Trotwood set for rematch with Akron SVSM

After Rams routed Irish, they meet again in D-II state semifinal Thursday.

The Rams routed the Irish in January, and the teams meet again Thursday in a boys basketball state semifinal.

It didn’t take Akron St. VincentSt. Mary coach Dru Joyce long to recount how many times prior to playing Trotwood-Madison this season the Irish had allowed 100 points.

“Never,” he said during a statewide media conference call about this week’s boys high school basket-

ball state final fours at Columbus. “We regrouped and started coming together until we met Trotwood-Madison, which gave me the worst beating of my coaching career. After that game our guys recognized what’s at stake.”

Trotwood lit up Ohio Twitter feeds that night, landing an uncharacteristic 100-61 blowout Jan. 14 to the school that LeBron James made famous.

Trotwood (26-2) and Akron SVSM (23-5) will play again in a Division II state semifinal at 2 p.m. Thursday at Ohio State University’s Schottenstein Center. Wauseon (26-1) plays Columbus Eastmoor Academy (22-6) at 10:45 a.m. in Thursday’s D-II opener. The winners return to decide the state championship at 10:45 a.m. Saturday.

Trotwood is the only area boys team that advanced to a state final four. Alter won its third girls D-II state title Saturday, and Versailles was a D-III girls runner-up.

Reflecting on that lopsided beating hogged most of the time Joyce and Trotwood coach Rocky Rockhold spent addressing their teams, and for triple-digit reasons. It’s a given that won’t happen again with so much at stake. Besides, instead of Trotwood’s relatively new gymnasium, the teams will be anchored at the Schott, or, as Rockhold said, “This is almost a home court for (Akron SVSM), so we’re at the disadvantage this time.”