West Liberty-Salem and Indian Lake have guaranteed that there will be a local representative in the Division III boys district basketball championships.
The Tigers and Lakers will square off at 5:30 p.m. Saturday in Vandalia for the right to play for a district title next weekend.
Both teams are hitting their stride at the right time.
The 12th-seeded Lakers (13-11) beat a pair of higher seeds, 10th-seeded Brookville and seventh-seeded Greenon, to grab their spot in the sectional final.
The seventh-seeded Tigers, meanwhile, stormed past fourth-seeded Miami East 70-51 on Tuesday to advance to Saturday’s matchup with the Lakers.
It will be a rematch of a regular-season game in which Indian Lake beat WL-S 68-57 on Jan. 9.
“They hit 16-of-26 three-pointers in that first game,” said WL-S head coach Darrin Leichty. “We have to do a better job of taking away the three, but we also have to stop their penetration. They do a really good job of getting into the lane and either taking the ball to the basket or kicking it out to open shooters on the perimeter.”
Indian Lake head coach Zach Overturf doesn’t expect his team to match its outside shooting performance from the first matchup, but hopes to have another good night from outside.
“We shot the ball extremely well in that first game,” said Overturf. “You are not going to shoot the ball like that all the time. We just have to come out and play fast from the get go. We have come out slow the last couple of games. We can’t afford to keep doing that.”
The Tigers (15-8) believe they are a different team than the Lakers saw the first time around. WL-S has won six out of its last seven games.
“I definitely feel like we are playing our best basketball,” said Leichty. “We were without Cam Strapp for a while and we kind of struggled. He is kind of a glue type of player for us and we have played better since he’s been back.”
WL-S used a balanced offensive attack to zap Miami East. Nick Burden poured in 29 points to lead four double-digit scorers.
“They have a lot of guys that can hurt you,” said Overturf. “We have to keep them in front of us. We can’t allow them to get a lot of penetration. It’s important that we be the aggressor on both ends of the floor.”