Willard wins SBC Bay title outright

CASTALIA — A familiar, yet unique position. Trey Paxton and the rest of the junior class in the Willard boys basketball program don't know what it feels like to not win a league championship. But despite a third consecutive Sandusky Bay Conference Bay Division title, this one belongs solely to the Crimson Flashes. Willard built an eight-point fourth-quarter lead over Margaretta, then fended off the Polar Bears down to the very last second in a thrilling 71-69 win on Friday. "They took it a step further," Willard coach Joe Bedingfield said. "All that success previously led to an outright title this year. We were able to build upon that instead of feeling sorry for ourselves. These guys stepped up into big roles." There was a chance the Bay Division was going to have a four-way tie after last Friday's games. But now just eight days later, Willard reigns supreme for the third year in a row. The Flashes shared the league title in each of the past two seasons. "I thought all of our kids stepped up tonight, in the second half especially," Bedingfield said. "I hate talking about individuals because they are coming together collectively. I thought we did a nice job responding to a very adverse environment. We talked about how tough this place has been for us." The Flashes (16-5, 8-2) still led 70-63 after a score from Myles Pinkston with 1:28 remaining. On the other end, Jake Leibacher was fouled and made two free throws for Margaretta (14-7, 6-4). The Polar Bears were forced to foul as the clock ticked down. Micah Dawson missed the front end of the one-and-one opportunity, but Cole Weiss grabbed the rebound and Willard called timeout with 40.5 seconds left. Paxton was fouled after Margaretta could not force a turnover, but he too missed the first free throw. Spencer Michel got the Polar Bears within 70-67 with his field goal with 16 seconds left. After two Margaretta timeouts, Paxton split two free throws for a four-point lead. The Polar Bears moved the ball up the floor quickly and Leibacher scored with five seconds left. Leibacher grabbed the ball as it went through the net and tossed it toward mid-court, as the officials stopped the clock with 3.3 seconds left. After convening, the officials kept possession with Willard and no technical foul. Dawson inbounded the ball to Paxton, but the pass forced Paxton towards the out of bounds line. His attempt to keep the ball in play resulted in Ben Palomo finding himself wide-open, but the 3-pointer at the buzzer was no good. The game was tied at 16 after eight minutes. Paxton opened the second quarter with a 3, but Margaretta responded with a 14-2 run to surge ahead. Paxton stopped the run with another triple and Myles Pinkston scored for the Flashes, but an 8-1 Margaretta run opened a 38-27 lead. Paxton hit two more 3-pointers in the final 1:50 of the half, but the Polar Bears led 43-33 at halftime. "Credit to Margaretta for playing an amazing first half," Bedingfield said. "I thought they shot the ball really well and I thought their kids played extremely hard." Austin Adelman — who battled foul trouble in the first half — and Paxton each connected from downtown to cut the margin to 43-39 less than two minutes into the third quarter. Cameron Sosa answered with a 3 of his own for Margaretta and the Polar Bears maintained a 48-42 advantage after two Leibacher free throws. But, that is when Willard took over. Pinkston hit two free throws and then went coast-to-coast off a rebound to slice the Margaretta lead to 48-46. The Polar Bears committed just two turnovers in the first half, but one of their six third-quarter turnovers resulted in an Adelman 3 to give Willard the lead. Pinkston scored on a putback to finish off the 9-0 run for the Flashes. Later, Leibacher knotted the game at 53 with a three-point play, but Dawson and Adelman each scored in the final 16 seconds to give Willard a 57-53 edge after three quarters. "I thought our kids did a nice job responding after halftime," Bedingfield said. "We made a few different defensive adjustments of who was guarding who. That really helped." Dawson opened the fourth-quarter scoring with an offensive rebound and field goal, but Leibacher kept Margaretta within striking distance with another 3-point play. Paxton scored on back-to-back possessions and Willard pushed ahead 66-58 after Adelman connected on three free throws with 4:15 left. "Margaretta is playing very good basketball," Bedingfield said. "We knew this was going to be a very good team. They are a tough team to beat, especially on their home floor." Leibacher led all scorers with 31 points while Nathan Schaefer scored 14 points. Palomo added 13 points for the Polar Bears, who finished with 11 turnovers. Paxton nailed seven 3s en route to a team-high 28 points. Pinkston added 23 points and 14 rebounds. Willard hosts Edison (0-20) on Wednesday in its tournament-opener. "Trey did a nice job stepping up," Bedingfield said. "We talked to him at halftime that Margaretta was going to close out on his shots. He needed to get in the lane with two feet and he did." WILLARD (16-5, 8-2) Trey Paxton 9-3—28, Cole Weiss 1-0—2, Austin Adelman 4-3—13, Myles Pinkston 10-3—23, Micah Dawson 2-0—4, Max Dawson 0-1—1. TOTALS 26-10—71. MARGARETTA (14-7, 6-4) Cameron Sosa 3-0—9, Nathan Schaefer 6-0—14, Spencer Michel 1-0—2, Jake Leibacher 11-7—31, Ben Palomo 5-2—13. TOTALS 26-9—69. Willard 16 17 24 14 — 71 Margaretta 16 27 10 16 — 69 3-point FGs: (W) Paxton 7, Adelman 2; (M) Sosa 3, Schaefer 2, Leibacher 2, Palomo