Margaretta dominates district final

KANSAS — Winning one district basketball title is hard. Taking home another is even tougher. Second-seeded Margaretta made it three district championships in a row Friday, defeating sixth-seeded Bluffton 55-30 at Lakota High School. "This means a lot to us," Polar Bears junior Tyson Bailey said. "We keep our heads down and get after it every day. We play super unselfishly. Whoever is open, we get them the rock and let them score." The Division V No. 4-ranked Polar Bears improved to 22-3 and will face No. 3-ranked Genoa (25-0) in a regional semifinal at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Elida Fieldhouse. "We're just blessed," Margaretta coach Steve Keller said. "The good Lord has given us some good kids to work with. You could tell they were hungry. They wanted it tonight. "We were able to get into our game plan, which was tempo. They wanted to slow it down. Just really pleased with what we did on the defensive end." Margaretta was fast out of the gate against the Pirates (11-14). Kale Bailey opened the game with a 3 before Tyson Bailey scored off an assist from Judah Keller. Keiygan Morris made two free throws before Bluffton got on the board thanks to a hoop from Brody Donley. The Polar Bears controlled the rest of the quarter. Morris knocked down a jumper and Kale Bailey scored off a Pirates turnover to make it 11-2. Keller then scored thanks to an assist from Julian Washington before Kale Bailey put Margaretta up 15-2 after one quarter. "I think more so, it sends a message to the opponent that we're here to get after it," said coach Keller of the quick start. "I thought tonight we did a good job of starting early, but staying at it, too." The end of the quarter break did little to slow the Polar Bears. Kale Bailey scored early in the second quarter and later, a three-point play from Washington extended the lead to 20-4. Tyson Bailey followed with a three-point play to balloon the lead to 23-4. Two buckets from Parker Lovell and one from Owen Scoles got Bluffton the next six points, but Margaretta steadied the ship. Tyson Bailey and Washington each scored. Then, Tyson Bailey tallied the last three points of the half to put the Polar Bears ahead 30-10 at halftime. "We lost to a better team," Bluffton coach Todd Boblitt said. "They're just so hard when they're making shots and they made shots early. We couldn't get settled into the game. Realistically, we needed them to miss some shots early. We needed to make a couple shots so we could get our legs under us and it just didn't happen." Much like it did in the district semifinals Tuesday against Huron, Margaretta exploded out of the half. Tyson Bailey scored off an assist from Washington before a three-point play from Kale Bailey extended the advantage to 35-10. Morris and Keller followed with 3-pointers before a score from Keller made it 43-11. "We expected a lot of pressure," Boblitt said. "We felt like we handled their pressure, but in the half court, they swallowed us up. We weren't able to find a lot of driving lanes. We weren't able to get the ball inside and play inside-out. They did a terrific job defensively against what we were trying to do offensively." On an out of bounds play, Washington flushed a dunk. He added a 3 with 2:02 to go in the third quarter and his three-point play made it 52-17, starting a running clock. "We knew a lot about them," coach Keller said. "Todd Boblitt is a good friend of mine. We got into coaching at the same time and coached against each other in the JV rounds. We knew they wanted to slow it down and take the air out of the basketball. Fortunately, our guys played with a lot of energy and didn't let that happen." In the two district wins, Margaretta outscored its opponents 127-60. "You want to hit your stride at the end of the year," coach Keller said. "You want to be smart physically. We're blessed that we have guys that want to have success as a team. Washington led the Polar Bears with 13 points, seven rebounds and six assists while Kale Bailey and Tyson Bailey (four steals) each scored 12 points. Margaretta and Genoa have been on a collision since the Polar Bears defeated Genoa in last year's district final at Lakota High School. The train was nearly detoured as the Comets had to overcome a 12-point deficit to defeat Paulding in another district final Friday. "We'll get game-planned up," coach Keller said. "We'll take Sunday off and we'll be ready to go Wednesday. At the end of the day, when you get to this high of level, you have to be disciplined and you have to execute. You can pressure teams, but it starts and ends in the half court." BLUFFTON (11-14) Parker Lovell 3 0-0 6, Bean Ginther 4 1-3 9, Lane Ginther 0 3-4 3, Robby Taylor 1 0-0 2, Brady Donley 2 0-0 4, Owen Scoles 1 1-2 3, Braydon McClure 1 0-0 3. TOTALS 12 5-9 30 MARGARETTA (22-3) Kale Bailey 5 1-3 12, Keiygan Morris 2 2-2 7, Julian Washington 5 2-2 13, Judah Keller 3 1-2 8, Tyson Bailey 5 2-3 12, Jaxson Bohn 0 1-2 1, Rob Cox 1 0-0 2. TOTALS 21 9-14 55 Bluffton 2 8 9 11 — 30 Margaretta 15 15 22 3 — 55 Three-point goals: Bluffton 1 (McClure); Margaretta 4 (K. Bailey, Morris, Washington, Keller)