By Matt M. Stutz
Next stop, Regionals. In front of a near capacity crowd, the #2 seeded Pandora-Gilboa boys basketball team pulled off the upset of #1 Delphos St. John’s in convincing fashion, to claim the Northwest 2 District Championship at the Elida Fieldhouse by a final of 56-43. This is the third district title in school history for the P-G boys (1999, 2018). A few of the stars on this year’s team were young ballboys for the State Final Four team in 2018.
Revenge was on the minds of the Rockets. Earlier in the regular season St. John’s came to Pandora and left with a 57-48 non-conference win. Also, it was Delphos who knocked P-G last season in the Sectional Finals.
The atmosphere inside Elida Fieldhouse was buzzing during pregame, with fans filling both sides to the rafters. Once the ball was thrown into the air, the Blue Jay’s won the tip and scored first and led 5-2. The Rockets then went on a 10-0 scoring run spilling into the second period. P-G took their first lead at 6-5 and led 9-5 at the end of quarter number one; a lead they would never relinquish.
Owen Huffman had a huge start to the contest for the Rockets as he led the offensive charge with 6 points in the opening stanza. St. John’s scored the final four points of the second quarter as P-G led just 20-17 at halftime.
The Jays got to within one at 20-19 early in the third period. Then P-G took flight on a 12-0 scoring spurt to take a 32-19 advantage, highlighted by Zach Neuenschwander hitting his second trifecta of the night. Delphos was able to cut into the lead as the Rockets led 33-24 heading into the final eight minutes.
P-G poured it on in the final quarter going up by sixteen on two occasions. Delphos canned four 3-pointers in the 4th quarter in their counterattack. But P-G got hot from the free throw line, hitting thirteen shots from the charity stripe in the final quarter alone, as St. John’s kept fouling to try and lengthen the game.
It was a balanced team scoring effort for P-G. Only Aiden Harris hit double figures leading the Rockets with 14 points, making six fourth quarter free throws and collecting 12 rebounds. Colin Harris and Zach Neuenschwander were not far behind, with 9 points each. Owen Huffman finished with 8 points; all in the first half. Starters Nate Maag and Aiden Morris both fought through first half foul trouble. Maag came alive late, finishing with three buckets, all in the fourth quarter. Morris remained calm as he knocked down six free throws in the final quarter for his 6 points. Nate Walker scored two with free throws in the third quarter.
P-G 09 11 13 23 56
DSJ 05 12 07 19 43
Next up, the Rockets (23-2) will play in the Regional Semi-Finals at The Stroh Center on the campus of Bowling Green State University at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday, March 12.
P-G will face the Toledo Christian Eagles (25-1) who finished the regular season ranked #1 in the Associated Press Division IV state poll.
