Ohlin’s 28 points help Tigers take down Vikings

February 23, 2019 at 12:08a.m.

Ohlin’s 28 points help

Tigers take down Vikings

NEW MIDDLETOWN

The Springfield Tigers had a rather auspicious start to their season, mowing down their first 10 opponents before a bump in the road saw them drop five of their last 11 contests.

Springfield’s 63-58 victory over LaBrae — one of Trumbull County’s premier boys basketball programs — might be the momentum-building win Tigers head coach Steve French’s envisioned.

Evan Ohlin had a game-high 28 points, Shane Eynon posted a double-double with 17 points and 15 rebounds and the Tigers (17-5) finished the regular season 9-2 at home. LaBrae (18-4) saw its eight-game win streak end.

“This is a huge confidence booster because it will help prepare us for teams that we’ll be seeing in the tournament,” Ohlin said. “Late in the game I knew that we needed to get stops, I just provided the offense. I need to thank my teammates because they found me with crisp outlet passes, also when I was open and with a good look at the bucket.”

Springfield led 32-22 heading to the intermission.

“This is a great win for us and will go a long way because LaBrae is an excellent team and a program with plenty of tradition,” Eynon said. “You want to be playing your best at the end of the season and tonight we played really well after struggling the past couple games.

“They play aggressive defense, so we wanted to use that against them by pushing the ball in transition, going back door and beating our defenders one-on-one if we had the opportunity to do so. We gambled more tonight than we usually do.”

The Vikings opened the second half with an 11-0 run, keyed by Tyler Stephens’ seven points, to take a 33-32 lead.

A bucket by Zach Meyer with 20 seconds remaining in the period gave the Vikings a 42-40 lead, but Clay Medvec erased it with his second triple of the game as time ran out for a 43-42 Springfield lead heading to the final stanza.

“This was a gutty performance by our guys and a big momentum boost,” French said. “Evan, Shane and all the guys came up big with second- and third-chance efforts against a team that was bigger than us.

“Shane can handle the ball really well for his size. He’s a nice outlet as a press breaker and the two charges that he took tonight were huge momentum plays. Evan had a rough couple of weeks. We asked him to improve his passing and defense and he did. He took our challenge and tonight put the ball in the hoop. It was a fantastic effort.”

Benton Tennant’s basket gave LaBrae a 46-45 lead with 4:44 remaining, but it was the Vikings’ last lead. The Tigers opened a 57-48 lead on a free throw by Ohlin with 39 seconds remaining.

“We dug a hole in the first half and took some bad shots at the beginning, as well as the end of the game,” LaBrae head coach Chad Kiser said. “Of their 32 points in the first half, 20 came on second-chance points and that hurt us. We didn’t box out and [Shane] Eynon killed us inside. It just wasn’t him, multiple players had put-backs.

“The good news is that we can learn from this. If we play like we did in the second half, then we can make a nice tournament run. If we play like we did in the first half, then it could be one and done.”

Stephens lead LaBrae with 20 points and nine rebounds, Tennant added 14 points and Connor Meyer had 11.