on the inside like Wasson all year,” said Newton Falls coach Roy Sembach, who added that the inside-outside combination of Wasson and Bolyard was the best his team had faced all season.

That combination, along with 10 points from senior Samuel Miller, gave Orrville a chance to win.

But it was the team’s rebounding that gave it a second, and third, and fourth chance. Newton Falls was out-rebounded 54-24, including 19-5 on offensive rebounds.

Slaughter said it was the extra effort on the glass that helped his team cut down the nets.

“We have a few keys to just about every game, and one of them is winning the rebound battle,” Slaughter said. “All those just compete so hard on the boards.”

Sembach said it was poor shooting, not necessarily rebounding, that cost his team.

“Orville is a great basketball team, and they deserve to go to Columbus, but if we shoot foul shots and 3s anywhere near where we usually do, it’s a great basketball game in the end,” he said.

Newton Falls was 12-22 from the free-throw line. Five of those misses came on and-one foul shots.

While it was what the Red Riders were doing on the glass that helped them, it was what Dillon was not doing by sitting on the bench that maybe hurt the team the most.

With Dillon on the court, the Tigers were able to cut the deficit to six points. But Dillon’s absence late in the frame allowed Orrville to regroup and go up by 10 just as quickly.

Dillon tried to make up for the lost time by going into overdrive in the fourth quarter.

Unfortunately, many of Dillon’s shots either clanked off the rim or missed it completely. Sembach said it was just an example of a talented player trying to rally the troops.

“Cody is going to be a special player,” Sembach said. “And every now and then, because he has that type of ability, he sometimes brings it upon himself to do too much.

“It’s not being selfish at all, he just thinks he has the ability to help his team win the game, and he does.”

With the victory, Orrville will head to Columbus for the state tournament.

The Red Riders will compete for their first state championship since winning the title in back-to-back seasons in 1995-96.

Slaughter said the team will just continue to work to get better with every game.

As for the Tigers, whose last trip to the state tournament was in 1931, Sembach said he looks forward to another regional trip.

“We’ll be back here next year,” he said.