OLD FORT (Crawford County Now) — In basketball, size does matter.

Maumee Valley Country Day offered Mohawk a case-in-point.

The Hawks feature 7-foot sophomore Ty Lewis in the middle. The offenses of both teams had to work around him.

With Lewis’ size and length and a group of athletic teammates, Country Day stifled a usually potent Warriors’ offense — holding them to 22 percent shooting — as the Hawks downed Mohawk, 75-43, in their Division VI district final game at John Brueggemeier Gymnasium.

Country Day advances to the regional tournament in Bowling Green, where the Hawks will take on Colonel Crawford, a 61-39 winner over Crestview, in the semifinal on Tuesday.

Mohawk had run through its schedule, both the Northern 10 Athletic Conference and non-league, with just two losses — both to N10 champion Colonel Crawford in overtime.

The Warriors had not seen a team like the Hawks in that run, however.

“If our shots aren’t falling, we like to be able to get to the basket,” Mohawk coach Paul Dunn said. “When you’ve got a 7-footer in there, it takes that away.”

And the shots did not fall for the Warriors from the get-go. After Mohawk took its only lead of the night at 2-0 on basket by Kahne Hayman, Country Day went on an 11-0 run before Boomer Cleveland scored to make it 11-4 Hawks midway through the opening quarter.

The Warriors finished the period four of 15 from the floor. Meanwhile, the Hawks were eight of 12 in building a 19-10 advantage after one.

“We knew they want to drive and kick and get open shots,” Country Day coach Dontaviyon Fleming said. “Obviously, they just missed shots tonight. They had a lot of open shots. They didn’t go in and we capitalized.”

As bad as that quarter was, it got worse for Mohawk in the second quarter. The Warriors missed all 16 of their shots in the frame and went scoreless. The Hawks scored a modest 11 points, but in so doing they stretched their lead to 30-10 by halftime.

“I thought we were a little tight early and the kids just weren’t making shots and that’s part of it,” Dunn said. “But our kids battled. I told them, ‘You’re down 20 points at halftime. You could easily fold up and go home.’ I thought they battled in the second half to at least cut it to 18 or 19.”

The defensive strategy employed by Country Day worked nearly to perfection considering Mohawk’s struggles from the perimeter. Lewis was the key to the plan.

“The gameplan was just to funnel everything to him,” Fleming said. “We wanted to run them off the line, run them to the big man. That’s what we did. If they don’t make the shot, he’s going to block it.”

There was no shortage of attempts for the Warriors. But volume wasn’t enough to keep up with the Hawks. Mohawk got off 21 shots in the third quarter, making just six. For the game, the Warriors were 16 of 74 — 10 of 47 from 3-point range.

“Boomer (Cleveland) and Hunter (Haynes) weren’t on early. When they’re on early, it helps everybody to kind of settle down,” Dunn said. “That anxiousness started to spread to everybody else.”

Lewis did not lead Country Day in points (12) or rebounds (9). But his presence was a psychological factor in the Warriors’ poor shooting.

Keeran Stokes led the Hawks with 18 points and Jeybrehm Price had 17. Next was 5-foot-4 freshman point guard Sae Robinson, who had 13 points, including three 3s. Nasir Wilson pulled down 16 rebounds.

Fleming was pleased with the team effort.

“Athleticism, our speed, our size, our jumping ability,” Fleming said. “We’re young, but the boys are right there.”

Country Day has one senior on the roster in Charlie Gorski, a 3-point specialist who finished with seven points, and there are no juniors.

Hayman had a monster night in his last game in a Mohawk uniform. He scored a game-high 25 points with seven 3s. Only three other Warriors reached the scoring column. Cleveland — who scored his 1,000th career point on a 3 with 49 seconds left in the game — and Haynes had seven each. Connor Flood added four. Kaleb Bish had eight rebounds.

“I wish I had more of him,” Dunn said of the Hayman. “He’s a special one. He plays so hard. It’s the last game forever now. It’s been a fun ride having him. He’s been like that in every big game we’ve had. When he plays like that, it’s fun to watch.”

Dunn’s voice cracked with emotion in talking about Hayman and became even more so as he contemplated saying goodbye to his 10 seniors — Hayman, Cleveland, Haynes, Flood, Bish, Ben Bogner, Brayden Bloom, Hayden Parker, Garrett Rinehart, and Marty Justen.

“I’ve got some boys of my own, but these guys were third graders when I came back (to Mohawk),” Dunn said. “I coached all the way through with these guys, so I’ve got sons that are graduating. It’s hard.”

Fleming gave his team credit for the win.

“We stuck to the gameplan,” Fleming said. “We’ve been watching Mohawk for the last two weeks and the boys executed very well.”

“This is nothing to hang our heads about,” Dunn said. “Obviously, we’ll bring home some hardware, just not the one we want. But I’m proud of our kids.”

Box score

Country Day     19     11     19     26 — 75

Mohawk            10       0     16     17 — 43

Country Day (17-8): Shots 26-45; 3-pt. shots 8-15 (Sae Robinson 3, Keeran Stokes 2, Charlie Gorski 2, Jeybrehm Price); Free throws 15-18; Rebounds 41 (Nasir Wilson 16); Turnovers 13. Scoring: Sae Robinson 5 0 13, Keeran Stokes 5 6 18, Jeybrehm 6 4 17, Charlie Gorski 2 1 7, Nasir Wilson 3 2 8, Ty Lewis 5 2 12.

Mohawk (21-3): Shots 16-74; 3-pt. shots 10-47 (Kahne Hayman 7, Hunter Haynes 2, Boomer Cleveland); Free throws 1-3; Rebounds 34 (Kaleb Bish 8); Turnovers 9. Scoring: Kahne Hayman 9 0 25, Boomer Cleveland 3 0 7, Hunter Haynes 2 1 7, Connor Flood 2 0 4.