Birnesser's late 3 sends Bulldogs to state

VAN WERT—Columbus Grove finally got the chance it had been waiting for—a chance to punch its ticket to the state championship. In a hard-fought effort in a game that had ten ties and seven lead changes, the Bulldogs took their chance and ran with it, beating New Bremen 50-48 on Tayt Birnesser's 3-pointer with 10 seconds left to win the regional final that COVID-19 took from them last season. Grove (24-2) will play New Boston Glenwood (24-2) in the Division IV state semifinals 2 p.m. Friday at the University of Dayton Arena. Glenwood beat Berlin Hiland, 44-39, to also win a regional title at Chillicothe Southeastern on Friday. One word to describe this game? Physical. But that is to be expected when playing a team from the Midwest Athletic Conference like the Cardinals. "I mean, they were state football champs, what do you expect," said senior forward Tayt Birnesser. "Yesterday in practice, we got the pads out and pool noodles out and we would drive to the basket and they would smack us as hard as you can—we knew what we were getting ourselves into." Columbus Grove head coach Chris Sautter knew that at this point in the journey, playing physical has to be a part of a team's identity. "That's tournament basketball—you put your hard hat on, pack your lunchbox, and get ready for action," Sautter said. "I think our kids are getting more used to that style of play; we've been working with them on playing that style of play. Give them credit, we're competing and doing everything we can." The teams matched each other basket for basket much of the game. It was tied 11-11 at the first quarter, then again at 33-33 after three. New Bremen led 22-18 at the half, but Grove surged in front with a 13-2 burst out of the halftime locker room. New Bremen answered with a 9-2 run of its own to again tie it up. Out of the quarter break, the Cardinals went on a 13-6 run and found themselves up 46-41 with 2:37 left in the game. After New Bremen's Daniel Homan laid one in to give them that lead, Grove was forced to call a timeout and regroup. Sautter had a message to his team in the huddle — just stay calm. "We can't get it back all at one time. You gotta get a score, gotta get a stop, and then you gotta get a score," Sautter said. "I think sometimes you can get too amped up and try and get it all back in one possession. We try to cut the game down to three possessions—score, stop, score or stop, score, stop—and that's what we did." Trey Sautter nailed a 3-pointer from the left wing with less than two-and-a-half minutes to play to trim Grove's deficit to two, 46-44. On the ensuing possession, Daniel Homan went up for a layup and was fouled, but missed both free-throws. On the other end, Gabe Clement knocked down a '3' from the top of the key, giving Grove a 47-46 lead with less a minute and a half remaining. With plenty of time left on the clock, New Bremen wasn't going to just roll over. Reese Busse drove the lane, was fouled and made both free-throw with 56 seconds left. Blake Reynolds, with about 12 seconds left in the game and possibly his high school career, drove the left side of the lane, was cut off by three Cardinals players, and kicked it out to Birnesser, who found the bottom of the net with 10.9 seconds left. "All the credit goes to Blake, we kind of drove that play for him," said Birnesser, who scored his 15 points on a 5-of-10 shooting from 3-point range. "But he found me, so all credit to him. We've played in many tournament games—we knew what to do." Call that Blake Reynolds (12 points, 12 rebounds) being Blake Reynolds. "If you give Blake the ball and he's gonna find the open guy because that's what he does so well," Sautter said. "He was able to find Tayt and Tayt knocked down that shot. That's what seniors do—especially seniors that've played 100 high school basketball games." New Bremen had a look at the tie, but David Homan's shot was too strong off the backboard, giving the Bulldogs the win. "Give our kids a ton of credit—we got stops, we were able to get buckets on the other end, and Tayt hit the big one at the end to give us the win," Sautter said. "We're happy with the victory, we're happy for our seniors, happy for last year's seniors who didn't get this chance, and we're excited that we get a chance to keep playing." For Columbus Grove, advancing to state feel like something straight out of a Hollywood ad agency. "There used to be commercials that said things like 'this costs this much, that costs that much, but this is priceless,' Sautter said. "Making it to state is a phenomenal feeling but being able to take your alma mater to state takes it to another level. But then to have your son [Trey] on the team and play an integral part in the win—that's just priceless." NEW BREMEN (19-9) Hays 1-4 0-0 2, Alig 2-4 0-0 6, Busse 6-9 4-6 16, Dav. Homan 3-9 2-3 9, Dan. Homan 5-9 0-3 10, Bergman 1-5 0-0 3, Rindler 1-1 0-0 2. TOTALS: 19-41 6-12 48. COLUMBUS GROVE (24-2) Reynolds 4-8 4-5 12, Birnesser 5-12 0-0 15, Clement 4-4 0-0 10, Sautter 3-6 0-0 9, Halker 1-3 0-2 2, Schroeder 1-1 0-0 2. TOTALS: 19-35 4-7 50. New Bremen 11 11 11 15--48 Columbus Grove 11 7 15 17--50 3-POINT GOALS: New Bremen 4 (Alig 2, Dav. Homan 1, Bergman 1); Columbus Grove 10 (Birnsser 5, Clement 2, Sautter 3). REBOUNDS: New Bremen 16 (Rindler 4, Dav. Homan 4); Columbus Grove 24 (Reynolds 12). ASSISTS: New Bremen 6 (Dav. Homan 4); Columbus Grove 16 (Clement 6). STEALS: New Bremen 1 (Alig); Columbus Grove 2 (Reynolds and Clement) BLOCKS: New Bremen 3 (Rindler 3); Columbus Grove (Reynolds 2). TURNOVERS: New Bremen 4; Columbus Grove 6.