ELYRIA — Looking very much like a top-seeded team, Lutheran West lived up to its ranking Wednesday night in demolishing fourth-seeded Wellington, 78-58, in an Elyria Division III district tournament semifinal.
The Longhorns (19-4) will take on fifth-seeded Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy in the championship game at 7:30 Friday at Elyria High. CVCA knocked off second-seeded Woodridge, 50-41, in the first game Wednesday. Both games were postponed from Tuesday because of the bad weather.
Lutheran West jumped out to a 3-2 lead and never trailed as Wellington’s offense seemed out of sync the entire first half, while its defense had no answer for the Longhorns’ Stephon Seton, a  
6-foot-5 junior, who time after time got inside for layups.
The winners also dominated the backboards, outrebounding Wellington 55-27. What hurt the Dukes (12-10) even more was Lutheran West’s edge on the offensive boards. Wellington had only nine offensive rebounds the entire game while the Longhorns pulled down 23.
Seton did plenty of damage in that area, as well. In addition to his 24 points, many of them on putbacks, Seton pulled down 14 rebounds.
Wellington finally found its offense in the second half, but all it could do was match points. After trailing 35-17 at halftime, the Dukes only lost the second half 43-41. Still, the closest the Dukes could get in the last half was 72-56.
“That’s been our problem all year, being scored on inside,” Wellington coach Tom Eibel said. “When you’re scoring, your defense gets better. We just couldn’t generate much offense in the first half and, as a result, we didn’t play well defensively. They’re a very fine team.”
Lutheran West only beat Wellington 67-62 in a regular-season matchup Dec. 21 on the Longhorns’ own court. The difference between that game and Wednesday’s?
“I really don’t know,” Eibel said.
“I just remember both teams playing a sloppy game,” Lutheran West coach Phil Argento said about the difference in the two matchups.
As for Wednesday’s game, Argento beamed: “This was an extremely solid game for us. I just hope we can match it in the championship game. Wellington was a quality team. We just were fortunate to get out fast against them. Then in the second half we maintained the lead by playing smart. I really liked our balanced scoring.”
Lutheran West, which had four players in double figures, had a hot shooting night from the field thanks to its many layups, sinking 46 percent. Wellington shot just 39 percent.

Lutheran West 78, Wellington 58

LUTHERAN WEST (78)—Stephon Seton 12-0-24, Scott Voiers 6-4-16, Andrew Thomas 5-3-16, Ryan Feher 6-2-14, Cal Thomay 0-1-1, Caleb O’Hara 0-1-1, James Ranc 0-0-0, Louis Durban 0-0-0, Daniel Bailey 0-0-0, Ben Hartwell 0-0-0. Totals 32-11-78.

WELLINGTON (58)—Chris Huelsman 7-2-19, Erick Saunders 5-0-10, Cory Kidd 3-0-7, Blake Sword 3-0-7, Kenny Natterer 3-0-7, Breanon Schmidt 1-2-4, Keith Smith 2-0-4, Mark Calhoun 0-0-0, Kyle Bartolovich 0-0-0, Bryan Doehr 0-0-0, Justin Kidd 0-0-0. Totals 24-4-58.

Lutheran West 12 23 22 21 — 78
Wellington 9 8 22 19 — 58

Three point goals—Lutheran West 3 of 7 (Thomas 3), Wellington 6 of 13 (Huelsman 3, Cory Kidd, Sword, Natterer); Field goals—Lutheran West 32 of 69 (46 percent), Wellington 24 of 61 (39 percent); Free throws—Lutheran West 11 of 15, Wellington 4 of 5; Rebounds—Lutheran West 55 (Seton 14, Theriot 7), Wellington 27 (Saunders 5; Turnovers—Lutheran West 16, Wellington 16; Fouls—Lutheran West 10, Wellington 16 (Cory Kidd fouled out).
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