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SENECA — The second-seeded Lexington boys basketball team, which trailed top-seed Seneca by 10 at halftime, used a 12-0 spurt in the third quarter, then a couple of key baskets in the final three minutes to eventually capture the title of the Seneca Shipyard Showdown Tournament with a 52-44 victory on Saturday night.
Lexington (12-2) joins Indian Creek (2009, 2019) and Flanagan-Cornell (2015, 2021) as teams to win the championship twice, while becoming the first team to win the title in consecutive years.
“We didn’t shoot the ball very well in the first half and Seneca just killed us in transition and with the pick-and-roll in the half court,“ Lexington coach Doug Yoder said. ”We had to switch out of our man defense to a zone, but the guys really stepped up.”
Seneca (12-3) used 14 points from forward Grant Siegel to hold a 18-9 lead after the first quarter. The Irish then closed out the first half with a drive by Jesus Govea and a 35-footer at the buzzer by Paxton Giertz to go to the intermission up 27-17.
“I felt like we finally settled in at little bit midway into the second quarter, then in the third we were able to get a few baskets off turnovers and kept them from getting the opening looks they were getting in the first half,” Yoder said. “Then in the fourth, Micah Coffman hit some really huge 3s for us and Joe Cheever was able to convert at the rim late to give us a two-possession lead.”
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Seneca held a 32-31 advantage after a layup by Siegel at the 6:10-mark of the third, but a triple by Coffman, seven points by Blaine Friedmansky and two free throws by Tyler Steffa closed the gap to 38-33 heading to the fourth.
A rebound hoop by Steffa and three consecutive treys by Coffman gave the Minutemen a 44-41 lead. Giertz’s NBA-range 3 with 3:09 to go tied the score, but back-to-back drives by Joe Cheever, then two free throws by Steffa helped close things out.
“In that fourth quarter No. 4 (Coffman) hit shots for them,” Seneca coach Russ Witte said. “Of all the kids they had on the floor we felt he was one of their weaker shooters and we were trying to shut down No. 1 (Friedmansky) and No. 12 (Bo Stutzman) while also trying to control No. 11 (Steffa). (Coffman) just hit shots.
“Then in that stretch, we missed some really good opportunities, and while we didn’t turn the ball over a lot, we did in some key moments in the fourth. I thought we were really good defensively in the first half, but in the second half we allowed a few too many second chances and lost our man on a couple of possessions where they scored.
“Lexington is a very, very solid team.”
Coffman finished with a team-high 17 points for Lexington, followed by Friedmansky with 12, Steffa (nine rebounds, seven blocks) with eight, Stutzman with seven and Cheever (eight rebounds) with six. Friedmansky and Cheever were both named to the all-tournament team.
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The Minutemen finished 18 of 52 (35%) from the floor, including 11 of 23 (48%) in the second half, held 40-35 margin on the boards and won the turnover battle 11-13. Seneca hit 17 of 53 (32%) for the contest, just 7 of 31 (23%) in the final 16 minutes and 3 of 25 overall from 3-point range.
Siegel and Giertz, the latter named the most valuable player of the tournament after scoring 107 points, two off the record held by Dwight’s Justin Fox in 2016, led Seneca with 19 points each. Giertz also had four rebounds, six assists, three steals and two blocks, while Siegel grabbed seven rebounds.
“It a really cool honor, but I would have really loved it would have come with a championship as well,” said Giertz, who was also the event’s MVP in 2022. “A couple weeks ago we played Peoria Christian and we, all of us, played really bad. So, to come back this week and play what I feel was four pretty solid games was great.
“Sure, we didn’t win tonight, but I feel like we showed ourselves how good a team we can be when we put everything together.”
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Boxscore
Shipyard Showdown
Championship game
At Seneca
Lexington 52, Seneca 44
LEXINGTON (52) — Friedmansky 5-16 2-6 12, Coffman 6-15 0-2 17, Steffa 2-8 4-4 8, Stutzman 2-5 1-2 7, Cheever 3-8 0-0 6, Steffen 0-1 0-0 0, Cloudt 0-0 2-2 2, Meints 0-0 0-0 0, Davis 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 18-52 9-16 52.
SENECA (44) — Deering 1-1 0-0 2, Simek 0-7 0-0 0, Giertz 6-18 4-5 19, Shriey 1-4 0-0 2, Siegel 8-12 3-4 19, Sheedy 0-3 0-0 0, Maxwell 0-5 0-0 0, Zydron 0-1 0-0 0, Govea 1-2 0-0 2. Totals 17-53 7-9 44.
Lexington (12-2) 9 8 16 19 – 52
Seneca (12-3) 18 9 11 6 - 44
3-point goals – Lexington 7-22 (Friedmansky 0-6, Coffman 5-9, Steffa 0-2, Stutzman 2-4, Steffen 0-1); Seneca 3-25 (Simek 0-6, Giertz 3-13, Shriey 0-1, Siegel 0-1, Sheedy 0-3, Govea 0-1). Rebounds – Lexington 40 (Steffa 9, Cheever 8, Stutzman 6); Seneca 35 (Siegel 7, Deering 6, Simek 4, Giertz 4). Assists – Lexington 10 (Friedmansky 3, Coffman 3, Steffa 3); Seneca 11 (Giertz 6). Steals – Lexington 4 (Coffman 2); Seneca 6 (Giertz 3). Blocks – Lexington 7 (Steffa 7); Seneca 5 (Deering 2, Giertz 2). Turnovers – Lexington 11, Seneca 13. Total fouls (none fouled out) – Lexington 11, Seneca 20.