Wright St. recruit Anderson, Ponitz cruise to set up matchup with CJ
Ponitz boys basketball coach Allen Spears saw this day coming. He and his team wanted it to come. Not because they think it will be easy. But because they say they are ready for the challenge.
At 5:30 p.m. Friday at Trent Arena in Kettering, Spears’ seventh-seeded Panthers will not only play for a spot in the Division II district tournament, they will face Chaminade Julienne, a 65-24 winner over Greenville on Wednesday at Trent. The Eagles are the top seed and the team considered since the summer as the one to beat in the Dayton bracket full of talented teams.
“I thought all along that we match up well with them, because we’ve got a big-time D-I kid, so do they,” Spears said. “We’ve got really great complementary players, so do they. What they have is a history of getting deep and a pedigree that we don’t necessarily have that we’re trying to get to.”
The Panthers made sure they wouldn’t get tripped up on their way to Friday with a fast start and dominating performance Wednesday night in a 77-42 victory over No. 14 Bellefontaine.
From the start, the entire game was fueled by Dayjaun Anderson, the DI player Spears spoke of and the City League Player of the Year. Anderson signed to play at Wright State and showed off his college range, burying four straight 3-point attempts in the space of three minutes and 37 seconds in the first quarter. He finished with five 3s and 30 points.
“When he’s playing like that we can play with anybody because we can match teams bucket for bucket,” Spears said.
Ponitz (16-7) and Chaminade Julienne (22-2) are a mile apart in downtown Dayton on either side of the Great Miami River. But they haven’t met on the basketball court since the first round of the 2016 tournament under different head coaches. Ponitz won that one by two points.
“I’m looking forward to the opportunity and I think they are,” Spears said. “We we don’t have anything to lose, but we have everything to gain. We’re not supposed to win, but we certainly think we can. We’re going to go in there and give it every single thing we’ve got.”
While the teams haven’t played, Anderson and CJ star and Michigan signee George Washington III know each other well. They were teammates on the All-Ohio Red AAU team.
“I’m looking forward to it,” Anderson said. “It’s going to be a huge game, they’re going to pack a crowd, we’re going to pack a crowd and we’re going to come out and compete.”
The Panthers played like a team on a mission Wednesday. They moved the ball quickly and found a hard-cutting Anderson for open shots despite Bellefontaine’s efforts to keep the ball out of his hands. They defended well, forcing contested shots and turnovers on most possessions.
“From what we’ve practiced and worked on, my team did a great job of bringing that to the game today, which is always the difficult thing,” Spears said. “I couldn’t be happier with how they showed up and played, especially early on.”
To get to the district finals at Xavier’s Cintas Center, Ponitz will have to pull off what would be the upset of the tournament. And that’s not the only big Division II game Friday night involving a City League team. The 7:30 p.m. game at Trent pits No. 2 Dunbar against No. 4 Tipp. No. 3 Alter faces No. 5 Meadowdale at 7 p.m. at Springfield.
Division II showdowns. We’ve seen this coming.