By: Joe Blystone
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
publisher@thevillagereporter.com
METAMORA (December 21, 2023) – Evergreen turned the ball over seven of their first nine possessions. The Vikings shot just 2-11 in the opening quarter and trailed 11-5.
After Jerry Keifer’s team looked downright horrible the first eight minutes, it was Keifer who had the one liner that explained the Vikings comeback win over the previously undefeated Panthers.
“Ladies and gentlemen, let’s introduce you to Troy Manz”, the veteran coach quipped postgame.
Manz, a baby-faced sophomore who looks more like an eighth grader, bagged five buckets from long range and scored 22 points to pace the Vikings to a 50-37 victory.
“He gave us exactly what we needed,” Keifer said. “And we had two senior guards who were smart enough to know to get him the ball in a place where he had good looks and hit shots.”
Luke Reinhard hit two triples and Jude Gibbons canned one more to pace the Panthers to a six-point advantage after the first.
Tyler Ruple nailed one more 36 ticks into the second to raise the Panthers to their biggest lead at 14-7 with 7:24 left in the half.
At that point the packed house at Delta found out who Manz was. The sophomore guard swished consecutive triples out of the corner to get Evergreen back to 14-13 with 6:15 left.
Tyson Woodring found Drew Gillen on back-to-back possessions to give Evergreen a 17-14 lead.
Manz hit one more time in the quarter from long range to make it 20-17 Evergreen (4-1) before Alex York got loose three times underneath, the final one with 30 seconds left to push the Panthers back up 23-22 at the break.
Riley Dunbar, who had been silent in the first half, scored on his own miss to start the second and Eli Keifer’s floater regained a 26-23 margin but a Gibbons three-ball and Justin Ruple’s power move got Delta back on top 28-26 with 3:30 left in the third.
York scored off a loose ball with 32 seconds to go, giving Delta (4-1) a 30-28 lead but Manz struck again from way out before the end of the quarter to put the VIkings ahead for good at 31-30.
Keifer found Dunbar inside twice for hoops but York got a great baseline feed from Ruple to keep Delta within 35-34 with 6:37 left.
But the Viking defense which forced 21 turnovers on the night, held the Panthers to one and done four times and used two of the those ball handling miscues to capitalize on the other end to open up a double figure lead.
Dunbar put one home on Woodring’s lob, Keifer hit Manz for a foul line jumper out of the spread, then Manz bagged a big one from the top of the circle to make it 43-34.
Gillen’s steal and pass ahead to Manz turned into a three-point play, then Woodring hit the first of two and Dunbar cleaned up the miss on the second for two more to finish a 13-0 run to give the Vikings their biggest bulge at 48-34 with 1:49 left.
“We have been doing a good job for the most part defensively,” Keifer explained. “To turn over those guys that many times shows how in all of our guys are on that end of the floor.”
Dunbar added 12 to Manz’s game high, all in the second half, nine rebounds and five blocked shots while Woodring finished with six and Keifer had six points and 13 assists. York had 10 points to lead the Panthers.
EVERGREEN (50) – Manz 22; Keifer 6; Woodring 6; Robertson 0; Hudik 0; Spradlin 0; Vaculik 0; Walker 0; Dunbar 12; Gillen 4; Mounts 0; Ruetz 0; Roesti 0; Totals: 14-6-4 – 50
DELTA (37) – J. Ruple 5; T. Ruple 3; J. Gibbons 6; W. Gibbons 2; Reinhard 6; Morr 0; Bower 3; Huffman; York 10; Brasher 2; Totals: 7-7-2 – 37
EVERGREEN 5 17 9 19 – 50
DELTA 11 12 7 7 – 37
