2A Wilmington Regional: El Paso-Gridley dominates early, late to top Seneca for championship

WILMINGTON — The Seneca boys basketball team held its own against state-ranked El Paso-Gridley in the middle quarters of Friday evening’s Class 2A Wilmington Regional championship game.

It was the beginning and the end that were the problem.

The top-seeded and Associated Press No. 3-ranked Titans dominated the first and the final quarters to defeat the Fighting Irish 60-38, advance to the 2A Clifton Central Sectional to play St. Joe-Ogden on Wednesday and finish Seneca’s season with a mark of 23-9.

Chilly 2-of-16 shooting in the opening quarter and 2-of-14 marksmanship in the fourth — coupled with the Titans shooting 50.0% in the first, 66.7% in the fourth and 47.4% for the game while also outrebounding Seneca 41-23 in the contest — led to the Fighting Irish being outscored by double digits in both periods and losing by 22 despite outscoring EPG by a single point in both the middle quarters.

“We’d have had to play a perfect game to get them tonight,” Seneca coach Russ Witte said, “and we knew that. I’m disappointed it didn’t work out, but in the same breath, these kids earned the right to be here, a No. 7 seed knocking off Pontiac, getting 23 wins. ...

“I couldn’t be prouder of the boys. A fun group to be around and a fun group to watch.”

Jake Funk (23 points, 21 rebounds, six blocked shots), Asa Smith (20 points, six rebounds) and Luke Ihlenfeldt (10 points, seven assists) led El Paso-Gridley (27-2), which scored the night’s initial 11 points despite a somewhat cold start itself. The Titans made up for it, however, by dominating on the offensive glass, using two-, three- and on a couple occasions four-shot possessions to lead 18-4 by the close of the first despite missing eight shots from the field, two of their three free-throw attempts and committing five turnovers.

“We came out defensively really wanting to apply pressure and be disruptive, and I thought we got a lot of stops to start the game,” EPG coach Nathaniel Meiss said. “And then we loosened ourselves up getting some offensive rebounds and getting some easy ones. ...

“And then [when Seneca threatened with rallies], we have different guys able to step up and make shots. To have multiple guys able to do that is really a blessing.”

Zach Pfeifer heated up as the game went on to finish his Fighting Irish career with a team-best 15 points, also adding a half dozen rebounds. Given Siegel contributed seven points, Paxton Giertz had four points and three assists, Kysen Klinker totaled four points and three blocked shots, and Noah Quigley finished with three points and a game-high four steals.

Those performances helped the Fighting Irish to, if not threaten the Titans’ lead, at least make things on the scoreboard interesting a time or two.

A Quigley steal and layup immediately followed by a Giertz steal and two free throws late in the second quarter cut what had been a 14-point EPG lead down to eight, at 26-18, with just under a minute remaining until halftime. The Titans responded by closing the half on a 5-0 run to take a comfortable 31-18 edge into the break, then in the third quarter answered a similar Seneca uprising to lead by a dozen heading into the fourth.

That fourth played out much like the first. Seneca’s inability to make baskets and El Paso-Gridley’s inability to not get points almost every trip down the floor — draining 8 of its first 10 shots in the quarter — led to both teams emptying their benches in the final minutes and their seniors getting rounds of applause one-by-one from the large crowd.

“[El Paso-Gridley] is ranked No. 3 in the state for a reason,” Witte said. “We missed a bunch of looks early that allowed that [deficit] to get to 14 right off the bat, shots we made Wednesday [in a semifinal win over Pontiac]. ... We’re not 22, 23 points behind them most nights.

“That one aspect [rebounding] just got us tonight, we fell behind, and then we just couldn’t put that run together to put pressure on them.”