Miami East’s Jacob Roeth goes up for two points Tuesday night against National Trail at the Vandalia SAC
Mike Ullery | Miami Valley Today
Miami East’s Wes Enis muscles his way to the basket Tuesday night.
Mike Ullery | Miami Valley Today
Miami East’s Bryce Haught grabs a rebound Tuesday night against National Trail.
VANDALIA — The Miami East boys basketball team received the top seed in the Southwest District D-III SuperSectional.
And the Vikings didn’t waste any time showing why Tuesday night at the Vandalia-Butler SAC Tuesday night, cruising to a 64-38 win over 18 seed National Trail in first round action.
The Vikings, 21-2, will play Stivers at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in second-round action.
“We didn’t take a bye,” Miami East coach Justin Roeth said. “We wanted to come down here and get after it.”
National Trail stayed close in the early going, trailing just 10-8 late in the first quarter.
That’s when Miami East ran off 20 straight points to go up 30-8 and the Blazers could never recover.
The Vikings had 16 steals in the game, with most coming in the first half.
Wes Enis had nine points in the run, while Jacob Roeth added four points.
Bryce Haught hit a 3-pointers and Connor Apple and Mitchel Kemp had two points each.
“We had the big run,” Roeth said. “A lot of the points in that run came off steals from our full-court pressure.”
The Vikings led 35-15 at halftime and Trail played them evenly in the third quarter with East leading 46-28 going to the final eight minutes.
“A lot of what we did in the second quarter came from our pressure,” Roeth said. “We decide to come out in the third quarter and just sit back in half-court and work on some things on defense.”
Enis led the Vikings, filling out the stat sheer with 28 points, 11 rebounds four assists and six steals.
Roeth had 16 points, six assists and four steals.
Apple scored seven points, Haught finished with five points and Kemp pulled down five rebounds.
Logan Smith led National Trail with nine points and six rebounds.
Kellen Laird had eight points and six rebounds and Hunter White scored eight points.
Nick Brubaker and Joel Hunt scored five points and Gaje Lesh had four assists.
East was 28 of 60 from the floor for 46 percent, including five of 18 on 3-pointers for 27 percent. The Vikings made three of eight free throws for 37 percent.
Trail was 13 of 37 from the floor for 35 percent, including four of 18 from long range for 22 percent. The Blazers made eight of 11 free throws for 72 percent.
East won the battle of the boards 32-23 and had just seven turnovers to Trail’s 19.
“We wanted to get down here and get a taste of what the next journey (tournament basketball) was going to be,” Roeth said.
And the Vikings did that in impressive fashion.
You can reach Sports Editor Rob Kiser at [email protected]
