WESTLAKE – Clearview made its first appearance in the Division II district tournament at Westlake a memorable one.

The Clippers did to Bay on Saturday night what they have done 21 other times this season: used their speed and athleticism to wear down and then break their opponent. Clearview routed Bay 61-29 in the district final to earn its first regional berth since 1997, when it won the Division III title at Elyria.

Clearview (21-2) moves onto the Bowling Green regional, where it will play Celina on Thursday at 6:15 p.m. Celina beat Elida 54-53 on Saturday.

“This team has worked really hard and kind of has grown up with me,” said Clearview coach John Szalay. “I had a lot of them in elementary school in the sixth grade. We haven’t done everything well and we talked all year about the difference from being good and being great. I laid it out on the line for them and said that we’re not going to make any excuses.

“The only thing that would stop us this season is our attitude or our work ethic. These kids have had a great work ethic all year and even the two losses were great games. We got better as the year went on and we’re still getting there (to being a great team).”

The near-capacity crowd saw an indication of what was to come as Bay controlled the opening tip but Clearview’s Anthony Hitchens stole the ball and raced down the court.

Although Hitchens was unable to complete the layup, his hustle and athleticism set the tone for the evening.

Bay (16-7) bounced back and jumped to a 7-2 lead, but Clearview came roaring back. A 3-pointer by Collin Owens sparked a 7-0 run that was aided in part by three consecutive Bay turnovers. Clearview trailed 12-11 but took a 13-12 lead into the second quarter on a Hitchens basket.

The second quarter proved to be the difference-maker as the Clippers picked up where they left off offensively and defensively. A basket by Tony Williams started a string of 15 unanswered points in the quarter for the Clippers that was highlighted by back-to-back 3-pointers by Owens and Kyle Baughman.

On the defensive side of the court, the Clippers forced the Rockets into five turnovers on its first seven possessions. When Cody Sanker hit a 3-pointer with 2:48 remaining in the half, it broke a scoreless span of 6:19 that saw the Rockets get outscored 17-0.

“We were playing some great team defense in the second quarter,” said Hitchens, who finished with a game-high 19 points. “They played us pretty tight in the first quarter and we knew we couldn’t slack off. Once we got things going we just kept feeding off our defense and making things count on the offensive end.”

Clearview took a 30-15 lead into halftime and the break didn’t stop the momentum from carrying over into the second half. Bay got as close as 32-20 in the first three minutes of the third quarter, but the Clippers quickly got back on track with a 7-2 quarter-closing run that pushed its lead to a commanding 39-22.

“We had a lot of confidence tonight in our shooting,” said Owens, who hit three 3-pointers and finished with 10 points. “Coach told us to come in and play our game tonight. I thought we were kind of tense in the first quarter but once we relaxed there was no stopping us.”

For top-seeded Bay the second quarter served as the beginning of the end of its season.

“They came out after us in the second quarter,” said Bay coach Jason Frolo. “They really applied the pressure to us and we didn’t handle it well at all. When we weren’t turning the ball over we were hurrying our shots and not executing our offense. We helped dig ourselves a hole that we just couldn’t get out of.”

Clearview’s first appearance in the regionals in more than a decade has the team excited.

“This is really special for us, the school and the Clearview community,” said Williams, who finished with 10 points. “We’ve worked hard all year toward this and to finally accomplish it is almost unreal. But we still have some basketball to play so we will enjoy this tonight and get back to work tomorrow.”

Eric Thompson chipped in with 12 points and eight rebounds. Bay was led by John Urwin and Kyle Banal with eight points apiece.

Contact Hans Schneider at 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.

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