by JOHN HOWLEY / sportingpumpkin.com
A strong third quarter was what New Hope needed Friday night to take control of their state semifinal with Temple Christian on the way to a 59-23 win.
The win sets up a meeting in Saturday’s Ohio Christian School Athletic Association state championship game with Calvary Christian — a team the Statesmen lost to twice in the regular season.
“They are really good. In my opinion, they don’t have any holes,” New Hope coach Shane Roese said of Cavalry. “They’ve got two nice guys inside, they’ve got three guards who can shoot it.
“We have to play our best game of the year.
“They beat us by a shot at the buzzer and got us by 16 at their house in January,” Roese added. “We’re ready — we had a great week of practice in preparation for this weekend. It’s going to be fun.”
The Statesmen earned their third shot at the Spartans despite shooting only 35 percent from the field in the first half. Thanks, in part, to 13 offensive rebounds, the Statesmen held a 26-11 lead at the break.
“That was a game where we knew we should take care of business. We got off to a decent start, we wanted to pressure them and turn them over. Then we went cold. I thought we shot the ball pretty quick there in the first half. We shot a little bit out of rhythm.”
Coming out to start the second half, New Hope turned over the Crusaders five times in a little over two minutes while scoring eight points.
By the time the period was over, New Hope had hit nine of its 18 field goal attempts, four of five free throws, forced 10 turnovers and built the lead to 49-19.
Lane Bruning had 10 points in the first five minutes of the third.
“I thought Lane did a real nice job in the third quarter and asserted himself. He really made a run right there and that made all the difference,” Roese said.
Bruning shared game-high scoring honors with Temple’s Landon Snode as they both had 18.
Bruning also grabbed 10 rebounds (six offensive) despite sitting out the last 10 minutes of the game. New Hope had a 38-18 rebounding advantage in the game.
Hunter Kavanaugh and Danny Sagraves each had eight for New Hope while Adam Rink and Simon Kuhlwein had six apiece as 10 players scored for the Statesmen.
“Give them credit – they played really hard,” Roese said of Temple. “Defensively, they pushed us around for a quarter and a half. We were able to wear on them in the third quarter and we had a bench that just coming. We kept fresh people in there.”
New Hope plays for the state title at 7 p.m. Saturday at Ohio Christian University.
New Hope Christian Academy 59, Temple Christian School 23
Temple Christian — Landon Snode 7-3-18, Nate Groff 1-0-3, Zane Hoover 1-0-2. Three-point goals — Snode, Groff. Total — 9-31 3-3 23.
New Hope — Hunter Kavanaugh 4-0-8, Adam Rink 3-0-6, Andrew Swank 1-0-3, Marek McCallister 2-0-4, Simon Kuhlwein 2-0-6, Danny Sagraves 4-0-8, Jon Arni 0-2-2, Ethan Cook 1-0-2, Tyler Cook 1-0-2, Lane Bruning 5-8-18. Three-point goals — Swank, Kuhlwein (2). Total — 23-54 10-13 59.
Quarter scores 1 2 3 4 F
Temple Christian 4 7 8 4 23
New Hope Christian 13 13 23 10 59
