History made: Seneca East pressures Colonel Crawford, wins program's first district title
WILLARD — Seneca East coach Anthony Langhurst told his players one thing before tipoff in Friday night's Division IV district championship.
"Be legendary."
And they listened, winning the program's first district title by beating top-seed Colonel Crawford 44-38. It was Seneca East's third win over the Eagles, having swept them in the regular season — entering the year Seneca East was 2-28 against Colonel Crawford — and Langhurst became just the second coach to beat David Sheldon three times in a season since he took over the Eagles 18 years ago.
"That's a crazy stat," Langhurst said. "We didn't really focus on the two games beforehand, that really didn't factor into a whole lot going into tonight. We just told (the players) beforehand, 'No one's ever done this before, you have an opportunity to be legendary. Just try to go out, take it, enjoy the environment and play as hard as you can.'
"It took us a little while to get to the team that we're normally used to seeing. once they started clicking, it was fun to watch."
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The teams traded baskets in the first quarter with the Tigers leading 12-11 after the opening period. A very low scoring second quarter featuring just 10 points and the teams combining to go 2 of 20 from the field saw the Eagles take an 18-15 lead into the break despite big man Payne Degray picking up his third foul late in the quarter.
"I take the blame in second quarter, I shouldn't have put him back in," Sheldon said. "It's a two-point game and he gets his third, and he just he was in foul trouble all night long."
That left a sizable void in the paint for Colonel Crawford, but the Eagles seemed to have shifted momentum by closing the third quarter on a 6-0 run to grab a 28-21 lead.
Langhurst told his team in the huddle before the fourth, "It's now or never. We switched the entire defense, we're trapping everything and coming out like a house on fire. You've got nothing to lose. You could see it in their eyes, something switched and something clicked."
Seneca East exploded for 23 points in the fourth — more than the Tigers had in the previous three quarters combined — capitalizing on Degray picking up his penultimate foul with 5:55 on the clock.
"He's a double-double guy, and we know our top two," Sheldon said. "Trevor (Vogt) laid it all out there, but it's hard to score when you're on the bench and in foul trouble. We're up eight going into the fourth and then we have live ball turnovers. We had six turnovers that led to scores. We can't say it was defense. And we missed a lot around the rim."
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Over the next minute, Seneca East would tie the game at 31, trail 34-33 at the 3:10 mark, and then never look back in knocking down free throws and stifling the Eagles offense en route to making history.
"That's a very good basketball team," Sheldon said. "That team has put their basketball program on the map. I got the utmost respect for those kids. They played their tails off, they were co-champs with us, it's just a very good basketball team.
"And this was neat for the Seneca East community. They have more people in here because this is their first time experiencing it. You look at our community, we're spoiled all the time because we've been here."
The Tigers spoiled Colonel Crawford's chance at a third consecutive district title and the program's fourth in five years. That the Eagles even made it this far with just 7.5 points per game returning from a team that averaged 54.7 last season speaks volumes of the program.
"In my 18 years I'm just blessed and thank god for this group," Sheldon said. "Ryan (McMichael) and Trevor were the only ones back, and Trevor really the only one to play much. We live in a day and age where some people don't want to be part of something bigger than themselves.
"They left a legacy, and I'll be forever grateful for those two guys. It's going to be hard to replace them because they brought the toughness of this basketball team."
Vogt led the Eagles with 16 points, six rebounds and three assists while John Degray added seven points, five rebounds and three blocks.
Seneca East was balanced as Lucas Bordner paced the Tigers with 12 points and six steals; Aidan Hines and Luke Mason each added eight points; Blake Foos had seven and eight rebounds; and Lucas Hicks scored six points.
Now, Seneca East shifts its focus to Canton where the Tigers will play in their first regional game against defending state champion Richmond Heights.
No matter what happens, Friday's win — in front of what felt like all of Attica — will go down as the biggest in program history, and this group will forever be etched in Seneca East lore.
"There was a buzz in the community, a buzz at the school and our student section has been second to none these last few weeks," Langhurst said. "It's great for the boys, too, because they earned it.
"If you just look at it right now, they're gonna go down as the best team to ever play basketball at Seneca East. You check all the boxes: league championship, sectional championship, district championship, 20-plus wins. Case closed."
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This article originally appeared on Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum: Seneca East boys win first district basketball championship
