A James Johnson column: Shontz’s Superman act

JAMES JOHNSON
Star Beacon

March 02, 2008 03:46 am

— HOWLAND — Pymatuning Valley senior point guard Corey Shontz did everything but don a red and blue spandex suit with a big red “S” on the chest Saturday night at Howland... and only because it would’ve seriously clashed with the Lakers’ maroon and gold he was already wearing.
Doing his best Superman impersonation (while avoiding a major fashion faux pas), Shontz almost beat the Newton Falls Tigers by himself in Saturday’s Division II district championship game, scoring a game-high 27 points to lead PV to the 50-40 win. It’s PV’s first district title in 46 years and Ashtabula County’s first crown in 17 years and it took Shontz’s superhero-esque performance to make it possible.
Like Clark Kent emerging from a phone booth, Shontz kick-started PV’s trademark pressure defense to open the second half of a deadlocked 23-23 game, igniting a 15-2 run that finally gave the Lakers some breathing room. Of those 15 points, Shontz scored 13 of them, mostly off transition buckets created by the press that he helped awaken.
“We knew we weren’t playing well in the first half and knew we had to step it up,” Shontz, who finished the night with five threes, said. “We weren’t penetrating their zone as much as we wanted, but it wasn’t them, it was us. We were killing ourselves out there because we weren’t attacking them.”
It took all of 12 seconds for Shontz and the PV press to create all sorts of havoc for the Tigers. Shontz’s layup with 7:48 left and Steve Savel’s layup, off the steal by Shontz and assist from Bryan Easton, put PV up 27-23 and forced Newton Falls into a timeout 55 seconds later. Additional steals off the press by Shontz, Jake Lautanen and Savel led directly to four straight buckets for Shontz, three of them from behind the 3-point arc, that gave the Lakers a 38-25 edge. It would prove to be the Tigers’ Kryptonite as they never got any closer than six points the rest of the way.
Like a superhero toting a skyscraper like a load of firewood, Shontz virtually carried the Lakers on his back the entire night, especially in the third period. He had to, as PV partner-in-crime Savel struggled all night long, scoring a season-low seven points, a full 17 points under his 24.0 average.
“I don’t have to carry this team,” Shontz said. “We’ve got guys like Steve Savel who’s had a great season. That’s the beauty of having both me and Steve. They doubled down on him all night and it opened up shots for me. If they had doubled on me, I would’ve just dished off to Steve and he would’ve gotten 27 points and we still would’ve won.”
PV coach Jeremy Huber was proud of his floor leader for taking the leadership mantle.
“Corey had one heck of a game shooting the ball,” he said. “Newton Falls is one heck of a team with their great zone defense and (Marcus) Fowler in the middle. We needed everything Corey gave us.”
Even when he cooled off in the final period and suffered his fourth foul with 5:31 left, Shontz still did the little things to get PV over the district hump. His alley-oop pass to Easton for the bucket with 2:41 remaining put the Lakers back up by eight (46-38) after the Tigers had pulled back within six. Shontz then drained two free throws with 1:27 remaining to effectively ice the district title.
Shontz, who was 2 when Edgewood won Ashtabula County’s last district title in 1991, could only smile at knowing he and his Lakers will be forever remembered in county basketball lore.
“We’ve never really thought about it like that before,” Shontz grinned. “People are already going to remember us for our undefeated team last year, but in my opinion, winning the district tournament is much, much better. I’d take winning a district over an undefeated season any day.”

Johnson is the boys basketball beat writer for the Star Beacon. Reach him at jjohnson@starbeacon.com.

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