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ATHENS
- This was the team that wasn’t suppose to win a district championship.
But the words suppose to hold about as much water in the game of
basketball as one of Dick Vitale¹s tired phrases.
The 2006 Braves have done a lot of things they weren¹t suppose to do.
They just choose not to listen to all the nay-sayers.
“Lots of people didn’t expect us to be here,” LE senior Kyle
Reichelderfer said. “It’s just nice to show people that just because we
lost some key players off of last year¹s team that Logan Elm basketball
isn¹t something to
be messed around with.”
Logan Elm proved the nay-sayers wrong Saturday by dominating Mid-State
League rival Fairfield Union in every phase of the game in a 55-28 rout
at the Ohio University Convocation Center to win the Division II
Southeast District championship.
The win ended a gap of 43 years between district championships for Logan
Elm.
“We’ve always known we could win. We’ve been winning since we were all
little kids,” Logan Elm senior Jamie Morris said. “Some people didn’t
believe we could get to this point, but a lot of people are behind us
now
cause we proved we could play.”
In the span of over four decades, a lot of good players and a lot of
good
teams have called the school halls along Tarlton Road home for four
years.
One of those teams were last year’s edition of the Braves. Led by a
class
that help turn Logan Elm into a basketball hot bed, the Braves marched
to
the Convo only to be turned back in the final seconds by tournament
nemesis
McClain 62-59 in the district championship game.
“We remember how it felt to walk off the floor getting our silver medals
and then having to watch McClain get their gold medals,” LE senior Tyler
Congrove said. “That has been a driving force during the tournament for
us
seniors and the rest of the team.”
But it took a different type of team to get things done.
A team that maybe wasn¹t the prettiest group of kids on the block of
basketball, but a group that frustrated almost every opponent on the
schedule.
“They may not be the flashiest, athletic, strongest or whatever it may
be,
but you can’t measure the heart and desire these kids have,” Logan Elm
coach
Doug Stiverson said.
In the district tournament Logan Elm didn¹t hit a bunch of
three-pointers
or run a dynamic offense that seems to be the first thing that brings
respect in the Sportscenter era of dunks and three-pointers being
crammed
down the throats of basketball fans five times every morning.
It was defense.
It was going after every loose ball, breathing down the neck of every
star
player, no matter if it was holding McClain junior Dante Jackson to just
22
points ‹ most of those coming when Logan Elm had avenged two past year¹s
of
frustration ‹ or allowing Fairfield Union’s Jared Larson to a measly
four
points.
But most importantly, it was five players, led by five seniors, acting
as
one collective unit on the floor.
“This was a lifetime dream, a dream we all had the first day during
summer
going to the gym and preparing for the season,” LE senior Evan Blake
said.
“We wanted to build every week and win a county title, try to win the
MSL,
and win a sectional title, a district title and try to go on from there.
“ ... Everyone in this (locker) room has the heart and desire to get
things
done.”
When Logan Elm first hit the floor in an early December game against
Portsmouth in the Zane Trace Tip-Off Classic, few knew what to expect
out of
a Braves¹ team missing arguably one of best players in Pickaway County
history in Tyler Evans and four other important seniors.
But wins over Circleville and traditional-power DeSales lended a first
look
at what this Braves team could accomplishment.
And even after a three-game skid towards the end of the season that
maybe
brought back some doubt about what Braves could do, the players that
suit up
in the red-and-white just went back to what they do best.
Defense.
“We got away from playing with each other and playing the kind of
defense
we can during those losses,” Morris said. ³We got our defense going and
worried about that first. Then the games got closer and we pulled out a
couple of wins.
“After that, our offense came together and we started taking care of
business.”
Business was breezing through Athens 90-44 and Vinton County 77-39 to
punch
the ticket back to the Convo.
And then, the biggest business of all.
After being frustrated during the previous two seasons by McClain, the
Braves came into the Convo probably being some of the few that believed
they
stood a chance against the second-ranked Tigers.
This was the Logan Elm team that wasn¹t suppose to beat McClain.
But they did
In convincing fashion no less with a 53-43 final score.
“Once we beat McClain, we knew we could play with a lot of teams,” Blake
said.
Now as Logan Elm heads to the Sweet 16 Thursday against Zanesville High
School, they will more than likely be the underdog again.
But would they have it any other way?
The answer to that question is probably not.
It took 43 years to win a district championship for the first time since
1963 and the past three years to lay the bricks to reach the top.
All it could was a few like-minded seniors such as Blake, Reichelderfer,
Cody Leist, Morris and Congrove, and a like-minded team to lay the final
piece of a district championship.
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