Findlay unable to keep up with St. John's

TOLEDO – Findlay led Toledo St. John's 2-0 before the play clock even started in Tuesday's Division II district semifinal game at Toledo Central Catholic.Unfortunately for the Trojans, it was all downhill from there.Tall, talented and cat-quick defensively, St. John's capitalized on four straight Findlay turnovers to start the game, got two transition lay-ups and two offensive putbacks as a result and spanned the first and second quarters with a 22-0 run. A 23-6 advantage in the second quarter triggered a running clock lead by halftime, a 21-4 margin in the third period padded the lead even more and the Titans rolled to a 71-20 win over the Trojans."I thought we were pretty sharp, and I think it started for us defensively," St. John's coach Mike Schoen said after the Titans improved to 15-7 and earned a spot opposite long-time rival Toledo St. Francis (13-9) in Saturday's district championship game."We were able to pressure them and pick up the pace of the game. And once we got comfortable, we started hitting shots."Did they ever!After making 11-of-20 shots in the first quarter, St. John's made 9-of-13 in the second. Five of those nine makes were 3-pointers, including two from 6-foot-3 senior wing Jayden Jones Six-6 juniors Coy Hamic and Race Kowalczyk added one trey each as the Titans were able to reverse the ball against Findlay's zone defense and find the open man."Give St. John's a lot of credit, they are an extremely talented team and they play in an extremely tough league," Findlay High coach Ryan Grose said of the Titans, a former member – along with Findlay – of the Three Rivers Athletic Conference that now competes against some of the elite teams in Michigan in the Detroit Catholic League.St. John's, a bit on the young side with four seniors on the roster, started the season 2-4, but has now won 11 of its last 13 games."That team is going to be a tough out in the tournament," Grose said.St. John's got hit with a technical when one its players dunked during pre-game warm-ups. Before the clock ever started, Beck Garmong stepped to the line, made both free throws and Findlay had a 2-0 lead.It wouldn't last, though.Intense defensive pressure by St. John's guards – especially on-the-ball pressure by Jalen Teamer – led to the turnovers – nine in the first quarter – that fueled the Titans explosive start."That's what you get with a bunch of kids who haven't been out there," said Grose, who this year inherited a young and inexperienced team that, due to heavy graduation losses, returned virtually no varsity floor time."Any time you face a team that wants to get up in you, you have to be ready to handle that. We got a taste of that with a lot of teams this year."We had, I think, four turnovers to start the game. We called a timeout and straightened some things out, but then had another string of turnovers later in the first half. The stuff on the floor, you have to know what's coming and you have to be able to handle the ball regardless of the circumstances."Kowalczyk led St. John's with 17 points. James had 13, Hamic 12 and Jones 10. Garmong led Findlay with seven.St. Francis beat Sylvania Northview 45-39 in Tuesday's second Division II semifinal, setting up a rubber match with St. John's in Friday's final. Both teams defended their home turf thi season, St, Francis winning 64-62 on its floor on Dec. 13, and St. John's winning 56-52 at home on Jan. 3.The Trojans ended the year with a 1-22 record, but unlike last season lose just one player – 6-3 senior center Keian Flowers – from the varsity roster."What we talked about after the game is that we have a lot of choices moving forward on how we can improve and build on the foundation that we have this year," Grose said."Irregardless of our record, there was a lot of improvement with our guys.''"I've had years as a coach where we've won more games as a team and it hasn't been as enjoyable. These guys showed up, they worked hard every day …. I think they knew it was going to be a process. A big part of that process is trying to get better every day in our gym, and I think our guys did that." FINDLAY (1-22)Garmong 2-9 2-2 7, Drew 0-1 0-0 0, Wendt 0-5 2-2 2, Scott 1-1 0-0 2, Imke 0-2 0-0 0, Korkos 2-4 0-0 4, McKanna 1-3 0-0 2, Flowers 0-0 0-0 0, Thompson 0-1 0-0 0, Sadler 0-0 0-0 0, Gruenemeyer 0-1 0-0 0, Lomeli 0-0 3-3 3, Montgomery 0-0 0-0 0, Stechschulte 0-1 0-0 0, Sanchez 0-0 0-0 0, Sadler 0-0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 6-28 7-7—20.ST. JOHN'S (15-7)Teamer 1-4 0-0 2, Jones 4-6 0-2 10, James 6-6 0-1 13, Hamic 5-7 1-1 12, Kowalczyk 7-13 1-1 17, Lindsay 2-3 0-0 5, Goodnough 1-2 0-0 2, Lamb 3-5 0-0 6, Washington 1-2 2-2 4, Kraus 0-1 0-0 0, Barbour 0-0 0-0 0, Trippel 0-2 0-0 0, Riley 0-1 0-0 0. TOTALS: 30-51 4-7—71.Findlay 7 6 4 3—20St. John's 25 23 21 2—713-POINT GOALS: Findlay 1-8 (Drew 0-1, Garmong 1-3, Wendt 0-2, Korkos 0-1, Thompson 0-1); St. John's 7-13 (Jones 2-3, James 1-1, Riley 0-1, Hamic 1-2, Kowalczyk 2-5, Lindsay 1-2, Goodnough 0-1, Washington 0-1).REBOUNDS: Findlay 18 (Scott 4, Wendt 3); St. John's 28 (Hamic 8).TURNOVERS: Findlay 23; St. John's 7.