GALION (Crawford County Now) — Two teams with average records waged a battle inside Galion High School. South Central prevailed 62-58 over Crestline in a Division VII district semifinal Thursday night.

The Bulldogs led at every quarter break and built a 30-18 lead in the second quarter. The Trojans battled back thanks to an 11-3 run.

It took an unlikely hero, junior guard Tanner Back, to seal the game. Back had back-to-back steals and made 1-of-2 free throws with 12 seconds left to send SC to the next round.

“This group has been phenomenal and gave us everything we could have wanted. I told them I wanted to go out and compete and, there’s no doubt, we competed,” said Crestline head coach Paul Webb.

“The boys were fired up, and I think we got tired towards the end. There’s a lot of pride now and look where we are compared to when we took over. We’ve got to do a little better job against a physical defense and handling that.”

No. 4 South Central (12-12) faces top-seed Arlington in a district title game at 7 p.m. Saturday at Lima Senior High School. Crestline concludes its season at 13-11.

The ‘dogs got 16 points each from the junior tandem of Kody Lawhorn and Kordaie Robinson. Quentin Kapp added 10 and hauled in 18 rebounds.

“Chaffee and June can play and they had some other guys step up and make some shots that they needed,” Webb said.

Weston June had 18 points, and 7 boards and Bryan Chaffee contributed 13 points, 7 rebounds and 3 steals.

“They play hard-nosed basketball. We need to take better care of the basketball,” he said.

“The kids know it. I know it. I probably have got to do a better job in practice to make sure we understand how important that basketball is.”

June tallied 8 in the third quarter to cut the lead to 46-44 after 24 minutes.

“It really was a grind-out game and that’s what the tournament is all about,” Trojans head coach Dallas Yost said. “You want to play your best basketball. We played a little tight in the first half and we didn’t trust one another to make that extra pass.”

“We had like 12 turnovers in the first half and our defense wasn’t great. Credit to Crestline. They’re much improved. The Lawhorn kid was tough to stay in front of. He’s a really good guard. Barnett is a good player, and they can match us in transition.”

The fourth quarter was a back-and-forth tussle.

June hit a trey to put South Central ahead before Robinson hit consecutive buckets to regain the lead for Crestline at 52-47.

June sank another 3 before Weston Clark hit a pair of foul shots. Lawhorn’s drive pulled the Bulldogs to within two at 60-58.

Chaffee made 1-of-2 followed by Back to give the Trojans the victory.

“My kids were just resilient. It’s a game of runs and it’s how we responded to that,” Yost said. “Who wants it more when adversity hits and I thought we did that.

“We have seven seniors who want to keep this thing going. A lot of times I had five seniors on the floor. Survive and advance and we made the last one.”

Crestline loses seven seniors in Barnett, Dom Griffith, Adam Burton, Justice Horn, Grady Briggs, Gage Trent and Brett Cheney.

“The seniors have been the building block of this program. When I got here it wasn’t good. Our first scrimmage we had Upper Sandusky and we scored 14 total points in 6 quarters,” Webb said.

“To go from that to having a shot to play in the district finals is about as good as it gets. I walk around here with a lot of pride being the Crestline Bulldog head coach.”

Box score

South Central     12      17     15      18 — 62

Crestline              18      15      13     12 — 58

South Central (12-12): Shots 20-44; 3-pt. shots 4-12 (Weston June 2, Dominic Paynter, Gavin Olney); Free throws 18-26; Rebounds 22 (Weston June 7); Turnovers 15. Scoring: Brayden Vlock 1 3 5, Wyatt Hall 2 0 4, Weston June 7 2 18, Dominic Paynter 2 4 9, Tanner Back 0 1 1, Bryan Chaffee 5 3 13, Gavin Olney 1 3 6, Troy Ayers 1 2 4, Opposing Player 1 0 2.

Crestline (13-11): Shots 23-42; 3-pt. shots 3-12 (Kody Lawhorn, Weston Clark, Quentin Capp); Free throws 9-17; Rebounds 37 (Quentin Kapp 18); Turnovers 17. Scoring: Kody Lawhorn 7 1 16, Weston Clark 2 2 7, Kordaie Robinson 6 4 16, Kieran Barnett 4 1 9, Quentin Capp 4 1 10.