South comes up empty down stretch in state final
Trotwood-madison 77, South 73
High school basketball in Ohio is played without a shot clock, but at Trotwoodmadison the game might as well be played with a stopwatch.
So fast-paced and frenetic are the Rams that they entered the Division II state final on Saturday averaging 101.3 points, having scored in triple figures 14 times in 29 games. With a title on the line, however, Trotwood-madison needed climbing boots rather than sprinters’ spikes to withstand a gutty effort from South.
Amari Davis scored eight of his 24 points in the fourth quarter, and Trotwood rallied for a 77-73 victory at Value City Arena, giving the Rams their first title after coming up short in the past two state tournaments.
Trevell Adams and Samual Barton scored 16 points each to lead a balanced effort by South, which led by 11 points in the third quarter and eight in the fourth but could not close out the win for its first state championship since 1965.
“I believe we had that game in our hands,” a disappointed Adams said afterward. “I feel like we for sure should have won that game.”
South (28-2) hung with the run-and-gun Rams from the start. Barton had 12 points in the first half as the Bulldogs took a 40-35 lead by routinely breaking Trotwood’s lethal press for easy layups.
“We were in a good place at halftime,” South coach Ramon Spears said. Of the fast pace, he added, “We call it organized chaos. We’re built to play this style.”
The Bulldogs maintained, even stretched, their lead through much of the second half. A 12-0 run that included five points from Treohn Watkins and four from Marcus Johnson pushed South to a 60-49 lead late in the third quarter.
Davis, though, made a clutch three-pointer and Malachi Matthews added a layup in the final 30 seconds of the quarter as Trotwood (28-2) closed the gap.
“There was never a sense of panic,” Davis said. “If we get down, we just stay the course.”
Adams’ basket with 5:35 remaining gave South a 68-60 lead, but the Rams went on a 10-0 run to regain the lead. A three-point play by South’s Ta’quan Simington pushed the Bulldogs’ edge to 73-70 with 3:45 remaining, but South did not score another point.
“We got stagnant on offense and we didn’t get back on defense,” Spears said. “We were letting them get too many one-pass layups instead of making them fight for possessions.”
Trotwood took the lead for good on Carl Blanton’s two free throws with 2:17 remaining and, after a South miss, Rams coach Rocky Rockhold did the unthinkable and had his team hold the ball for most of the final two minutes.
“I just believed once we got under the 2½-minute mark, if we had a lead, that they would have to chase us,” Rockhold said.
A Rams turnover gave South the ball with 56.2 seconds remaining and the Bulldogs used two timeouts working for a good shot.
Spears called a play to get the ball to Adams, but the Rams defended it, and in the final 10 seconds, Watkins launched a long three-point try that was partly blocked, leading to a breakaway layup by Trotwood’s Keon’te Huguely for the final points.
“I’ve gotta believe that our experience being on this stage played a part in that last three or four minutes,” Rockhold said. “We never wilted. Even when we got down 11, the guys looked at each other and said, ‘We’re OK. Just be who we are.’ ”
rstein@dispatch.com