Warriors earn first regional title in 25 years with win vs. Odin

MULBERRY GROVE – Two of Patoka’s players scored 80 percent of the team’s points in last Friday’s regional championship game, but it was smaller contributions from several others that ultimately gave the Warriors their first regional title in 25 years.

Senior Seth Allen tied the game with a 3-pointer in the fourth quarter, sophomore Shane Cain took a charge in his limited minutes and junior Tyler Back chipped in nine rebounds and a breakaway layup with 1:33 left in the game to help Patoka knock off Odin, 68-61, for its first regional championship since 1989.

“You can’t say enough about Tyler Back and the way he has played the past month,” said coach Joey Eddy. “His layup that got us up by four was the back-breaker.

“Shane Cain didn’t play until the fourth quarter, but played awesome defense and took a charge,” he said. “Those are the little momentum things that won this game for us, and you can’t say enough about it.”

Save for the opening minute, the Warriors led for the first 26 minutes before the Eagles took the lead on Ike Margum’s 3-pointer and a layup by Devin Williams as part of a 13-2 run that ended with 5:05 left in the game.

But Allen – who had a tough game up to that point with just four points, one rebound and four fouls – found himself open in the corner and promptly tied the game at 52 with a 3-pointer with 4:27 remaining on the clock.

“Man, that was awesome,” Eddy said. “He was frustrated, but then he hit it, and that’s the biggest shot of the game.

“If he doesn’t hit that, and they go down and score, we may not win this game.”

Instead, it sparked a 9-0 run – the last of eight significant scoring runs in the game – and allowed Patoka to cruise to victory with a 6-of-8 effort from the free-throw line over the final minute.

The 9-0 run marked the fourth time in the game that Patoka had a scoring run of at least 6-0 and was the longest of them all.

“With these two teams, five-, six-, seven-, eight-point runs are nothing. It’s an everyday occurrence,” Eddy said. “It was going to be whoever made the last run or whoever made the fewest mistakes at the end.

“They made a run, but we got to respond with a run, so we got the final one.”

Freshman Jered Cain had a career-high 32 points, scoring 13 in the opening quarter and the first six of the second half, and senior Johnnie Clift had a double-double, with 23 points and 10 rebounds.

Allen scored seven points, and Back chipped in six, along with nine rebounds and three blocks for the Warriors (23-6), who met Dieterich on Wednesday night in the semifinals of the Red Hill Sectional.

Results of that game will be available at www.leaderunion.com on Thursday, and the winner meets St. Anthony at 7 p.m. on Friday for the sectional championship. The Bulldogs beat Oblong, 72-69, in Tuesday’s sectional semifinal game.

And the Warriors have a distinct goal of getting at least that far.

“It’s been 25 years (since the last regional title), so we couldn’t ask for anything else, but we aren’t done yet,” Clift said.

After failing to score on their first two possessions of the game, the Warriors scored on three straight to spark an 8-0 run that gave them an 8-2 lead 3:23 into the game.

Odin, however, would rally back within a point later in the period with a 5-0 run, but that was immediately followed with a 6-0 run by Patoka that helped the Warriors to a 21-14 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Baskets were traded at a fairly even pace through most of the second quarter, but Odin picked up some late momentum with a 5-0 run to close the period and cut in half Patoka’s 32-22 lead.

Odin got back within a point again in the third quarter, using a 7-2 run to get the score to 40-39, but Patoka again followed with its own run, going 7-0 over the next two minutes for a 47-39 lead.

“Our man-to-man defense is what got us back in it,” Eddy said. “It would slip away, and we’d hit a big shot, or it would slip away from them, and they would make a big shot.”

The Eagles hit the final basket of the third period, and that would be the start of a 13-2 run that left them ahead 52-49 with 5:05 left in the game.

During that run, Patoka committed three of its 18 turnovers, and Odin knocked down two of its six 3-pointers in that span.

“They shoot the ball great,” Cain said. “When they are on fire, they are unstoppable.”

Patoka, which has shown an ability to make a flurry of 3s in a game, didn’t rely on its long-range shooting last Friday, making just three shots from beyond the arc.

But they all came at good times, none better than Allen’s make off of a pass from senior Sheldan Felchlia that tied the game at 52 with 4:27 left in the game.

“We emphasized getting it in the lane,” Eddy said. “They spread their defense out, so if we were patient, we would get layups, and if you can get layups, why do anything else?”

Clift followed Allen’s shot with nine points over the last 3:31, including a 7-of-8 effort from the free-throw line and a second-chance layup off of his own missed free throw that gave the Warriors a 65-59 lead with 34 seconds left in the game.

“It feels amazing,” Clift said. “They’re a great team, and (winning) is an awesome feeling.”

The win brings the team’s preseason goals full circle, and Eddy had trouble finding a way to express what it meant that his players’ hard work got paid off, especially when considering that Patoka’s fans filled one half of the gym and overflowed to the other.

“It was awesome,” Eddy said. “I don’t even know how to describe it.

“You see the crowd that came out,” he said. “I told them in the locker room, ‘When you go out to warm up, take a second and just look at the crowd. You’ve done this. You brought this excitement – this is all for you guys.  Embrace it. Enjoy it. Drink it in, because it’s been 25 years, so you never know when this will happen again.’”

Friday, Feb. 28
Patoka 68
Odin 61
O: 14-13-14-20—61
P: 21-11-15-21—68
Points: J. Cain, 32; Clift, 23; Allen, 7; T. Back, 6.
Rebounds: Clift, 10; T. Back, 9; J. Cain, 8; Dylan Back, 4; Dylan Collier, 4; Team, 2; Allen, 1; Felchlia, 1.
Assists: J. Cain, 2; Clift, 2; Felchlia, 2; T. Back, 1; Collier, 1.
Steals: Clift, 3; J. Cain, 1.
Blocks: T. Back, 3; Clift, 1.
Record: 23-6

***

The Warriors earned their spot in the title game with a 65-51 win against Mulberry Grove last Wednesday.

Freshman Jered Cain and junior Tyler Back each had 16 points for Patoka (22-6), and senior Johnnie Clift added 15.

For Mulberry Grove, freshman Jack Criner had 15 points and 12 rebounds, and sophomore Ty James had 14 points.

Wednesday, Feb. 26
Patoka 65
Mulberry Grove 51
M: 9-10-14-18—51
P: 14-18-11-22—65
Warriors
Points: T. Back, 16; J. Cain, 16; Clift, 15; Dylan Back, 9; Sheldan Felchlia, 5; Seth Allen, 4.
Record: 22-6
Aces
Points: Criner, 15; James, 14; Damian Latham, 8; Austin Redfern, 7; Michael Sloan, 4; Dalton Crisman, 3.