The South Webster Jeeps captured a Division IV boys basketball sectional championship on Saturday night, defeating Ironton St. Joseph 70-42 at Portsmouth High School.

Paul Boggs | Daily Times

PORTSMOUTH — By the end of the opening quarter on Saturday night, South Webster’s Eli Roberts had already scored on an alley-oop, a three-pointer off the wing, a drive and a slam dunk, and finally to beat the buzzer on a banked-in three-ball.

On the other end of the floor, his six-foot and seven-inch frame — with wingspan longer than that — had already altered Ironton St. Joseph shot attempts.

Was there anything the junior standout Roberts couldn’t, or rather didn’t, do?

Other than sell concession-stand popcorn, take tickets at the entrance prior to tipoff, or drive the Jeeps’ team bus, the answer was a “no”.

Roberts did just about everything on Saturday night inside Portsmouth High School’s Trojan Arena, including pouring in a game-high 22 points on nine total field goals —as top-seeded South Webster won another Division IV sectional championship, its eighth consecutive with a runaway 70-42 victory over 16th-seeded St. Joseph.

The talented and highly-touted Jeeps raised their stellar record to 20-3 —as they never trailed against the overwhelming underdog Flyers, despite a 7-7 tie three-and-a-half minutes into the opening quarter, and a 10-10 scoring tie in the second stanza.

South Webster tallied 10 points apiece in the closing cantos of each half, but the Jeeps walloped the Flyers for a pair of 20-plus point periods — 24-11 in the first and 26-8 in the third for a 60-29 advantage following three.

The Jeeps led by double digits for the final 18 minutes and 22 seconds, as a Jack Timothy take-it-to-the-rim bucket made it 64-29 —and initiated the Ohio High School Athletic Association’s running-clock rule only a minute and 27 seconds into the final quarter.

That 35-point advantage was South Webster’s largest —although the Flyers did stop the running clock on three final fourth-quarter occasions —at 66-38, 68-40 and finally the final score of 70-42.

South Webster returned to the Division IV Southeast District semifinals as a result —and returned to Ohio University’s Convocation Center, where they haven’t played since a 2020 semifinal loss against Trimble.

In fairness, and following the coronavirus threat, the Southeast District boys basketball semifinals haven’t been contested in The Convo —until this year.

South Webster played at New Boston in 2021, at Wellston versus Valley in 2022, and last year against Notre Dame —all the way over at Athens High School’s McAfee Gymnasium.

Thus, prior to Thursday night (Feb. 29) —and the Jeeps’ 62-47 district semifinal win over eighth-seeded Symmes Valley —none of the current South Webster players had experienced basketball inside the Convocation Center.

But their first-year head coach, the 73-year-old and legendary Norm Persin, has.

Plenty of times, in fact, over the course of his illustrious four-and-a-half decades.

“It feels great to go back there,” said Persin. “I was asking our kids at this morning’s shoot-around how many of them had been in the Convo. None from this team. Basically, it’s just me. But we have an opportunity now to go there and hopefully take full advantage.”

Persin, personally, last coached in the Convo in 2018 — when he was Oak Hill’s head coach, and his Oaks played Garaway in the Division III Region 11 semifinals.

The last time Persin coached in the district tournament was the COVID-impacted postseason of 2021 —his first and only season as bench boss of the Valley Indians.

He took a two-year hiatus, but attended several South Webster games —as his granddaughter Marley Kreischer is a Jeep cheerleader.

He was hired as the Jeeps head coach in the spring, and all South Webster has done is win 20 games under his leadership.

Saturday night’s triumph, for those into counting, was Persin’s 798th career coaching win.

Still, a sectional championship validates any quality club’s strong season —as the Jeeps demonstrated what they are quite capable of, and definitely for quarters one and three.

Roberts, a sure-fire first-team all-Southeast District Division IV selection (from Ohio Prep Sports Writers Association), and candidate for district Player of the Year, indeed showed off his skill set —complete almost by the end of the first.

South Webster junior Eli Roberts (1) slam dunks the ball during the Jeeps’ Division IV boys basketball sectional championship game against Ironton St. Joseph.

Ed Litteral | Daily Times

Of his 22, Roberts went for a dozen in the first —on three twos and two threes.

