By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
There were only nine points scored in the fourth quarter and overtime period in the 34th District championship game between Lloyd and Dixie Heights on Friday at Villa Madonna.
For most of those 12 minutes, Dixie Heights stayed in a 1-3-1 zone defense that Lloyd refused to attack while the clock ticked away. With 15 seconds left in overtime, Isaiah Sebastian finally ended the stalemate with a driving basket that gave Lloyd a 37-35 win.
Dixie Heights guard Hudson Blank looks inside while being guarded by Anthony Blaackar of Lloyd during the 34th District championship game. (Photo by Chris Granger)
The junior guard dribbled through a seam in the zone defense and put up a one-handed jump shot from the left of the lane that fell though the net.
“After I split the zone, I was open,” Sebastian said. “I just shot the ball and it went in. Game over.”
This is the second straight year that Lloyd won the district final by just a two-point margin. The Juggernauts displayed a great deal of patience and discipline to come out on top this time.
“We were trying to get them to play man, but they were just sitting in that zone,” Sebastian said of his team’s stall tactic that had some fans wishing for a shot clock.
“It was super frustrating, but we had to find a way because they wouldn’t come out of that zone,” Sebastian added.
Both teams advance to the 9th Region tournament at Northern Kentucky University. There’s a draw on Saturday morning that will determine matchups for first-round games on Monday and Tuesday.
Lloyd coach Michael Walker was asked if his team needs to work on attacking a zone defense like the one Dixie Heights used to contain his son, EJ Walker, a 6-foot-8 pivot player. He scored 12 points, five below his average.
“I don’t think we’re going to see a zone as packed in as that, especially now that we’re on a big floor (at NKU),” the coach said. “Anyone tries to take EJ away, we’re going to live with my guards. And living with my guards put us 24-8 and made us back-to-back district champs, so I always believe in team.”
Lloyd junior guard Isaiah Sebastian (File photo by Dale Dawn)
Dixie Heights scored seven straight points during the final minutes of the first half to take a 24-19 lead into the locker room. Lloyd went on a 12-0 run in the third quarter to pull ahead, 31-24, but back-to-back 3-point goals by Dixie Heights junior Griffin Derry made it a one-point game.
Sebastian scored off a steal to give Lloyd a 33-31 lead at the end of the third quarter. Then the Juggernauts held the ball for most of the fourth quarter until the Colonels came up with a steal.
A stick-back basket by Derry tied the score, 33-33, with 2:22 left on the clock. Dixie Heights made a couple more steals, but neither of them resulted in points and the game went into overtime.
Sebastian scored all four of his team’s points in the extra period on a pair of free throws and the game-winning basket.
“If they focused on EJ, I knew something was going to open up because they thought I was going to go to him.” coach Walker said of the final play “He was my decoy, so I told my guards if the lane’s open go get money.”
Derry finished with a game-high 16 points. Lloyd’s top scorers were Walker with 12 points and Sebastian with 10. Walker was named most valuable player on the all-tournament team.
Dixie Heights coach Chad Fields said he went with a zone defense in the district final after studying the stats from a 56-43 loss to Lloyd in January. He thought a lower possession game would be to his team’s advantage.
“It worked to an extent, but they’re just too good,” Fields said of Lloyd. “That basketball team is built for March. They are disciplined and talented and well coached.”
Dixie Heights has an 0-4 record against the three district winners — Newport, Covington Catholic and Cooper — that will face runner-up teams from other districts in the first round of the 9th Region tournament.
“It was not what we wanted, obviously,” coach Fields said of the loss to Lloyd. “But I’d like to think our team has reason to believe for next week.”
DIXIE HEIGHTS 10 14 6 3 2 — 35
LLOYD 10 9 14 0 4 — 37
DIXIE HEIGHTS (18-13): Derry 6 2 16, Blank 3 1 8, Niehues 1 0 2, Gray 1 0 3, Rubemeyer 2 2 6. Totals: 13 5 35.
LLOYD (24-8): Collins 2 0 6, Blaackar 2 0 4, Sebastian 4 2 10, Walker 5 2 12, Bresser 2 0 5. Totals: 15 4 37.
Three-point goals: DH — Derry 2, Blank, Gray. L — Collins 2, Bresser.
ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
Lloyd — EJ Walker (MVP), Elijah Collins, Anthony Blaackar. Dixie Heights — Griffin Derry, Hudson Blank. Ludlow — Ethan Powell. Villa Madonna — Henry Thole. St. Henry — Drew Flanagan.
