Riverdale runs past Parkway

ELIDA - Parkway had control at halftime with a 23-17 lead on Riverdale in Wednesday's Division III sectional semifinal.

The Panthers completely lost control in the second half as their shooting from the field froze and they could not stop Jackson Hankins and the Falcons in transition.

Hankins netted a season-best 26 points and the Falcons outscored the Panthers 34-10 in the second half to pull away for a 51-33 victory at the Elida Fieldhouse.

"In our transition defense, we were getting beat 2-on-1 about every other time down the floor in the second half," Parkway coach Rick Hickman said. "After rebounds, they got the ball and went and they just outran us down the floor."

The Panthers finish with a record of 4-19. Riverdale (6-17) advances to play top-ranked Lima Central Catholic in Friday's sectional title game.

Hankins, who averaged 10.3 points during the regular season, scored 21 of his 26 points in the second half. His previous season-scoring high was 17.

"Most of what he got was in transition," Hickman said. "He had a couple threes, but predominately they were transition (buckets). That was the game right there - we got beat back on transition in the second half."

Parkway shot 3-of-21 in the final half, which didn't help matters, either.

The game was scoreless for the first three minutes. Then Sage Dugan's 10-footer in the lane put Parkway on the scoreboard first with 4:48 to play in the opening quarter. Justin Barna collected an offensive rebound and cashed in on a three-point play to give the Panthers a 5-0 lead. Hankins later scored five in a row to tie the score. Clayton Agler put Parkway back in front by the end of the frame, hitting a trey to make it 8-5.

The teams exchanged the lead five times early in the second quarter. Agler connected on two more of his three first-half triples in the quarter and Parkway upped its lead to 23-17 by the intermission.

The Falcons opened the third quarter on a 10-0 run before Logan Huff finally scored for Parkway with 3:20 remaining. Hankins scored 11 points in the quarter on 3-of-4 shooting and 4-of-4 at the foul line. Riverdale led 32-27 entering the fourth as Parkway went just 1-for-12 from the floor.

The Falcons extended their lead to 40-27 with 5:30 left in the fourth. Hankins scored six points in that stretch. A four-point swing resulted from a technical foul was issued to the Parkway bench. Hankins hit two free throws and connected on a floater seconds later. Hankins continued his second-half onslaught and the Panthers could never recover.

"You get hot. You get cold," Hickman said. "That's kind of been us all season. We've struggled with consistency. That's what you deal with when you're playing a predominantly-sophomore team at the varsity level."

Agler scored a team-high 11 points for Parkway and Huff added 10. Barna had a team-high seven rebounds.

Tommy Dusseau had nine points for the Falcons.