By Shannon Fagan, WEIS Sports Director

SPRING GARDEN – One of the closest games the Spring Garden Panthers have played this basketball season came back in December at Class 1A, Area 12 rival Donoho. The Panthers escaped by just three points.

Flash forward to Monday evening’s area championship game.

The Panthers knew their fourth straight area title was at stake, and getting off to a fast start would go a long way toward winning their fourth straight area title.

A fast start is exactly what the Panthers got.

Spring Garden began the game on a 14-0 run to set the tone, recovered from a bit of a lull in the second, and closed out the game early in the fourth thanks to a pair of Noah Barber 3-pointers in a 65-43 victory.

Tournament Most Valuable Player John Welsh delivered 29 points for the Panthers (29-0), including three 3-pointers. He also grabbed 11 rebounds. Barber and Jake Welsh both finished with 11 points. Barber sank a pair of treys and Jake Welsh grabbed eight boards.

Connor Bates and Jaylen Brown both finished with seven points.

Jake Welsh, Bates and Brown joined John Welsh from Spring Garden on the all-tournament team.

“We came out strong. We wanted a quick start and we were able to get that,” Spring Garden coach Levi Hatcher said. “The second quarter, it was almost like we got comfortable. They’re a tough team. They’re big and have a couple of kids who can really play. They’ve got some good role pieces. When we took our foot off the gas, it took us until halftime to come in and make a few adjustments and really refocus a little bit.”

Part of that refocus came on Hatcher’s challenge to Jake Welsh.

“About midway through the third, I looked at Jake and said ‘It’s time. You’ve got to have a motor about you now,’” he said. “I felt like he did a good job of keeping offensive possessions alive and finishing around the rim. He really took everybody’s attention. Whenever they focused on him, then we were able to spray it out. Noah was able to capitalize on a couple of those open shots.”

“I’m just glad our guards got to step up and hit their threes,” Jake Welsh said. “They were crashing down on me, and if they wouldn’t have hit those threes, they would’ve continued to try and trap me. Those were very important. Noah is really good at those. I had faith he could make them.”

“We knew what we were playing for,” John Welsh added. “We just wanted to be smart with the ball, and we got it done.”

After Spring Garden’s 14-0 run to begin the game, the Falcons finally found some offense about them, but still trailed 21-7 after a quarter. The Panthers maintained a 30-19 edge at halftime.

Donoho managed to cut its deficit to 10 at 46-36 at the end of the third, but a John Welsh rebound and putback of a Barber trey closed out the quarter with Spring Garden ahead 48-36.

Barber opened the fourth with a pair of treys to put the Panthers up 54-36 with 5:43 remaining, then Spring Garden’s inside game closed things out on the four-peat.

“It’s very rewarding winning four in a row,” Bates said. “This goes back to our ninth grade year. I just want to thank the people who taught me the work ethic I needed to put in to win an area championship.”

Ethan Crawford led Donoho with 20 points. Jordan Cameron came away with six points and Cash Worley finished with five.

Crawford, Bruce Downey and Jacksonville Christian’s Jesse Gannaway were all-tournament selections.

Both Donoho and Spring Garden await their sub-regional opponents. Both teams cross with Area 16, which features Skyline at Oakwood Adventist in that area title game on Wednesday at 7 p.m.

Whichever team Spring Garden hosts, the Panthers are glad it’s in front of the home crowd.

“This is what you play for. You play to put yourself in the best position moving forward throughout the playoffs,” Hatcher said. “The way we’ve been able to play on the road, had that been our outcome tonight, we were confident, but we also knew and understand that to give us the best opportunity moving forward it’s always nice to be able to play at home. If you’re traveling to any of the teams we cross with, they have some great home court advantages and environments. It’s going to be nice to play in front of ours. I expect it to be a really fun environment. This will be it (at home) for this group of seniors.”

“We’ve got five more games left,” Jake Welsh said. “This one (against Donoho) just marks off one more goal that we had.”