COLUMBUS — The Garaway Pirates don’t do much of anything flashy.

The Garaway Pirates don’t have any rim-rocking Division I recruits.

The Garaway Pirates have one thing that many don’t. They have a date in the Division III state championship game Saturday afternoon.

The Pirates — who had been bounced in the district semifinals each of the past three seasons — have been up to all challenges through the post-season run, which includes a win over St. Clairsville in the district semifinal.

The challenge they faced here Friday at the Value City Arena inside the Jerome Schottenstein Center was definitely the toughest to date and that’s no disrespect to anyone. The Pirates met Cleveland Villa Angela-St. Joseph in the state semifinals in the opening game of the second day and did what Garaway’s been known for — other than winning — they controlled the tempo and didn’t let the more athletic and probably more talented Vikings turn the game into a track meet.

“If we got into an up-and-down game with (VASJ) we would have gotten run off the court,” Shutt explained.

The Pirates showed the grit and determination of a champion on several occasions during the back-and-forth affair. They never had a comfortable working margin, but they never allowed VASJ to form one of its own.

However, at the 3:46 mark of the third quarter, the Pirates faced more adversity and the Vikings had nothing to do with this.

Talented senior guard Tyler Gerber — who shared Division III Player of the Year honors with VASJ’s Ashen Ward — connected on a pull-up 15-foot jumper, but came down and injured his ankle.

“It hurts like crazy,” Gerber said during the post-game press conference.

When Gerber sat down, one would think that the wheels would immediately fall off for the Pirates since he’s not only their best player, but their coach and leader on the floor. That wasn’t the case.

The Pirates turned up the defensive intensity and forced four consecutive trips where the Vikings turned the ball over. All told, the Vikings gained just one point in that stretch of the contest.

“We gritted it out and persevered,” Shutt said. “We’re living for another day.”

Gerber got an immediate tape job from the Pirate training staff, stretched out with bands and did some light jogging in the tunnel before clearing himself to re-enter the contest.

“They said I had to do all of those things before I could play again,” Gerber said. “(The trainer) asked me if I could go.”

Coming back into the game late in the third to a standing ovation from the Pirate faithful, Gerber played the remainder of the contest, but since he lost a lot of his quickness with the ankle, Shutt opted for offense for defense.

“It’s my senior year, and I wanted to get back into the game to help anyway I could,” Gerber said.

So with Gerber nursing the injury, who was going to be the Pirate to step up? Frosh big man Paul Honingford was neutralized by the VASJ bigs, so that ruled him out. David Gerber came up with a couple of big buckets, but it was senior guard Chase Stingel who had a big regular season, but has been overshadowed at times along the tournament trail by Gerber and Honingford.

Well, there was no over-shadowing Stingel on this day.

VASJ had taken a 47-44 lead after senior all-Ohioan Nate Barnes hit a pair of foul shots. The Pirates were unphased.

Gerber swung the ball over to Stingel on the ensuing trip and all he did was bury a deep triple from the left wing to tie the game.

After a timeout, VASJ opted to run the clock down as long as it could. With 13 seconds left, Garaway forced a turnover.

“A couple of my (assistant) coaches wanted us to get out and pressure the ball, but I said, ‘we’re fine,’ Shutt explained. “I am just glad we got a chance to take the last shot.”

After the timeout, Gerber waited until the clock had went under nine seconds before getting into the flow of the offense. Gerber waited until Stingel ran off multiple screens to the left corner.

He got him the ball and for Garaway it could be the shot heard around Sugarcreek.

“I have dreamt about making that kind of shot for a long time,” Stingel said. “I used to play situations like that in my driveway.”

The shot splashed through the net, sending the Pirates into a state of paranoia and more importantly into the very last game of the season.

“That play was an old stand-by play,” Shutt said. “We were fortunate enough to knock the shot down. Chase has a lot of time invested in his shooting and we felt really comfortable with him taking the shot.”

HOOP NOTES

? EX-GARAWAY boys coach Scott Bardall was the head coach the last time the Pirates played for a state title. He chose to resign from the boys post to take the girls’ job four years ago and has been to the state tournament twice on the distaff side. He was on press row Friday morning, calling the game on the radio back to the Tuscarawas County area.

? SEVERAL SCHOOLS here this weekend have had student sections that are well below the normal for what you’d expect, but it was brought to our attention at press row that some schools didn’t let all of their kids out because of the Ohio Graduation Test, which was given throughout the Buckeye State this week.

? CINCINNATI ST. Xavier’s students came racing into the arena once the doors flung open for their team’s semifinal game against Lakewood St. Edward. The group of about 15 students, which led the delegation immediately began chanting “We Can’t Hear You” to the St. Edward end of the arena, which was totally bare.”

? TOLEDO WHITMER — which took on Newark in the final state semifinal contest Friday evening — was drilled twice by Division II state finalist Toledo Libbey. The Cowboys posted a 78-37 win over Whitmer in the final game of the regular season. Whitmer is led by Purdue recruit Ryne Smith, who many believe is the best pure shooter in the Buckeye State.

? ST. XAVIER — an all boys school with nearly 1,200 enrollment — features six-member cheering squad that came dressed in blue scrubs as if they just got out of the operating room.

Staskey can be reached at sstaskey@timesleaderonline.com