Tyler Hart, Contributor
Southern Ohio Sports Authority is presented by OhioHealth.
WASHINGTON COURT HOUSE — Foot. Pedal. Never look back.
CREDIT: Marissa Spradlin/SOSA
That’s the game plan Washington used Saturday night to top league rival Miami Trace and clinch the program’s first-ever outright Frontier Athletic Conference championship.
The Blue Lions’ last conference title took place 10 years ago when they reigned atop the now disbanded South Central Ohio League.
The main highlight from Washington’s 51-28 victory was their dominance on the defensive end — an effort led by senior Tanner Lemaster in the post, who was tasked with guarding Miami Trace’s Andrew Guthrie.
The Panthers, including Guthrie, struggled to get the ball in the basket, which allowed Lemaster’s Blue Lions (17-4, 9-1 FAC) to take an early lead and seal a coast-to-coast win.
“It was five guys working hard,” Washington coach Shannon Bartruff said. “We got great ball pressure and did a great job of taking away their ball reversals so they couldn’t feed the post. [Lemaster] was phenomenal in the post. That was the best defensive game I’ve seen him play in three years against arguably one of the best post-players in Southern Ohio. [Guthrie] is a 1,000 point scorer and we held him to two. 98 percent of Miami Trace’s possessions was Tanner in there battling with Drew.”
Lemaster put Washington on the board to open the game with a 3 in front of the Panthers’ bench. What followed that bucket was several hustle plays that allowed the Blue Lions to play add-on.
Washington jumped out to a 10-4 lead at the end of the first quarter and continued finding their form in the second while sharing the ball and finding open looks.
The one negative was Michael Bearden finding himself in foul trouble early on, which limited his time on the floor. However, he still found a way to finish the first half with eight points, including a 3-point bucket at the buzzer, putting the Blue Lions ahead 25-8.
With 5.7 seconds left, Washington had to inbound the ball under MT’s bucket. Bearden split a pair of defenders and found nylon for the 17-point advantage.
“[Bearden] got into foul trouble early, but we were able to get him in spurts,” Bartruff said. “The kid just makes plays. He gets deflections, runouts, makes great passes in transition and he just adds a dimension to our team of speed and athleticism that makes us really tough to defend and guard.”
In the second half, Isaiah Haithcock became a force to be reckoned with. Haithcock continued to clean the glass and, alongside Lemaster down low, led the Blue Lions the rest of the way to victory.
Haithcock ended the night with a double-double of 10 points and 11 rebounds.
“He gives us a lot of leverage,” Bartruff said of Haithcock. “He can guard all five spots since he’s big and athletic. He’s another kid that, when he is locked in and not letting outside noise get in, he’s a game-changer. He had two good days of practice leading into tonight, so I knew he was locked in and ready to go.”
Miami Trace made second-half adjustments, which allowed the Panthers to get to the basket more. But Washington continued to find its way, outscoring MT by a 21-11 margin while taking a commanding 46-19 lead into the fourth.
Just eight minutes away from claiming the outright league crown, the Blue Lions used Bearden and John Wall to drain the clock for the majority of the quarter and set the team’s course on cruise control.
“We’ve got guys at every position,” Bartuff said. “When we buy in, we are unselfish and we play hard. Then, usually everything else takes care of itself.”
Lemaster, Wall, Bearden and Haithcock all finished in double-digit scoring figures. Lemaster and Wall each had 11 while Haithcock and Bearden ended the night with 10 points each.
Washington will now end the season with a matchup against Logan Elm before starting its tournament run. Meanwhile, the Panthers (16-4, 8-2 FAC) will look to rebound against Dayton Stivers on Thursday.
“The tournament is going to be very tough, but we have a tournament style team,” Bartruff said. “The game we played tonight had a tournament feel with the official crew we had and it was extremely physical. Every matchup is going to be different and every team poses a different threat. It all comes down to the same things like tonight, buying into the scout, trusting one another, moving the basketball, being physical in playing solid defense and being able to get out and run. When we are able to do that, I’ll take our chances against anybody.”
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