Brock Netter, Staff Writer
Southern Ohio Sports Authority is presented by OhioHealth.
ATHENS – There’s a reason Caleb Lovely is the Division III OPSWA District Player of the Year.
That reason was on full display on Sunday night.
CREDIT: Heather Thompson/SOSA
The 6-foot-3 junior was — in a word — spectacular in the Pointers’ Division III district championship win over Zane Trace at Ohio University.
Lovely poured in 39 points and added eight rebounds, leading South Point (21-4) to a 64-58 victory, one that marked the program’s second-ever district crown and its first in 33 years.
“We’ve been here a couple of times but we’ve come up short a couple of times,” South Point coach Travis Wise said. “This right here feels really, really good. They’re a great group of kids. They just battled tonight.”
Lovely scored the opening bucket of the game before ZT’s Xzander Ream fired back by scoring 10 of the Pioneers’ next 12 points to put them ahead 12-5.
However, the Pointers answered with a 7-1 run behind Lovely, Jordan Ermalovich and Xathan Haney. An Austen Ison free throw kept the Pioneers ahead 13-12 after the first quarter.
Lovely and Ison traded buckets, then Lovely connected from distance to put the Pointers ahead 17-15.
Later tied at 21-21, following a triple from Brock Jarrell, Landen Jarrell connected from deep to put the Pioneers ahead 24-21 at the break.
But Lovely was just getting started.
The Pointers’ guard connected on two buckets to open the third, putting the Pointers back ahead 25-24, before scoring South Point’s next 10 points, including a corner 3, to stretch the lead to 33-28.
“He had to guard one of [Zane Trace’s] better players, too,” Wise said of Lovely. “For him to step up like that, it’s big for us. He wants the ball in big situations.”
Lovely scored again before dishing an assist to Ermalovich, followed by two free throws from Jackson Childers to give the Pointers a 39-33 lead after three.
Nalin Robinson led the opening charge on a 6-0 run for Zane Trace to tie the game at 39-39 early in the fourth. However, Lovely responded with a personal 6-2 run to keep his Pointers ahead 45-41.
He, alongside Carter Smith and Xzander Dornon, combined to extend the lead into double digits before closing out at the free throw line with a Sweet 16 ticket firmly in hand.
“Free throws, at this level, are huge. You’ve got to make them,” Wise said. “If you’re up six or eight late, the other team has to foul to keep possessions alive. We were fortunate enough to hit those tonight. We talked about that earlier this week, we talked about free throws.”
Following Lovely’s monster night, Dornon added 12 points while Ermalovich had four points and six rebounds.
For Zane Trace, Ream finished with 17 points and five rebounds, followed by Nalin Robinson with 12 points and seven boards.
While Zane Trace’s season comes to an end, the Pointers advance to a Division III regional semifinal against North Adams. The tip for that game is scheduled for 8 p.m., Wednesday at Ohio University.
“33 years. That’s a long, long time. It’s a great feeling to have,” Wise said. “We got our first goal, which was to be OVC champs. We were sectional champs and now we’re district champs. It’s a good feeling. This was our goal coming into this season. North Adams is good. We’re going to have to come up with something for [North Adams’ Bransyn] Copas. He’s solid. But they play our style of game. So we like the matchup.”
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