(PHOTOS BY JACOB KESSLER / THE VILLAGE REPORTER)
OFF AND RUNNING … Evergreen’s Troy Manz knocks down a corner three-ball to get the Vikings on the board in the first quarter.
DRIVE TO THE RIM … George Allendorf elevates for a bucket in the first half of Evergreen’s 72-69 win over Van Buren.
By: Joe Blystone
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
publisher@thevillagereporter.com
DEFIANCE (February 26, 2025) – All season long Evergreen has come from behind. They were down 18 at Fostoria only to outscore the Redmen 35-14 in the final quarter to win.
An eight-point deficit with two minutes left versus Otsego disappeared in a Viking win. So did 16-point leads with 10 to go against Liberty Center and a nine-point margin at Delta, all turned into Evergreen victories.
Again, past the midway point in the third, Evergreen found themselves down to Van Buren in the Division VI district semifinals.
Again, the Vikings used a big scoring run, this one a 22-7 barrage over seven minutes, that led to a 72-69 win over the Black Knights to boost Evergreen into the district final game.
Evergreen faces undefeated and state-ranked Patrick Henry (23-0) on Friday at 6 p.m. at Defiance in the championship game.
“I told their coach, Mark Bunn, I was not looking forward to playing Van Buren,” Viking coach Kyle Bostater said.
“They do a very good job of being physical, they rebound the basketball very well, they were a bad matchup for us honestly.”
“But what we did, we played how we played all year. We are going to be up and down the floor, we are going to be fast.”
“We are going to play with speed and tempo, and I give them a lot of credit because they ran with us. Our guys made some great plays in the third quarter and fourth quarter and were able to stretch that lead.”
Troy Manz gave the Vikes a fast start hitting a triple 16 seconds into the game, then a floater after a Van Buren turnover for a 5-0 lead.
Van Buren notched the next seven, the last a Finn Martin basket to push the Knights up 7-5. George Allendorf then hit the next seven points of the game, then scored the last six Evergreen points of the quarter, getting 13 in all to vault Evergreen on top 23-18 after eight minutes.
The Vikes went cold the first six minutes of the second and Van Buren jumped on top thanks to a Cole Bishop triple and three putbacks off the offensive glass to grab a 31-27 lead.
Will Ruetz’s reverse layup brought Evergreen within 33-30 late in the second, then Manz’s three-point play knotted the game with 1:15 left.
Allendorf’s drive regained a Viking lead but Bishop triple with 20 seconds to go to push the Knights back on top at the break.
Seth Gregory’s long three-ball extended the Knight lead to start the third and midway through the third, Van Buren still maintained their four-point lead.
Then like many other times during the season, the Vikings exploded. Ruetz hit 2/2 from the line, then Allendorf locked in and dropped a pair of bombs from way outside the arc to vault the Vikings up 48-45 with 3:02 left. Evergreen never trailed again.
“Our guys are streaky,” Bostater explained of the second half salvo. “It’s happened a lot all season. I don’t like calling a lot of timeouts because all of a sudden our guys will go on a 5-0, 6-0, 7-0 run in a matter of seconds. We got a couple stops and a couple turnovers. We got a couple easy transition ones.”
Allendorf, Ruetz and John Herdman hit 5/6 from the line, then Allendorf found Quinn Eisel on a roll to the rim for a layup .
Herdman got a return pass from Eisel for two, then the lengthy senior guard stuck one from the deep corner to make it 63-54 with five minutes left in the game.
“John Herdman bagged a big one for us,” Bostater exclaimed. “Quinn impacted the game in a big way on offense tonight.”
“He did a good job setting a quick and getting to the basket and was able to finish at the rim. Will Johnson I needed on the floor at the end because we needed rebounds and he’s also a very good foul shooter. It’s not going to show up a lot what out bigs do, but they did enough to help us get that lead.”
Bishop and Gregory each hit triples down the stretch and Martin got two more putback hoops as Van Buren closed the gap to four.
However, the Vikings (17-7) kept space, as they hit 17/21 for the game at the foul stripe, making Bishop’s last triple at the buzzer meaningless.
Allendorf and Ruetz each had 22 for the Vikings with Manz adding 14. Bishop led Van Buren (16-8) with 16.
The Vikings shot 47 percent from the floor and had nine turnovers. Van Buren was 26/58 from the field but Evergreen forced 17 turnovers, eight of those coming during the Vikings big run in the second half.
VAN BUREN (69) – Bishop 16; Gregory 12; Homan 8; Lance 4; Harrington 15; Martin 10; Busey 4; Rampe 0; Totals: 19-7-10 – 69
EVERGREEN (72) – Manz 14; Ruetz 22; Herdman 7; Allendorf 22; Eisel 7; Fritsch 0; Rafferty 0; Johnson 0; Totals: 20-5-17 – 72
VBHS 18 18 12 21 – 69
EHS 23 12 21 16 – 72
