By NICK VLAHOS
For The Prairie News
For the second season in a row, Galva won its first game in the Class 1A boys basketball state tournament.
Blake Stahl had 29 points and 10 rebounds Monday night to lead the host Wildcats past Kewanee Wethersfield 63-39 in a Savanna Regional opener.
The victory sent Galva (22-7), the fourth seed in its Pecatonica sub-sectional, to a regional semifinal scheduled for Wednesday night at West Carroll against No. 5 Sterling Newman. The regional title game is set for 7 tonight (Feb. 28), also at West Carroll.
JP Sloan had 13 points and six assists for Galva, and teammate MJ Louck scored 11.
Galva defeated Wethersfield 77-45 in a Lincoln Trail Conference game on Feb. 11.
Last season, Galva defeated Peru St. Bede in the first round of the regional. The last time Galva won a regional championship was in 2002 in Class A.
• Stark County boys – Despite a game-high 25 points from Ross Saner, Stark County lost its 1A regional opener 55-52 at Abingdon-Avon. Stark County was seeded 13th in its Brimfield sub-sectional, A-Town third.
Saner scored 10 in the first quarter and as many in the fourth for the Rebels (9-20), who trailed 32-29 at halftime. A-Town increased its lead to 10, but Saner led a charge that cut the Stark County deficit to two points in the final seconds.
“I think the biggest thing was our mind-set going into the game,” Stark County Coach Kane Mastin said about the close score. “They had just won the (LTC) tournament. There were a lot of expectations on their side and none on ours. I thought we’d just roll with that mentality.
“Our guys just continued to respond. Give credit to Abingdon – they play such a physical-style game. We just didn’t have enough moments to add up to the point where we could get over the hump.”
A-Town beat Stark County 71-39 in an LTC game Feb. 7. This time, Stark County was missing starting guard Ben Browning because of injury. Browning also didn’t play in the Rebels’ regular-season finale, a 39-32 loss Feb. 20 to Elmwood. Connor Daum had a team-high 10 points.
Saner averaged 14 points per game his senior season, just behind junior Daum’s 14.4. Saner led the Rebels in rebounds per game, at 7.8. Senior Dillon Steelman averaged a team-high 2.2 assists.
Mastin’s first season as Stark County head coach included a long search to find an assistant and player issues regarding injuries, illness and discipline, among other things. Mastin even missed one game because of illness.
“The best way to describe our season was consistently inconsistent,” he said. “I don’t think we ever had two weeks in a row where we had the exact same schedule and exact same lineup.”
• Princeville boys – Jake Williams had 24 points Monday as host Princeville, seeded second in its 1A Brimfield sub-sectional, beat No. 14 West Central 60-38 in a regional opener. Brady Day had 15 points, Tucker Sennett 14.
The Princes (24-8), who led West Central 30-15 at intermission, were to play No. 6 Monmouth United in a regional semifinal Wednesday at Biggsville.
In regular-season action, Abingdon-Avon beat host Princeville 45-30 on Feb. 19 to win the Lincoln Trail Conference tournament. A-Town held Princeville to only nine points over the second and third quarters.
“We were able to hang around for the first quarter but couldn’t get much done after that,” Princeville Coach Tait Sennett stated.
Tucker Sennett scored 13 for Princeville. Annawan beat Bureau Valley 58-48 for third place.
