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By John Miller
Glendale knew the Hartville Eagles had excellent guard play. But they believed their guards were better.
The Falcons’ backcourt duo of Monty Johal and Jordan Walton combined to score 66 of Glendale’s 83 points on Wednesday night as the Falcons got past Class 2 No. 1-ranked and defending state champion Hartville 83-70 in a Blue Division semifinal from JQH Arena. The loss snapped Hartville’s 28-game win-streak.
Glendale (6-4) will now face top-seed Republic in the championship on Thursday night at 7 p.m.
Johal finished with 36 points, 10 rebounds, and six assists. Walton fouled out with 6:12 remaining but still put up 30 points for the Falcons.
“The biggest thing was (Hartville) couldn’t keep (Jordan) from getting to the basket,” Glendale coach Brian McTague said. “He was able to get in the lane any time he wanted to and was able to shoot his floater over the top. He really ran the show.”
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Dune Piper scored 25 points for Hartville and Deric Jones added 11 points and eight boards, despite fouling out with 6:54 to play—one of six players to foul out in the game.
Walton made two buzzer-beaters for the Falcons. He ended the first half by going coast-to-coast in six seconds and dropping a 10-foot floater over Hartville’s 6-foot-10 center Cody Kelley. At the end of the third quarter, he caught a pass from Johal and buried a corner 3-pointer ahead of the horn.
“My teammates were getting me good looks,” Walton said. “Monty, especially, was getting me good looks. It was great.”
Both teams played even for the first two quarters before Glendale gained separation. Trailing 46-44 with 4:16 to play in the third period, the Falcons went on a 20-4 run, taking a 14-point lead into the fourth quarter.
“We were shooting ourselves in the foot (in the first half),” McTague said. “I think we turned it over 10 times in the first-half and eight of them were unforced errors. We tried to clean that up. We tried to fix our rotations in our defense because we were giving (Hartville) some easy stuff.
“I thought, for the most part, we came out and switched things up a little bit to give (Hartville) a different look, and it paid off for us.”
Walton scored 13 points in the quarter. Johal had 10. The duo combined for Glendale’s final 10 points of the quarter in the last 1:13.
Glendale built its lead to 69-52 with 6:52 to play, but Hartville wasn’t finished. The Eagles went on a 14-6 rally, cutting the deficit to 72-66 with 3:35 remaining.
“Hartville has a great program,” McTague said. “They know how to win. When we were up 17 with seven minutes to go, I wasn’t very comfortable over there. You can never count those kids out because they’re going to come out and fight and compete, and that’s why they’re good.”
Johal made 7-of-8 free-throws in the final four minutes for Glendale, helping preserve the win.
“It was hart to close it out at the end without Jordan, our main ball-handler,” Johal said, “but we came together as a unit and closed it out.”
The Falcons now get a crack at top-seed Republic, and they’re eager for the opportunity.
“We’re extremely happy that we’re playing in a championship,” Walton said. “Honestly, we felt like we were extremely underrated coming into this tournament, and it’s nice to be able to prove to other people, but mainly prove to ourselves, that we’re good, too.”
Thursday’s championship should be a battle of wills: Republic likes to slow the pace and Glendale prefers to push it.
“They’re going to play a certain style, and we’re going to play a certain style,” McTague said. “We’ll see which one can come out on top.”
Glendale 16 20 28 19 83
Hartville 18 17 15 20 70
Glendale: Johal 36, Walton 30, Davis 10, Freeman 3, Quinn 2, Call 2
Hartville: Piper 25, Jace Keith 14, Jones 11, Ward 8, Simmons 5, Kelley 4, Braden Keith 3
