St. Paul preps for Lucas in district championship

NORWALK — There was nothing to hide. Following a 78-71 home loss vs. Ashland Crestview on Jan. 23, St. Paul boys basketball coach Mike Smith said a reset was in order. "Our goals change a little bit here, obviously," Smith said after his team fell to 9-4 overall and 7-3 in the Firelands Conference. At that point, the Flyers had been unofficially eliminated from the FC championship race. The following Friday, a 72-66 loss to Western Reserve dropped them to 9-5 and did eliminate them from contention. And the Flyers haven't lost since. St. Paul (17-5) takes an eight-game winning streak into Friday's 7 p.m. Division IV district championship game vs. Lucas (18-7) inside Robert L. Haas Gymnasium at Willard High School. The winner will advance to a regional semifinal at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at Akron Firestone High School against the winner of McDonald (23-2) and Warren JFK (11-4), also on Friday from the Northeast district. "We got all eight guys back healthy," Smith said of the eight straight wins. "If you look back, those seven games without the full roster meant something. But I think the other thing is these kids have taken to coaching and simply gotten better and better and answered the challenge against some good teams." St. Paul also lost at Willard (19-5) four days before the home loss to Crestview. After the close losses to the Cougars (17-7) and Roughriders (18-2) — who played Thursday night in a head-to-head Div. III district semifinal after Willard blasted Colonel Crawford — the Flyers also went through other quality teams during the streak. St. Paul defeated Firelands (10-5), Huron (11-7), Margaretta (15-9) and South Central (16-7) in four of the six wins to close the regular season, then beat Crestline (13-11) and the Polar Bears again on Tuesday in its two tournament wins. Huron, Margaretta and South Central were all sectional champions, as was Firelands ahead of its Thursday district semifinal vs. Akron Buchtel. "We answered the bell against some really good teams after that stretch in early January where we were quarantined," Smith said. "We had to do another restart, and there was no shame losing to Willard, Western or Crestview. "What would have been shameful is if we packed it in or if the kids were not wanting to improve," he added. "They wanted to get better, and just yesterday at practice they were finding things we can still improve." St. Paul is taking on a Cubs program that has been on an impressive four-year run. Lucas is 78-23 (.773) since the start of the 2017-18 season. That has included four sectional titles and the district championship last season. Lucas was scheduled to face Richmond Heights in a regional championship last season when the winter sports season was canceled because of the COVID pandemic. Included in that stretch was a 58-49 win over St. Paul in a sectional title game two years ago in the 2018-19 season — one of just nine all-time meetings between the programs before Friday. "Taylor Iceman has done a great job with them," Smith said of the Lucas head coach and athletic director. "When you watch them, they are so fundamentally sound in a lot of areas, and you can tell they are well-coached in that regard. Can tell they are well coached. "They are just a hard-nosed defensive team that doesn't beat themselves. They are efficient offensively and have gotten better from the beginning of the year to now." The Cubs average 53.6 points per game and allows 38.8 per contest. They average 26.8 rebounds, 11.9 assists and 9.6 steals per game as a team. Among the seven losses for the Cubs are Crestline (13-11), South Central (16-7), Div. III Associated Press poll champion Worthington Christian (23-1), Ontario (17-6) and Willard (19-5). Lucas is led by 1,000-point scorer Ethan Sauder, who averages 15.2 points, 4.3 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 2.8 steals per game. Ethan Wallace adds 9.6 points and 5.8 rebounds, while Logan Toms also averages 8.6 points, 5.8 rebounds and 2.3 assists. Before the season, the Cubs lost Riley Gossom to severe leg injuries sustained from a car crash on Oct. 26. Gossom was on pace to become the program's all-time points leader and was just 48 points shy of 1,000 for his career. He averaged 20.9 points per game last season as the Cubs finished 26-1. But without Gossom, who is now dressing in uniform in recent weeks and got to appear briefly in Tuesday's district semifinal vs. South Central, the Cubs have played with more patience. Lucas held the ball for several long stretches in the 34-26 win over South Central. The Cubs attempted to hold the basketball for the final 5:45 of the game, but turned it over with 1:29 remaining. They were still able to stop the Trojans, then made foul shots down the stretch to preserve the low-scoring win. "They are a very different team without Gossom and (Logan) Niswander from last year," Smith said. "I commend Coach Iceman and his staff for changing and adapting to the personnel they have offensively. "If they had Riley, they are probably a much more uptempo style of team," he added. "But they are a good team that is on a roll here of late. They play physical on defense and make it hard for you to score. They will try to set the tone on defense and control the paint." The Flyers are led offensively by the three-man attack of Nick Winslow, Nate Winslow and Scotty Adelman. Nick Winslow averages 21.6 points, 7.1 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 2.4 steals to pace the Flyers, who are looking for their first district championship since the 1997-98 season, and the fourth in program history. Nate adds 14.3 points, 6.2 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 2.2 steals per contest, while Adelman adds 11.9 points, 6.3 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 1.6 steals. St. Paul, which also snapped a six-game losing streak in the district tournament and is in its first title game in 11 years, averages 64 points per game and allows 52.8 on defense. The Flyers also average 34.5 rebounds, 11.3 assists and 9.6 steals per game. --------------------------------------St. Paul-Lucas history Dec.6, 1969: Lucas 54, St. Paul 53* Dec. 5, 1970: St. Paul 58, Lucas 47* Feb. 20, 1982: Lucas 50, St. Paul 48* Jan. 22, 1983: St. Paul 57, Lucas 56* March 3, 1984: Lucas 54, St. Paul 45^ March 10, 1999: Lucas 65, St. Paul 60# March 7, 2001: Lucas 58, St. Paul 47# March 10, 2009: St. Paul 42, Lucas 35# March 1, 2019: Lucas 58, St. Paul 49^ * — denotes regular season ^ — denotes sectional final # — denotes district semifinal