By: Joe Blystone
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
publisher@thevillagereporter.com
SWANTON (February 14, 2025) – Some players have to gesture after every three-pointer. Either holding their hand to their ear to request crowd noise, or to stick out three-fingers.
Evergreen doesn’t do those trivial celebrations, don’t have time for them. In the time it takes to showboat, the Vikings could have another steal-and-score or force another turnover and drain a triple.
For Evergreen, those consecutive scores happened, anywhere from eight to 15 seconds apart numerous times, to roll up a 74-49 romp over Swanton before a full house at Swanton.
“It’s a rivalry game,” Viking coach Kyle Bostater expressed after his team avenged a 61-60 loss early in December.
“I’m new to the rivalry but our guys wanted it bad. I could tell our guys wanted it bad. It’s all on them tonight. The players responded, they are the ones who set the tone early.”
“Swanton is a quality opponent, our league is tough all year long. Tomorrow will be special because of senior night, so we want to make sure we send them off on the right foot and we will get ready for Elmwood after that.”
“We wanted to be playing our best basketball this time of the year in phase 3 as we call it, and our guys are ready to excel.”
Quinn Eisel’s double move inside and Will Ruetz’s layup gave the Vikings a fast start and after Swanton’s Brady O’Shea hit from outside the arc, George Allendorf had a huge answer in the afore mentioned manner.
Allendorf laced a deep triple, then had back-to-back pick 6’s, to boost the Vikings up 11-3 with 4:24 left in the first.
Three more times the Vikings scored off Bulldog turnovers in the first. Troy Manz had a swipe-and-score, then hit a three-ball after a Swanton miscue.
Alex Fritsch’s pick led to another Allendorf lay in that bumped the lead to 21-12 despite six points from Swanton big man Charlie Wood.
Eisel’s putback, John Herdman’s bucket off a Manz steal, and two more sorties to the rim by Allendorf in the first 2:30 of the second opened up a 29-12 gap.
The Bulldogs closed to 33-19 on Brady Haselman’s score with 3:17 to go but again the Vikings speed wreaked havoc with Swanton.
Herdman ripped the ball from a Swanton player’s hands and fed Manz for another runout hoop that began a 14-5 finish to the second.
“We talked about transition was something we thought we could exploit tonight, getting the ball out as quickly as possible even off makes,” Bostater explained of the Vikings big first half.
“Our guys ran the floor hard early and we made the ball move. Quinn had a couple really good moves inside that really set the tone for us.”
“That’s all attributed to the big man camp we have at practice and what we do there, the drop steps, up and unders, it’s all of them and again Quinn had a couple just great ones tonight.”
Will Johnson’s score off the offensive glass along with a Ruetz drive, then two Allendorf triples from 25 feet made it 47-24 at the half.
Ruetz, Allendorf and Eisel all hit from long range in the third, and Manz’s swipe on the 25th Bulldog turnover to that point led to another Allendorf layup late in the quarter to make it 67-34.
Fritsch became the sixth Viking to nail a three-pointer midway through the fourth, as the Vikings drilled 10/24 from long range for the night.
Evergreen shot 47 percent from the floor in all and had just six turnovers. Swanton shot 33 percent and took 20 fewer shots than Evergreen because of 26 turnovers.
Allendorf had 29, 21 in the first half to lead all scorers with Manz adding 13 along with seven assists. Wood had 14 to pace Swanton.
Evergreen (14-7, 5-2 NWOAL) hosts Elmwood in a Division VI sectional final on Friday night, February 21st. Swanton (11-11, 3-4 NWOAL) also plays at home as they host Archbold in a Division V sectional final the same evening.
EVERGREEN (74) – Manz 13; Ruetz 9; Herdman 7; Allendorf 29; Eisel 7; Fritsch 3; Sanford 0; Gillen 0; Rafferty 2; Johnson 4; Woodring 4; Totals: 22-10 – 74
SWANTON (49) – Hurst 3; O’Shea 3; Young 0; Ruiz 3; Mitchey 0; Koder 5; Zalecki 3; Lemons 2; Bolyard 0; Reinhard 6; Haselman 5; Lemon 5; Wood 14; Totals: 11-7-6 – 49
EHS 21 26 20 7 – 74
SHS 12 12 10 15 – 49
