ATHENS — Eli Roberts scored 16 points, South Webster dominated the second half, and the Jeeps secured their first District Championship since 2013 with a 00-00 win over the Trimble Tomcats on Friday night at the Ohio University Convocation Center.
The district title win was also a special moment for South Webster head coach Norm Persin, who got his 800th career win, spanning over six decades.
"We got out hands full in the next one. Fairfield is a pretty good team," said Persin. "We just got to play."
Persin made several stops on his way to the coaching milestone, including two stints at Oak Hill, Lucasville Valley and Chesapeake.
And South Webster won by playing like any Persin-coached team — a patiently, executed offense and a tough defense. The Jeeps went 15-of-20 from the foul line and forced Trimble to commit 13 turnovers, while committing just four.
South Webster advances to the Regional Semifinals on Tuesday, March 12 at 6:00 PM at the Convocation Center. They will face the Leesburg Fairfield Lions who defeated Federal Hocking 56-52 in the other finals game.
After trailing by one for just over three minutes, the Jeeps took back the lead on a 3-pointer from the top of the key from Dylan Shupert to make it 8-6 with 2:28 left in the opening quarter.
Eli Roberts' score in front of the hoop with 17 seconds left gave the Jeeps an 10-6 advantage after one period.
Brandon Burdette got the Tomcats within two on a layup off a dribble-drive with 3:08 left in the half. But Tyler Sommers followed up with a trey from the left corner to put the Jeeps back up 17-12.
Trimble got to within one again, as Brady Jajczyk buried a 3-pointer from the corner off an inbounds play to make it 18-17 just 42 seconds before halftime.
But again the Jeeps answered, as Shupert drained another from the left wing in the final seconds to give South Webster a 21-17 lead the break.
Shupert hit his third from beyond the arc to give the Jeeps a six-point lead to begin the second half.
The Tomcats got to within four on a layup from Jajczyk on the baseline off a backdoor pass from Chase Patton.
However, Trimble would be held scoreless in the final 4:39 of the period as the Jeeps went on an 11-0 run to take a commanding lead.
Roberts scored the final 10 points — which featured a 3-point play and then a steal, drive, and layup — to push the Jeeps lead to 34-22, its largest of the game.completed a three-point play to make it a 30-22 lead for South Webster.
Robert's last points were a three-ball from beyond the college line to make it 37-22 in favor of South Webster after three periods.
Trimble finally stopped the scoring spree as Michael Clark' sank two free throws and Kayden Kempton sank a 3-pointer from the corner to make it 37-27 with 6:54 remaining.
South Webster wouldn't let the Tomcats pull off any late-game heroics like they did in the semifinals, maintaining their double-digit lead the rest of the game.
Tyler Sommer scored 11 points and had 5 boards for the Jeeps. Shupert finished with 9.
The Tomcats were led in scoring by Clark with 9 points. Kempton had 8.
Trimble 6 11 5 12 = 34
South Webster 10 11 16 14 = 51
TRIMBLE (15-9): Brandon Burdette 1 1 0-0 5, Luke Osborne 0 0 0-0 0, Kayden Kempton 1 2 0-0 8, Levi Weber 1 0 1-2 3, Chase Patton 0 0 0-0 0, Michael Clark 0 1 6-6 9, Brady Jajczyk 1 1 2-4 7, Cole Wright 1 0 0-0 2. Totals: 5 5 9-12 34. Fouls: 16. Fouled out: None.
SOUTH WEBSTER (22-3): Eli Roberts 5 1 3-3 16, Christian White 0 1 3-4 6, Dylan Shupert 0 3 0-0 9, Owen Mault 1 0 3-4 5, Hunter Barnard 1 0 0-0 2, Brock Campbell 0 0 2-2 2, Jack Timothy 0 0 0-0 0, Tyler Sommer 2 1 4-7 11. Totals: 9 6 15-20 51. Fouls: 14. Fouled out: None.
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