Warriors top Bulldogs for title game berth

Even without senior leading scorer Trevor Johnson, the Covenant Christian was able to pull off the win over Monrovia, 51-40 on Friday.

This will put them in the IHSAA Sectional 44 championship on Saturday night against the Speedway Sparkplugs.

Johnson, who averages around 20 points per game, suffered a bad ankle sprain early in the first half. He missed the rest of the game and it is unknown whether he will play against the Sparkplugs or not.

"It is a pretty good sprain," Warriors' coach Scott Flatt said, "We will probably go with the mindset that he won't be playing tomorrow."

It was a slow start for the Warriors (10-12) without Johnson and they only put up six points in the first quarter. Ten offensive rebounds for Monrovia (3-19, 1-4 WCC) kept Covenant Christian from getting the ball. Luckily for the Warriors, it only turned into three second-chance points.

"We did do a good job of hitting the glass," Bulldogs' coach Micah Elliott said, "Give Covenant Christian credit. They did a lot of nice things. When we did get second chance opportunities, they walled up and shut us down."

The second half started to heat up for the Warriors and they pulled away to 16. They doubled up Monrovia 32-16 on a junior Ethan Smith's three-pointer with 2:37 left in the third.

Smith followed that with another three on the very next possession off a steal and missed two free throws on the possession after that off a steal.

"We talked about, at halftime, getting the ball into Cody Owen," Flatt said. "We wanted to emphasize him. The way we trapped opened up the threes and we hit a few of them. Down the stretch it was just taking care of the ball."

Monrovia tried making a run with two minutes left but could only cut it to eight. Senior Logan Hale scored two consecutive layups, the second being on an inbounds steal, and he cut it to eight with two free throws on the next possession.

"Hale did a great job going right by the pressure," Flatt said. "He finished with 20. He was really solid."

Smith hit another three on the next Warrior possession with 1:25 remaining to make it an 11-point lead and it was all free throw shooting from there. Senior Cody Owen went 3-of-4 from the line and junior Christopher Seifert hit both of his free throws to seal it off and send his team to another game.

The Covenant Christian-Speedway championship game will tip off at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.

At South Putnam
IHSAA Sectional 44
Monrovia 7 7 7 21 -- 40
Cov. Christian 6 16 17 12 -- 51
Monrovia (40): Hale 5-11 9-14 20, Smith 1-5 4-4 7, Williams 1-2 1-4 4, Barnett 1-1 0-0 3, D. Seber 1-1 0-0 2, L. Seber 1-4 0-0 2, Wright 1-7 0-0 2, Baker 0-3 0-0 0, Benge 0-5 0-0 0, Eisenhut 0-6 0-1 0. Totals 8-35 FG 14-23 FT, 40.
Covenant Christian (51): Owen 4-8 5-8 13, Smith 4-7 0-2 12, Marsh 3-5 0-0 8, Murphy 3-5 0-0 6, DeMyers 2-4 0-0 4, Seifert 0-3 4-4 4, Joseph 1-2 0-0 2, Tucker 1-1 0-0 2, Johnson 0-0 0-0 0, Ryals 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 18-36 FG 9-14 FG, 51.
Monrovia (14-15)29: Hale (4-5)9, Wright (3-2)5, Benge (2-2)4, Eisenhut (1-2)3, L. Seber (3-0)3, Williams (1-1)2, Baker (0-1)1, Barnett (0-1)1, Smith (0-1)1.
Covenant Christian (3-26): Murphy (2-10)12, Marsh (0-4)4, Smith (1-3)4, Joseph (0-3)3, Owen (0-3)3, Seifert (0-2)2, Johnson (0-1)1.
Assists: M 5, CC 7. Blocks: M 3, CC 3. Steals: M 8, CC 7. Turnovers: M 12, CC 14. 3-pt M-ATT: M 3-11, CC 6-13.

The championship game will be a rematch of an earlier season meeting, in which Speedway won 63-59 in overtime.

"We are one of 32 teams left in 2A and it's been our goal to be sectional champs," Scott said, "It is not who we play, but we are just happy to get to play. Certainly with Speedway we played them before and we played well. It gives us confidence because we have played them before."

Both Speedway and Covenant Christian are only a mile apart from each other, so most kids know each other.

"Being only a mile apart, kids know each other," Speedway coach Chuck Bennett said, "We'll have to ready to play sound, solid basketball. Our kids have done a great this year and they are ready."

Speedway is looking to win its 11th game in a row Saturday.