By John RittenhouseAdrian earned its first berth in the championship game of the South Section 3A Boys Basketball Tournament in five years after defeating Ellsworth 60-56 during Thursday’s semifinals in Worthington.Ellsworth sported leads at the first two quarter breaks in a game between two teams from the Star Herald coverage area, but the Dragons were able to rally in the second half to post a four-point win.The victory sent the 14-11 Dragons to their first title game since 2000. Adrian played Hills-Beaver Creek in the championship game Saturday in Marshall. Look for the related game story on the front page of the sports section.Ellsworth, which ends the year with a 16-13 record, rode a strong first-quarter effort by Bryan Kramer to a 25-17 lead.With Kramer netting 15 of his team-high 22 points in the first eight minutes, Ellsworth led by as many as 11 points (21-10) before settling with an eight-point lead at period’s end.Finding it hard to play an up-tempo style of game with the Panthers, Adrian switched from man-to-man to a zone defense in the second half. The strategy paid off as the Dragons sported an 8-6 scoring edge in the second period and trailed 31-25 at the intermission."They shot the ball well and we couldn’t stop them in the first quarter," said AHS coach Chris Rozell. "We switched to a zone in order to slow things down in the second quarter. We held them to six points in the second quarter, but we didn’t score much, either."Adrian stayed with the zone in the second half, and it helped the Dragons outscore EHS 35-25.The key quarter of the game was the third, when Adrian’s Brett Block scored eight of his 13 points to help the Dragons outscore Ellsworth 19-9 and take a 44-40 lead."We did a lot of things right in the third quarter," Rozell said. "We started getting the ball where we wanted to, and we were able to convert."Some key plays down the stretch from senior Lee Stover helped AHS ice the win.Adrian led 53-51 when Stover completed a three-point play with 1:05 left to play to give the Dragons a five-point lead. Ellsworth trimmed the difference to two points (58-56) in the final minute before Stover drained a pair of free throws with 10.8 seconds remaining to cap the scoring.According to EHS coach Ken Kvaale, Adrian’s zone defense was the difference in the game."We missed a lot of shots against their zone," he said. "We didn’t penetrate against the zone, and we missed a lot of mid-range jumpers against it."Casey Knips, who scored 15 first-quarter points for the Dragons, led AHS with 26 points. Knips and Ryan Lonneman snared eight rebounds each. Block added eight assists to the winning cause.Cody Schilling, who was hampered by a sore hip during the game, scored 12 points, pulled down 10 rebounds and passed for seven assists for the Panthers. Darrin Weikamp scored 10 points and collected nine rebounds for EHS. Kramer charted six rebounds for the Panthers.Box scoreEllsworthDeutsch 0 0 2-2 2, Kramer 8 2 0-0 22, Schilling 5 0 2-4 12, Weikamp 3 0 4-5 10, Van Der Stoep 0 2 0-0 6, Herman 1 0 0-0 2, Jansma 1 0 0-0 2.AdrianBlock 6 0 1-4 13, Weidert 0 2 2-4 8, Stover 1 0 3-3 5, Brake 4 0 0-0 8, Knips 12 0 2-5 26.Team statisticsEllsworth: 22 of 61 field goals (36 percent), eight of 13 free throws ( 62 percent), 32 rebounds, eight turnovers.Adrian: 24 of 54 field goals (46 percent), eight of 16 free throws (50 percent), 31 rebounds, 10 turnovers.
