Hot-shooting St. Xavier ousts Wayne in D-I district finals
Wayne boys basketball coach Nate Martindale said he thought his team played a good first half Saturday night. But the scoreboard said his team was behind by 14 points.
Cincinnati St. Xavier just happened to play its best half of the season, senior guard Joe Kirby couldn’t miss and the hill the Bombers put in front of the Warriors was too steep. Despite a spirited run to close the third quarter, the Warriors just didn’t have enough in the second half, falling 81-65 in a Division I district final at Centerville High School.
“Our kids didn’t run from the moment,” Martindale said. “They stood there and they fought, but it didn’t go our way tonight.”
St. Xavier (19-2) will play Greater Catholic League South rival Cincinnati Moeller (19-4) in the regional semifinals at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at Cincinnati Princeton. Moeller defeated Miamisburg
75-54 on Saturday at Centerville in one of four Division I district finals. Aidan Noyes scored 23 points and Logan Duncomb 19 to lead Moeller. Evan Logan scored 22 and Alex Ball 13 to lead the Vikings.
The second semifinal at 8 p.m. pits Centerville (223) against Cincinnati Elder (20-3). All four teams were ranked in the top five in the final Associated Press poll.
Wayne (17-5) led 7-0 and 23-19 late in the first quarter.
But Kirby was just getting warmed up with three 3-pointers. He made four more in the second quarter. He was 7-for-7 for the half. As a team the Bombers made 9 of 14 3-point attempts, star player Kobe
Rodgers score 14 of his 17 points in the half and a late run took their lead from 33-31 to 49-35 at halftime.
“He’s a good shooter anyway, but he had a night,” Martindale said of Kirby, who averages 12.5 points and finished with 29. “When they’re hitting shots like that it put a lot of pressure on our defense for sure.”
Prophet Johnson and Lawrent Rice led a 6-0 run to close the third quarter and cut the Bombers’ lead to 61-55. In the fourth quarter, however, an early answer by the Bombers put the game out of reach. And Louie Semona scored 17 of his 26 points in the half, many coming on layups against Wayne’s risk-taking defense.
“We were trying to make the game more up tempo, create extra possessions, especially when we were down,” Martindale said. “We just couldn’t sustain it. They got some timely buckets and with pressure and with what we were trying to do we’re taking more risk. And sometimes you get a reward, sometimes it hurts you on the other end.”
Johnson scored 18 points and Malcolm Curry 13 in their final games for Wayne. Rice, a sophomore, scored 16.
Wayne had a big comeback win at Miamisburg in January to clinch a share of the GWOC title. The Warriors lost a lot of close games and had played well in the tournament.
“Our kids were playing really, really well,” Martindale said. “I thought we hit our stride a little bit. This team has been a resilient bunch.”
Like all teams this season, the Warriors had to be resilient. In November, they practiced two days, went into quarantine for 14 days, practiced two more days and went into quarantine for 14 days again. Then they started playing games.
“We had to piece things together and roll,” Martindale said. “Everybody’s dealing with that, but that was our story.”