West Delaware outlasts Solon, picks up win No. 15

SOLON — For at least one more game, the dream of a perfect season still is alive for West Delaware.

The Class 3A second-ranked Hawks outlasted Solon 69-57 on Tuesday night, grabbing win number 15 of the year. A back-and-forth affair through much of the first three quarters, West Delaware held just a three-point lead at beginning of the fourth.

Then came a 10-5 Hawk run led by forwards Derek Krogmann and John Nagel. The pair tallied 30 combined points and controlled the paint for good portions of the game. They had several assists to one another and looked synchronized throughout the contest.

'John and I have been working together a lot,' Krogmann said. 'He's helped me ever since I came in last year as a freshman ... we've been working well together.'

While the Spartans did respond to the run, they simply didn't have enough time nor the gas in their tank to fight off the Hawks and pull the upset. There were certainly chances, however.

It was a tough, physical matchup and the teams combined to shoot 44 free throws. In essence, it turned into the perfect type of game for the mobile bigs to find some success.

This type of game was also exactly what West Delaware head coach Matt Uthoff was expecting from Solon and felt his team was more than prepared for it to be close.

'We knew we'd get their best shot, Solon's a good team and they have some good players,' Uthoff said. 'We've been here a thousand times in the last two years, we have our whole team back from last year, and we've played in a lot of close games. Beginning of that fourth quarter, we felt advantage us.'

It was, however, not only the forwards getting in on the action. Four players from West Delaware ended up in double figures as guard Ryan Trainer had 13 while fellow backcourt mate Tyler Kelly had 12.

Defensively, the Hawks played well, getting into passing lanes and rebounding with ferocity. West Delaware has a good bit of length and were able to use it.

'We got the key stops we needed and were able to share the ball well,' Uthoff said. 'Executing our stuff down the stretch was huge.'

Solon falls to 10-6 on the season as Ben Krutzfeldt and Jake Coons led the Spartans with 16 and 14 points, respectively.

l Comments: jordan.hansen@thegazette.com