MONROEVILLE — The Oak Harbor Rockets knew which Wynford player they had to stop to give themselves the best chance to win — Jaron Filliater.
Rockets’ coach Eric Sweet devised just the right plan to contain the prolific Royals’ senior. It worked to near perfection. Oak Harbor held Filliater to three points and went on to win, 69-52, in the opening round of the Division III tournament at Monroeville High School.
The Rockets advance to the sectional final on Friday, where they will take on Elmwood, at 79-61 winner over Ashland Crestview in the opening game of the evening.
“We wanted to focus in on Jaron Filliater,” Oak Harbor Sweet said. “He’s averaging 20 (points). We really wanted to focus on him. We held to three. It was a phenomenal job.
“We realized they’d have a couple of other guys make shots and ultimately they did,” Sweet continued. “But what got us that big lead was holding him.”
Wynford coach Mike Smith was a little surprised by the defensive strategy but not caught off guard.
“They came out and played a triangle-and-two on us, which really surprised me,” Smith said. “I didn’t think that was probably needed the way we’ve shot the ball this year.
“Had we made shots in the second quarter, it’s a different game,” Smith added. “We just hesitated. Kids that normally don’t shoot had to shoot. We worked on that. I actually thought they might run something like that — a box-and-one on Filly or a triangle-and-two on Sam (McMillan) and Filly. Our kids knew how to handle that. I thought we handled it. We just didn’t make shots.”
Oak Harbor (12-11) ran out to a 7-0 lead to start the game. The Royals missed their first eight shots from the field before finally getting on the board on a pair of free throws by James Schiefer.
From there, Wynford (5-17) battled back. Grant McGuire scored twice, and Schifer had a basket to help the Royals cut their deficit to 10-9 by period’s end.
“We went down 7-0 and fought our way back to 10-9,” Smith said. “I thought that was a pretty impressive quarter. It’s been the same all year. We have one quarter where we just go blank. It’s been every game. Some games, we’ve been able to overcome it. But you can’t do that against really good teams.”
That quarter was the second, as Smith indicated. Wynford hit just four of 16 shots in the period while the Rockets connected on nine of 16. The result was a 34-18 lead at halftime for Oak Harbor.
“I thought our speed did help us out,” Sweet said. “We got in the (passing) lanes, and we got to the rim pretty well. T.J. (Hallett) had a tremendous night.”
Indeed, Hallett — after scoring a modest 10 points in the first half — almost single-handedly blew the game open in the third quarter, scoring 16 of his game-high 29 points in the frame, to balloon the Rockets’ lead to 54-29 after three.
“We were chasing him,” Smith said. “We were trying not to let him catch the ball. I thought we did a pretty good job for the most part. But he’s a kid that can shoot from 27 feet. You have to make sure you’re out and a couple of times we didn’t get out. He hit those shots.”
Hallett hit three 3s, but he also got to the basket, converting nine two-point field goals.
“He’s averaging 20 (points) also,” Sweet said. “But tonight, he showed all dimensions. He got to the rim real well and he can shoot it too. When he shoots well, it’s awesome.”
Smith did get a nice glimpse of the future. Freshman Weston Prenger entered the game in the fourth quarter — only his second varsity game of the year — and hit five 3s to end up leading Wynford with 15 points.
“He got at least a taste tonight,” Smith said of his young shooter. “He stepped up and hit shots. That’s what we want him to do. He’s going to be a scorer in the future. He’s probably going to be a good one.”
Dylon Robinson was the only other Royal in double figures with 10 points. Filliater and McGuire had eight rebounds each.
Ethan Stokes supported Hallett’s monster night with 15 points and Kyle Glaser added 12 for Oak Harbor. Keegan Durdel grabbed 11 rebounds.
Sweet was impressed with the Rockets’ ball handling considering the pace of the game. Oak Harbor committed only four turnovers, one in the second half.
“That was a big emphasis — take care of the ball, keep possessions, and hold them defensively,” Sweet said. “We were able to do it, get a big lead and come out with a win in the tournament. That’s all that matters at this point.”
Smith had to say an emotional good-bye to his seniors, Filliater, Schiefer, and Avery Langenderfer.
“It’s going to be hard to replace Filly,” Smith said. “The three seniors — I told them, ‘Listen, a new coach coming in, we changed basically everything that we were doing,’” Smith said. “And they didn’t blink an eye. They bought in. I thought they did a great job of leading us this year.”
Box score
Wynford 9 9 11 23 — 52
Oak Harbor 10 24 20 15 — 69
Wynford (5-17): Shots 20-62; 3-pt. shots 6-26 (Weston Prenger 5, Avery Langenderfer); Free throws 6-12; Rebounds 43 (Grant McGuire 8, Jaron Filliater 8); Turnovers 10. Scoring: Grant McGuire 4 0 8, Dylon Robinson 4 2 10, Weston Prenger 5 0 15, Avery Langenderfer 2 0 5, James Schiefer 3 2 8, Sam McMillan 1 1 3, Jaron Filliater 1 1 3.
Oak Harbor (12-11): Shots 28-66; 3-pt shots 7-25 (T.J Hallett 3, Ethan Stokes 2, Kyle Glaser, Keegan Durdel); Free throws 6-9; Rebounds 40 (Keegan Durdel 11); Turnovers 4. Scoring: Jaqui Hayward 2 0 4, Kyle Glaser 5 1 12, Michael LaLonde 2 2 6, Keegan Durdel 1 0 3, Ethan Stokes 6 1 15, T.J. Hallett 12 2 29.