BY AARON HAGEN
The Globe
WORTHINGTON -- Gavin Calmus said it wasn’t the best looking win. But it still counts all the same.
On Senior Night, Calmus and the Worthington boys basketball team jumped out to an early lead and held off Martin County West in a 59-49 victory Monday.
“A win is a win,” Calmus said. “It wasn’t pretty, but we got the win.”
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Monday was the final home game for a large group of Worthington seniors.
“I’ve been coming here a lot growing up watching all these guys like Mitch Weg, Jalen Voss, Morgan Traylor, all of them growing up,” Trojan senior OD Othow said. “Finally being here myself is cool. I’ve grown up watching from the student section and now I’m finally out here.”
Early on, it was the seniors who carried Worthington.
“We’re going to miss all those guys,” WHS head coach Clint Meyer said. “I’ve had some some of them since they were freshmen playing varsity and a lot of them when they were sophomores. It’s going to be different not having them next year. It’s been a great group to work with. They’ve always worked hard, they are great teammates to one another. We’ll miss those guys for sure.”
Senior Tyler Linder (16 points, 12 rebounds) scored the game’s first point and Calmus made a triple to lead 4-0. After MCW took a 7-4 lead (its only lead of the night). Junior Karasharo Ojulu hit a 3 to tie the game.
Worthington then turned up the pressure a bit, putting on a full-court press.
“We all played together,” Othow said. “We had some nice pressure, a little 1-2-2 that I really like. I want to give that a look come playoff time and hopefully get up in them and get some pressure, cause some turnovers and get the game fast paced.”
A trio of seniors then took turns scoring six straight points. Othow started, Calmus (11 points) followed and Linder capped it as WHS led 25-13.
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Senior Stewart Merrigan made a shot in the final two minutes before half as WHS led 32-18 at the break.
“I thought we pressured them really well. We were a lot quicker than them. The full-court press worked pretty well in the first half,” Calmus said. “They kind of always hung in. We got a little sloppy with the ball for a while there. We struggled shooting the ball tonight, we need to shoot the ball better than we did today. We didn’t attack the zone as well as we should have, but overall we got the win.”
Worthington opened the second half on a 12-6 run as back-to-back 3s from Terbuto Ochothow (12 points, 10 assists) and Othow pushed the lead to 20 points, 44-24.
“We said at halftime we wanted to try to put it away early in the second half, but we just weren't able to do that,” Meyer said. “They knocked down some shots. Give them credit. They played hard, they played right to the end.”
But MCW slowly climbed back in it. Wyatt Geistfeld (15 points) made a 3 and then converted a three-point play to cut the deficit to 14. Later, Matt Holm and Logan Ebeling each had a three-point play as the Mavericks were within 12 with five minutes remaining.
“They had a couple and-ones that were big for them,” Calmus said. “In the end, it came down to we weren’t hitting shots like we usually do. We only had 50-some points.”
Linder answered with a shot and Merrigan (eight points, seven rebounds) made two free throws and hit another shot to give WHS a 59-43 advantage in the final two minutes. MCW hit a pair of 3s late, but it was the Trojan seniors who went out with a win.
“It’s crazy. It goes by really fast. I feel like I was just a freshman the other day. It’s sad it comes to an end, but it’s been a good four years,” Calmus said. “I didn’t really think about it, just a normal game. Obviously I knew it was the last one at home, but I think it will be a little more emotional for me when it’s all around done. It’s crazy to think I’ll never play here again.”
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WHS (15-10) is off until next week for the start of the Section 2AAA tournament.
“We’re all playing great,” Othow said. “We’ll take practice off tomorrow, come back Wednesday and go hard for next week Tuesday and get ready for whoever we’ll be playing. We’ll go at them hard and leave it all on the floor.”
Martin County West 18 49
Worthington 32 59
MARTIN COUNTY WEST (3FG-2FG-FT-TP) Dressen 0-1-2-4, Holm 0-2-1-5, Janssen 1-0-0-3, Ringnell 0-1-0-2, Beseke 0-0-2-2, Weber 1-0-0-3, Owens 1-3-1-10,, Geistfeld 1-4-4-15, Ebeling 0-2-1-5. Totals 4-13-11-49.
WORTHINGTON (3FG-2FG-FT-TP) Ochothow 4-0-0-12, Othow 1-3-0-9, Calmus 1-4-0-11, Merrigan 0-3-2-8, Ojulu 1-0-0-3, Linder 0-7-2-16. Totals 7-17-4-59.
