Derrick Webb, Managing Editor
Southern Ohio Sports Authority is presented by OhioHealth.
WAVERLY — Sitting in Eastern’s locker room during a postgame interview on Monday night, Carson Peters hit the nail on the head.
“We’ve been starting out fast this season. But something we’ve, kind of, had to fix, is holding off teams in the second half. That’s something that we definitely need to work on going into the next game.”
With the way Huntington played in the fourth quarter, the Eagles may count themselves lucky to be able to see another game in the first place.
But thanks to an extraordinary effort in the first half from Aiden Werner and an all-around masterful performance from Boston Webb throughout the night, Eastern was indeed able to hold off the Huntsmen by a 52-45 final in a Division VI district semifinal.
CREDIT: Raymond Gleadle/SOSA
Survive and advance. Any way you can. That’s what Eastern (17-7) did in a do-or-die situation.
“It’s a lot easier when you’ve been on the big stage before,” Webb said. “We just have to keep playing calm and playing like ourselves. If we can do that, I think we’ll keep [winning] like we have been.”
The win marked the Eagles’ eighth straight victory and catapulted them into a district championship game.
But it wouldn’t have happened without both Cade Leist and Eric Manley in the paint, a duo that controlled the glass all night long.
Leist and Manley — the school’s center and quarterback during the fall — played with physicality while grabbing a combined 16 rebounds and added a needed 10 points to the totals.
“Eric and Cade are very important to this team,” Webb said. “Eric, being 6-foot-7, is grabbing about every board and I think he had more than 10 tonight. They’re just very important to our team and to our success.”
Werner was immaculate in the early goings.
The senior sliced and diced his way through Huntington’s defense routinely in the first quarter before ending the night with 13 points. But his play in the first eight minutes allowed Eastern to grab an early lead — one the Eagles were thankful for when the game reached its later stages.
“Aiden is just an amazing guy,” Peters said. “He’s always out there, he’s always hustling every single day and he’s always pushing us. I’d probably say he’s our team leader. He’s always just pushing us at practice, every single day.”
In the first quarter, the action featured 10 lead changes as both teams came out firing on all cylinders.
After Webb started the night’s scoring, Huntington (16-7) took a 3-2 lead with a 3-ball from Zayden Baker. But that was answered with a pair of free throws from Eastern’s Leist on the other end.
And that’s, while brief, a synopsis of the entire first quarter’s action.
PHOTOS: Images from Eastern’s district semifinal win over Huntington
Huntington took a 10-9 lead with 2:25 to play, courtesy of Frankie Hirsch, before Webb dialed long distance to put the Eagles back on top at 12-10. However, after Hirsch hit his own triple to make it 16-14 in his team’s favor with 57.2 seconds left, the Eagles answered and never looked back.
Manley banked in a trey with 22.1 seconds to go before Werner split a pair at the stripe. Webb then nailed a 3 as the buzzer sounded, putting Eastern ahead 21-16.
That sequence was the start of a game-changing 14-0 run.
Peters started the second with a bucket, which was followed by a jumper and another 3 from Webb, pushing the advantage to 28-16. After Huntington finally answered with a lay-in, Werner went right back to work to produce a 32-18 edge with a drive to the bucket through contact.
“We just have to keep being disciplined, keep rebounding and keep playing good defense,” Peter said. “That’s been our entire M.O. this entire year. We just have to keep making shots like we have been.”
By halftime, the Eagles’ lead remained in double digits at 38-25.
More of the same took place in the third as Leist made it a 40-27 ballgame early in the quarter before Webb scored for a 46-33 count late.
However, after entering the fourth trailing 46-36, Huntington was down, but certainly not out.
Hirsch scored with 5:33 remaining in the game and followed his own lead at the 3:51 mark, which cut the deficit to 48-42. But, even though the Eagles failed to convert free throw tries, their six-point edge remained intact as the Huntsmen just couldn’t seem to get around the road block.
After going ahead 50-44, Werner and Manley each hit a free throw late to thwart any further comeback threat and send Eastern back to Athens.
Webb led the Eagles’ offensive efforts with 16 points and five assists while Werner and Peters each ended the night with 13 points. Manley had six points and 12 boards, and Leist chipped in with four points, four rebounds and four assists.
Hirsch led Huntington, and all scorers, with 22 points, six rebounds and five assists. Meanwhile, Kalvin Manson had nine points and four rebounds as Calvin Hirsch added four points and nine boards.
While the Huntsmen’ season comes to an end, Eastern advances to a Division VI district championship game at 2 p.m., Sunday at Ohio University’s Convocation Center.
The Eagles will meet with Peebles, who defeated Waterford to advance.
“We just have to come in confident,” Webb said. “Last year, we came in and played Valley and we came in confident. [We knew] we had to just be ourselves, play defense and box out. We went in there and got the [win] again.”
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