Penton lifts Vermilion past Bellevue

BELLEVUE — Noah Penton was a little annoyed with himself. The Vermilion junior missed on the first five free throws he attempted Thursday. But, seemingly in the blink of an eye, he couldn't miss. Penton knocked down his last seven free throws, including six huge ones in the final two minutes of the game, lifting the seventh-seeded Sailors to a 58-47 Division IV tournament win over Bellevue. Penton finished with a career-high 21 points for the Sailors. "I knew I had it in me to hit them," Penton said. "I was barely missing early. My teammates told me to take a half-step back and then I was draining them." Vermilion improved to 10-13 and will face top-seeded Perkins (21-2) in a district semifinal at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Fremont Ross. "With this group sometimes, they just have to believe in themselves," Vermilion coach Kurt Habermehl said. "They're a pretty good basketball team when they think they're a good basketball team. Sometimes they start slow and feel a team out like we did tonight. "But give them a lot of credit. They worked themselves back into the game and they followed our game plan to a T." The Sailors were hanging on late despite a push from the Redmen (13-10). Ike Brown hit two free throws for Bellevue with 2:26 to go, cutting Vermilion's lead to 50-46. From there, Penton iced the game at the charity stripe. Bellevue opted to foul him with 1:36 to go and he made both. After the Redmen committed a turnover, Penton was again sent to the free throw line. With 1:16 remaining, he made a pair to give Vermilion a 54-46 lead. "We were willing to foul anybody there," Redmen coach Ed Rich said. "They're not really a good foul shooting team, but the kid knocked them down. He had a big game for them." Brown split two free throws on the other end — Bellevue's only point in the final 2:25 of the game — before Penton made two more with 1:01 to play. "For Noah to be really good for us, he has to believe he's the biggest guy on the court," said Habermehl of the 5-foot-8 guard. "When he does that, he's really good and he's really tough to guard. He carried us in the second half, especially. "We're not a great free throw shooting team, but he stepped to the line and hit them." Jerimiah Lopez added two free throws to finish the deal for Vermilion. Penton, Lopez and Luke Richardson all came off the bench and combined to score 40 of the Sailors' 58 points. "We think we have nine guys that can play," Habermehl said. "We think no matter who is on the court, we feel really comfortable. It's a situation where whoever is hot is going to stay and whoever is getting the stops on the defensive end is going to stay." Bellevue was strong defensively out of the gate. The Redmen scored the first seven points of the game. Vermilion missed its first six shots, had three turnovers and missed two free throws before a triple from Brock Meyers with 1:35 left in the first quarter. Even after Vermilion got going, Bellevue played well. Sam Bollinger hit a jumper to maintain a 20-15 lead in the second quarter. Hudson Smith scored on a putback for a 24-20 advantage. But, Vermilion came on strong. Luke Habermehl scored his only bucket of the night before Adam Gerber hit a 3-pointer. That gave the Sailors a 25-24 lead at halftime. Meyers hit a triple and a three-point play to balloon the margin to 33-24 in the third quarter. The Redmen responded as Bollinger tallied a three-point play and Brown knocked down a jumper. Bellevue drew as close as 37-34 on an Elijah Turinsky 3, but Vermilion led 43-37 after three quarters. Bellevue made just 3 of 26 3-pointers it attempted on the night. "We started switching on them a lot and we were trying to take away their 3-point shooters," Habermehl said. "I thought early in the game we didn't do a very good job of closing out on them. I thought we started jumping those hand-offs and ball screens they were running and we didn't give them any looks." Bollinger led Bellevue with 15 points while Brown had 10 points and nine rebounds. Reid Claus, Owen Hancock and Caden Lindsey are the seniors for the Redmen. "We lost seven guys from last year's team and had almost entirely new starting lineup," Rich said. "We wanted to finish over .500 and win a sectional championship, so we were right there. "We will put the work in over the summer, there's no doubt about that. It'll be more about what the kids do when it's not organized. We've got to have a basketball in our hands." Vermilion hasn't faced Perkins this season. The Pirates, who were state-ranked most of the season, rolled through Rossford in another tournament opener Thursday. "We'll do what we did this week because obviously it worked out for us," Penton said. VERMILION (10-13) Brock Meyers 4 1-2 11, Adam Gerber 1 0-0 3, Mason Cooper 0 0-4 0, Luke Habermehl 1 0-0 2, Drake Hooks 0 2-2 2, Luke Richardson 3 1-2 8, Jerimiah Lopez 4 2-2 11, Noah Penton 6 7-12 21. TOTALS 19 13-24 58 BELLEVUE (13-10) Sam Bollinger 6 1-1 15, Ike Brown 2 6-10 10, JJ Vogel 0 0-0 0, Reid Claus 3 1-2 7, Elijah Turinsky 3 0-2 7, Caden Cramer 2 0-0 4, Hudson Smith 1 0-0 2, Owen Hancock 1 0-0 2. TOTALS 18 8-15 47 Vermilion 5 20 18 15 — 58 Bellevue 9 15 13 10 — 47 Three-point goals: Vermilion 7 (Meyers 2, Penton 2, Gerber, Richardson, Lopez); Bellevue 3 (Bollinger 2, Turinsky)