In the third, he recorded an old-fashioned three-point play, two more deuces —and finally a winged-three for a 50-26 Jeep lead at the 3:43 juncture.

“He got the three-ball going early, and then he started getting to the rim again, and scored down inside there,” said Persin, of Roberts.

The Flyers, coached by Ed Fry, play primarily a 1-3-1 half-court zone defense —which Fry perfected often times during his tenure as Meigs head coach.

But Roberts, fellow junior Dylan Shupert, and six-foot and three-inch senior Tyler Sommer shot right through it.

South Webster junior Dylan Shupert (3)

Ed Litteral | Daily Times

Shupert finished with 15 points —with four first-quarter twos, a second-stanza split of foul shots and a three, and a third-quarter old-fashioned three-point play.

Shupert stepped up on the defensive end especially —making at one point four straight steals of St. Joseph near the midcourt line.

Sommer added 11 points —on two twos in the first, and two triples and a split of free throws in the third.

South Webster senior Tyler Sommer (14)

Ed Litteral | Daily Times

Fellow seniors Timothy and Brock Campbell both scored eight points —on four field goals apiece.

South Webster senior Brock Campbell (12)

Ed Litteral | Daily Times

“We had other guys step up. That’s what we need to happen more,” praised Persin. “Our entire defense picked up in the second half. One guy (Shupert) does that for you, it gets everybody going. This is a good win.”

South Webster senior Jack Timothy (13)

Ed Litteral | Daily Times

Evan Balestra paced the Flyers with a dozen points, on three threes and two twos, and was the only St. Joseph player in double figures.

Arguably Ironton St. Joe’s top player, Drew Brown, was held scoreless in the opening half —and finished with nine on three twos and a fourth-quarter three.

Persin, who has said time and again that The Convo is “a great place to shoot”, said he is looking forward to returning —and coaching at least one game there with now three different schools (Chesapeake, Oak Hill, South Webster).

He is also more than well-aware of the one-and-done universe of tournament basketball —especially in the district and regional rounds, inside The Roundhouse on Richland Avenue in Athens.

“I told the kids that during the (regular) season, you can lose a game and you can bounce back. But in the tournament, you lose one game and you’re done. You’re going to the Convo, it’s one game at time,” said Persin. “But The Convo court is the same as our court. The rim is 10 feet high and it’s 15 feet from the (free-throw) line to the rim. The only thing you really have to discuss with them is the shooting background. It’s going to be different there for everybody, and you can’t come down and just start jacking up shots right away. Gotta give it time. It takes a while to get accustomed.”

For the Jeeps, hopefully they have four total games in The Convo —combining both the Southeast District and Region 15 tournaments.

* * *

Ironton St. Joe 11 10 8 13—42

South Webster 24 10 26 10 —70

IRONTON ST. JOSEPH 42 (10-14)

Brady Medinger 0 0-0 0, Aiden Deborde 1 0-0 3, Eli Whaley 1 0-0 3, Landon Rowe 1 3-5 5, Evan Balestra 5 0-0 12, Drew Brown 4 0-0 9, Jake Stephens 0 0-0 0, Wesley Neal 3 0-2 6, Zane Dressell 0 0-0 0, Carter Johnson 2 0-0 4; TOTALS 17 3-7 42; Three-point goals: 5 (Evan Balestra 2, Aiden Deborde, Eli Whaley and Drew Brown 1 apiece)

SOUTH WEBSTER 70 (20-3)

Eli Roberts 9 1-1 22, Christian White 0 0-0 0, Dylan Shupert 6 2-3 15, Owen Mault 0 0-0 0, Hunter Barnard 2 0-0 4, Caden Johnson 0 0-0 0, Brock Campbell 4 0-0 8, Jack Timothy 4 0-0 8, Tyler Sommer 4 1-2 11, Brycin McClintic 0 0-0 0, Jacob McGraw 0 0-0 0, Beau Stephens 1 0-0 2; TOTALS 30 4-6 70; Three-point goals: 6 (Eli Roberts 3, Tyler Sommer 2, Dylan Shupert 1)

Reach Paul Boggs at (740) 353-3101 ext. 1926, by email at [email protected], or on X @paulboggssports © 2024 Portsmouth Daily Times, all rights reserved