 02/25/2026
BY JACK BULLOCK
ELKVILLE - Waltonville head coach Anthony Lowery probably had
a bit of anxiety heading into the locker room at halftime of his
Spartans' semifinal matchup against Christopher on Wednesday night.
Like a pesky little brother,
the Christopher Bearcats were bothersome in the first two quarters
to the state-ranked and top-seeded Spartans.
The halftime score read 26-21
with Waltonville leading as the teams left the court.
These anxious moments didn't
last too long as the third quarter began.
Waltonville started the second
half with a 15-0 scoring blitz and never looked in the rear
view mirror the rest of the way.
The Spartans cruised home to
a 57-35 victory to reach their third consecutive regional title
game.
Three different players scored
double-figures for Waltonville, the fourth-ranked team in the
state, improved to 28-4 on the season.
Six-six junior forward Jagger
Mayville scored 13-points for the Spartans followed by 6-6 senior
Gage Peterson with 12 and senior Riley Stewart with 11.
For the game, the Spartans offensively
had few flaws.
But the defense had some second
quarter trouble before things worked much better in the final
16-minutes.
“I thought we came out
a little tight. I don't know if it was the atmosphere or not
but we've played in so many big games this year so this shouldn't
have been a problem for us,” said Coach Lowery. “Christopher
showed us a different look (defensively) and it kind of shook
us up for the first half. But we came out and executed in the
second half.”
Coach Eric Stallman and his Bearcats
saw the season come to a halt at 17-14.
Two players; senior guard Landon
Sveda and senior forward Trevin Skropka, finished their careers
with 15-points each.
Senior Gage Schlake added five-points
as no other Christopher player scored.
“We did a really good job
in the first half controlling the pace and limiting turnovers
and it also helped that we got loose and hit some shots,”
said Coach Stallman. “We knew they would pick up the defense
in the second half and we just had too many live ball turnovers.”
Waltonville's offense carried
the burden in the first half as the defense allowed Christopher
to have some open looks from long range.
The Spartans hit their first
six field goal attempts on their way to a 17-9 first quarter
lead.
Senior Weston Rose nailed down
two 3-pointers in the first frame and Peterson stepped out an
connected on a 20-footer from the right corner for the first
double-digit lead for Waltonville.
But Christopher hung around.
A 3-pointer and two free throws
from Sveda and a score inside by Skropka kept the Bearcats in
the game early.
All 12 of the Christopher second
quarter points came from the 3-point arc.
Skropka hit a pair of long range
shots with Sveda and Schlake nailing down one each.
The Skropka final trey closed
the gap to just 24-21 with 1:36 to go in the half.
But Stewart added a pair of baskets
in the quarter, with the final one off of an assist from Peterson
for a 26-21 lead at the break.
(CONTINUED) |
“Give
them (Christopher) credit. They were making college or NBA range
three's in the first half. They have some great shooters,”
said Coach Lowery. “We played our ball in the second half.
Our defense kind of got going from our offense and all year it
has been the opposite. It was nice to be able to win that way.”