Hobbs blocked 17 shots in two Division II regional tournament games at OU's Convocation Center Thursday and Saturday, helping the Stallions (22-3) to a regional championship and a second straight state final four berth.

DeSales defeated Chillicothe (20-5) 76-70 Saturday in a game it never trailed, but couldn't seem to salt away.

"I think we did an outstanding job of staying with our game plan," Stallions coach Blair Albright said. "Even though they made runs, we were able to stick with what we were trying to do. (Chillicothe) didn't want to go away and I give them credit. Those kids battled really hard, but our kids answered the bell."

Hobbs swatted away eight shots in the win and while he scored just two points, on an alley-oop dunk from point guard Dane Johnson, offense wasn't needed as the other four starters scored in double figures.

"He's been huge for us during this tournament run," Albright said. "He's really come into his own and almost come out of his shell. He's really taking charge of that paint right now and it's allowing us to do a lot of things.

"It gives (seniors) Elijah (Allen) and Alex (Kellogg) more freedom defensively to get out and guard people, and it lets our guards make sure they're out on the perimeter and it gives us an advantage in getting out on the fast break."

The Stallions' other four starters took care of the scoring side of things.

Allen scored 22 points, freshman Nick Kellogg 20, Johnson 19 and Alex Kellogg 11.

DeSales led by 11 after the first quarter and 12 at the half, but the Cavaliers stayed within 10 points for the final three minutes of the game.

Part of the reason Chillicothe was able to stay close was the fact it committed just three turnovers, to over 20 by the Stallions.

"Our game plan was such that we weren't exactly trying to force turnovers," Albright explained. "We just wanted to force them to get set up in the half court to score.

"I thought they did a good job early in the game of getting a few run outs and scoring, which wasn't what we wanted to happen. We felt like as long as we could get them to set up in the half court and have to score with contested jump shots over our size and we could rebound the ball and hold strong on the glass, then that'd be the difference."

Getting out and running after pulling those rebounds down was Step 2 of the plan.

News photo by Tim Johnson. DeSales players are all smiles with their regional final trophy after beating Chillicothe High School on Saturday March 17.

"That's what we do," Alex Kellogg said. "We're a fast-break team. We want to get out and go, so if they want to force us to do that, then that's just adding fuel to the fire."

The play of Nick Kellogg in the postseason has elevated the Stallions' game and given them as good a starting five as there is in the area, if not the state.

"He's not a freshman anymore," Albright said. "You look at the three guys in our starting lineup who have started since their sophomore year -- Alex, Elijah and Dane -- and they've matured over the course of three years to the point they're at right now.

"That's been wonderful to watch, but you look at Nick and he's made almost that same maturation progress in just one year. To see how far he's come from Game 1, where he was trying to press, to now when he was trying to make it happen too quick, to now when he's making some absolutely pivotal plays.

"He is as competitive a guy as we have on the whole team."

Nick Kellogg hit back-to-back three-pointers in the second quarter to hold the Cavs at bay.

Regional semifinals

DeSales defeated Dresden Tri-Valley 57-47 in the regional semifinals Thursday at the Convocation Center.

Alex Kellogg scored 21 points, Nick Kellogg added 12 and Johnson scored eight.

Hobbs tallied nine blocks.

The Scotties finished 22-2.