RETURN OF NJIE LEADS CENTERVILLE BOYS HOOPS PAST BEAVERCREEK
CENTERVILLE — Coach Brook Cupps claims his Centerville boys basketball team has been lacking confidence. Friday, the Elks got a big dose of it back in the return of 6-foot-9 senior Mo Njie.
Coming off a six-game absence due to an ankle injury sustained at Flyin’ to the Hoop, Njie’s helped propel Centerville to a 72-59 Senior Night win over Beavercreek in a Greater Western Ohio Conference Amer- ican Division de facto cham- pionship game at CHS.
Centerville, the No. 1 seed in the upcoming Division I sectional tournament, finishes the regular season 11-11 and outright American Divi- sion champs (9-4).
Beavercreek, the sectional’s No. 2 seed, finishes 13-9 overall and 7-6 in the GWOC in coach Steve Pittman’s first year.
Njie finished with eight points (including two twohanded dunks), five rebounds and two blocks in scaled-back minutes. The three-star pros- pect (247sports) holds offers from Dayton, Xavier, Providence and Toledo.
“You can tell he’s not him- self yet, but (Mo) not him- self is still better than most guys,” Cupps said. “That was definitely a lift.”
Centerville broke open a 3-3 game with an 8-0 first quarter run and led 26-16 midway through the sec- ond. The Elks held a 30-22 advantage at half.
Beavercreek whittled a 12-point deficit to five (43-38) with two minutes to play in the third quarter, but Centerville closed the stanza with an 11-3 run capped by Njie’s first slam.
Ahead 54-31 entering the fourth quarter, Centerville extended its lead to 19 twice.
“We played scared,” Pittman said. “I thought the difference was (Centerville) was a team that came in expect- ing to win and we came in hoping to win. All year long we expected to win, but for some odd reason we came into tonight and we were discombobulated.”
Freshman Gabe Cupps scored a game-high 21 points (one off his career-high) to lead Centerville. Sopho- mores Tom House (15 points), Rich Rolf (five points, seven rebounds) and Ryan Keifer (six points, five rebounds) all made crucial plays.
Sophomore Adam Duvall’s 18 points paced ’Creek. Senior Yousef Saleh added 14.
Both squads open postseason play next Saturday at Butler. Centerville tips against Tecumseh (6-16) at 5 p.m., while ‘Creek faces Lebanon (6-16) at 8 p.m.