Unioto never trailed as they got out of the gate quickly and stayed on the throttle for a 59-28 Division 2 Sectional Basketball Championship over Athens Thursday.
The Shermans started with a 7-0 lead, holding Athens scoreless until 2:38 remaining in the first quarter. The Tanks led 13-5 after one period and 28-15 at halftime. That lead stretched to 43-21 after three and then the final of 59-28.
Freshman Tayvion Gallaway led the offense with 18 points while grabbing 6 rebounds and blocking 4 shots. De'Sean Branson scored 11, with 9 points coming from Isaac Little and Cameron Debord. Cater Markko and Evan Park added 4 each, with 2 points from Gunnar Greenwalt, Ben Spetnagel and Nathan Morrison.
Athens was led by Brayden Whiting's 10 points.
The Shermans shot 27/60 from the field for 45%- including 4/18 from the arc and 1/4 at the foul line. They grabbed 35 rebounds and committed 11 turnovers.
The Bulldogs shot 9/31 for 29%- including 2/10 from the arc, 8/9 from the charity stripe, grabbed 18 rebounds and committed 18 turnovers.
Unioto improves to (15-5) and will play at Logan Elm on March 4th in the Division 2 District Semis, with WKKJ airtime 6:45pm. Athens drops to (11-8) as they end their tournament play, but has 3 Tri Valley Conference games to play with a (9-0) record, leading Vinton County by two games in the standings.
Listen to the WKKJ replay with Mike Smith and Tom Beard in our podcast link found below, which includes post-game interviews with Unioto Coach Matt Hoops and the Shermans players following their sectional title win.