Vermilion loses in district semifinal

The Sailors’ shooting touch went cold and they lost to Lexington, 46-43, in a Division II Mansfield District semifinal.

Live by the 3, die by the 3.

That statement rang true for Vermilion on Tuesday night as they shot 2-of-29 from behind the arc, falling to Lexington, 46-43, in a Division II district semifinal in Mansfield.

“We gave ourselves a chance to win,” Vermilion coach Kurt Habermehl said. “I mean, that wasn’t us shooting the basketball tonight. I think we were 2-of29 from 3-point range and we’re a 40 percent shooting team on the year, but we just couldn’t find it tonight.” With the loss, the firstseeded Sailors finish their season with a 20-5 record, while No. 3 Lexington improves to 20-5 and will take on No. 4 Sandusky on Saturday at 2 p.m. in the District championship game at Madison Middle School in Mansfield.

Early on Vermilion struggled to find its shot from behind the arc, going 1-of16 in the first half, despite shooting 54 percent from the field.

Lexington was able to dominate on the glass, as junior forward Cade Stover, who has several Division I scholarship offers in football, hauled in 14 rebounds

while outrebounding all of Vermilion by three in the first half.

“I thought Ethan Habermehl did a fantastic job on Stover,” Habermehl said. “He was doing a great job of getting around him and not giving him easy looks, but their other guys, their size hurt us a little bit. Because we weren’t shooting well, they were able to stay in their zone the whole fourth quarter.”

Despite being down, 30-19, going into halftime, Vermilion stepped it up in the third quarter, holding Lexington to just four points, while going on a 15-0 run and shooting 85 percent from the field.

“I thought we turned the pressure up a bit,” Habermehl said. “We got the game fast the way we wanted to play. We wanted to play a fast tempo and get them running up and down the floor a little bit and we forced some turnovers and we started attacking the basket a little bit more. I thought we might have gotten a little tired in the fourth quarter, but when you’re playing six guys, that’s going to happen sometimes.”

Vermilion’s defense also forced a lot of mistakes on Lexington, as they turned the ball over in the third quarter eight times.

The Sailors also held Lexington to just 33 percent shooting from field-goal range, but Vermilion appeared to tire in the fourth quarter, allowing 12 points while shooting just 4-of-7 from the field.

“You know, they fought like crazy,” Habermehl said. “I got no complaints with these guys. I love them to death and I’m super proud of the season they had and I’m proud of how they fought back tonight. We knew they were going to get themselves back in the game because that’s what this team does.”

Junior guard Ben Vore had a game-high 16 points for Lexington, followed by senior Bryan Givand, who chipped in 14. Stover ended up finishing the game with a double double, as he scored 13 points and grabbed 19 rebounds.

Leading the way on offense for Vermilion was senior Joby Pfeil with 14 points, followed by junior Mason Montgomery with 13.

“We’ll be back next year,” Habermehl said. “We’re losing three guys off of a 20win basketball team. They were three important guys, but we’ll be ready to go next year.”