“When I would go work out by myself I’d bring two or three guys with me, get them in the gym, get them shooting,” Shrout said. “Because I knew my junior and senior year we were going to have a team full of athletic guys that could shoot the ball and play defense like no other.”
Shrout’s vision came true. Preble Shawnee defeated Williamsburg 61-52 Tuesday night at UD Arena to advance to regionals for the second straight year and the fourth time in school history.
“I gotta thank God — he’s a big part of it, giving me the talents that I have,” Shrout said. “But these guys work their tails off. To have a supporting cast like them, I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”
The Arrows (22-3) will play Western Ohio Athletic Conference rival and sixth-ranked Tri-Village (24-2) in the Division III regional semifinals at 5:30 p.m. next Wednesday at Fairmont High School’s Trent Arena. Shawnee beat Tri-Village 49-35 on the final night of the regular season to win the WOAC.
The day he was named the Southwest District Division III player of the year for the second time, Shrout scored 19 points, handed out five assists and grabbed eight rebounds. As usual he faced extra attention from the defense, but found ways to impact the game every time he touched the ball.
“He’s a high IQ player,” Shawnee coach Jake Turner said. “He does a great job of being unselfish. He wants to win. So he’s going to do whatever helps the team win.”
When Williamsburg was stalking Shrout in the first half, guard Isaac Blankenship got loose inside for all 13 of his points. The other key factor for the Arrows was the job 6-foot-8 Logan Hawley did on Williamsburg’s top scorer, 6-4 Alex Ervin. Hawley, who scored 11 points, held Ervin to 15 points on 6-of-15 shooting and took away Ervin’s post-up game.
“Logan did a great job and made him work,” Turner said. “I think the length got to him a little bit.”
All the extra work Shrout initiated among his teammates didn’t surprise Turner one bit. But the other factor in the program’s rise is the work ethic Turner brought when he became head coach before Shrout’s sophomore season.
“Some guys were shell-shocked,” Shrout said. “They were like, ‘Man, we’re playing basketball in June and July. We’re working out at 6 a.m. in the summer. We’ve never done that.”
And now the Arrows have done something else they’ve never done: win back-to-back district titles.
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