OLIVESBURG — Margaretta lived up its No. 1 seed in the Division IV sectional tournament Friday night by knocking off 11th seed Buckeye Central 64-25.
Leading the way was senior Jake Leibacher with 20 points and 8 rebounds.
“Thing of it is, he’s really good. But they got other players that can score. You can’t double him. They got shooters there. They got shooters over there,” said BC coach Tom Howell.
Leibacher also set the school scoring record in the fourth quarter. He has 1,346 points so far during his career.
The Polar Bears (22-3) advance to next Tuesday’s district semi-final against Monroeville. Tip-off is 7:30 p.m. at Willard High School.
“I thought our second quarter defensively was good. We only gave up 13 points, but we couldn’t score,” Howell said.
“We couldn’t score from the get-go. We were playing way too fast. We were not sharing the ball like we had the last 6 or 7 games. Then we got ourselves in a hole … trying to get our head above ground.”
Buckeye Central (8-16) was led by Aiden McDougal with 8 points. Tyler Sanderson snared 7 rebounds.
Mental mistakes contributed to the loss.
“They pressured the ball a little bit in the half court and full court,” Howell said. “But man, we played against that all year and had done a pretty good job. Tonight, we didn’t.”
Howell said a similar opponent was Colonel Crawford.
“The only thing they don’t have that Crawford has is size. We played Crawford twice and got beat by 12 and 15. We had to keep this one close and we couldn’t keep it close. You gotta tip your hat and say these guys are pretty good,” Howell said.
Margaretta coach Steve Keller Jr. likes his team’s chances going forward.
“I’m blessed to be able to coach these guys. Buckeye Central has gotten a lot better,” Keller said. “Tonight, we were able to come out and set the tone. We got through a bit of a lull in the second quarter, but were able to stretch things, playing in transition and shooting the basketball well.”
The Polar Bears outscored the Bucks 26-10 in the second half.
Keller said his club made some uncharacteristic mistakes and unforced turnovers. The Bucks committed 15 turnovers to 8 for Margaretta.
“Our guys got it together, finished the half strong and started the third pretty well. Coach Howell does a great job.”
Leibacher has come a long way in 4 years, he said.
“As a freshman he was a boy. Physically he wasn’t ready, but he was a player,” Keller said.
He moved into the starting line-up halfway through his freshman year.
“He’s taken it to another level. He’s a really good athlete and an even better basketball player and an even better person. He’s a great kid.”
Howell is pleased with the work ethic his team displayed this season.”Our kids came to practice every day and worked hard. It’s sad to go out this way,” Howell said.
Seven seniors are departing the program — Logan Niese, Casey, Elliot, and Graham Geissman, McDougal, Damian Dean and Alex Kanney.
“They’ve come a long way the last two years. Last year we had 10 wins. This year we had 8. I thought we should have had at least 12. We let some games slip away.”
Box score
Buckeye Central 9 6 9 1 — 25
Margaretta 25 13 18 8 — 64
Buckeye Central (8-16): Shots 9-40; 3-pt. shots 2-13 (Alex Kanney, Steven Sostakowski); Free throws 5-13; Rebounds 27 (Tyler Sanderson 7); Turnovers 15. Scoring: Stephen Sostakowski 2 1 6, Graham Geissman 0 1 1, Aiden McDougal 4 0 8, Tyler Sanderson 0 3 3, Alex Kanney 3 0 7.
Margaretta (22-3): Shots 26-50; 3-pt. shots 10-21 (Cameron Sosa 3, Hayden Wiley 2, Jake Leibacher, Ben Palomo, Mason Miller, Nathan Schafer, Reese Keegan); Free throws 2-4; Rebounds N/A; Turnovers 8. Scoring: Jake Leibacher 9 1 20, Ben Palomo 6 1 14, Hayden Wiley 4 0 10, Cameron Sosa 3 0 9, Mason Miller 2 0 5, Nathan Schafer 1 0 3, Reese Keegan 1 0 3.