It’s all Seneca as Fighting Irish rout Woodland for first Tri-County title

SENECA – When it’s your night, it’s your night.

And Friday belonged to the Seneca Fighting Irish.

Hosting Woodland – the last team with a chance to catch them in the Tri-County Conference championship race – the Irish honored and got big performances from their three seniors, forced 10 first-quarter turnovers and led by 21 at halftime and 30-plus in a running-clock fourth quarter of Friday night’s 61-32 win over the Warriors.

Heck, even during halftime it was Seneca’s night. As part of a promotion that hadn’t produced a winner all season, Seneca Grade School seventh-grade basketball player Max Andreatta swished a half-court shot for $250.

Those three points didn’t count, but the game-high 25 (plus five steals) from Paxton Giertz, nine points (with four rebounds) from Grant Siegel and eight (plus five assists, seven rebounds and two blocked shots) from third senior Sebastian Deering sure did in the senior-night, Tri-County Conference championship-clinching victory.

“Really, it’s all-around, everyone puts in work every day,” Deering said of the team’s success his senior season. “The coaches, they work hard to give us the best looks that they can, and at practice we just work hard every day.

“We’ve been battling some sickness and some injuries this season, but we’re looking stronger right now and are hopeful for the postseason.”

Seneca (24-5 overall, 8-0 Tri-County) used its 1-2-2 ballpress zone defense to take control right from the beginning, forcing 10 turnovers on Woodland’s 15 first-quarter possessions and leading 16-4 by the close of that opening period.

“This was as good as we have rotated,” Irish coach Russ Witte said of his defense. “Very disciplined with our second row, being able to rotate down. I was very worried, because [Woodland] basically puts five guards on the floor, and in the past they have pretty much shredded our ballpress and we’ve had to go to man-to-man ... but I thought we did an excellent job rotating and speeding them up without really speeding up ourselves.

“Then we started hitting some shots inside and from the perimeter. It’s kind of fun to go into a fourth quarter, relax like that ... and finish off our first Tri-County Conference title.”

The Warriors (18-11 overall, 6-2 Tri-County) recovered somewhat in the second and third quarters, but never enough to make a dent in that early deficit. Quite the contrary.

Despite a 12-point night from Nick Plesko, six points from Nolan Price and a four-point, four-assist effort from Connor Dodge, the Fighting Irish continued to wax their advantage throughout. Seneca’s lead hit 10 points (14-4) on a pair of Giertz free throws late in the first, 20 (30-8) on a Giertz 3-pointer midway through the second and 30 (50-19) on a Deering steal and finger roll with 4:04 left in the third.

“I think there was an eight-minute period of shell shock,” Woodland coach Connor Kaminke said, “of what their ballpress and pressure felt like to us. It took us a while to get going, even get looks at the rim, let alone score the ball. ...

“It’s a tough night. Give [Seneca] credit. They came out, it’s their senior night, their juices were flowing, and they set the tone right away.”

Seneca outshot Woodland 41.8% (23-of-55) to 39.4% (13-of-33), outrebounded the Warriors 31-16 and won the turnover battle 21-8.

The Fighting Irish visit Morris on Tuesday before finishing off the TCC and regular-season schedules with a Friday night road game at Marquette.

Woodland has Tuesday and Thursday home games scheduled at the Warrior Dome, hosting Lowpoint-Washburn and Earlville, respectively.