Elder too much for Wayne as Warriors fall in district finals
CINCINNATI — The progress Wayne’s boys basketball team made during the second half of the season felt far away Sunday afternoon.
The Warriors, try as they might with some good stretches, couldn’t find the team that won 10 of its past 12 games entering Sunday’s Division I district final at the Cintas Center against Cincinnati Elder.
The result: Elder scored 19 straight points from the final three minutes of the first half through the first two minutes of the second half to defeat Wayne 61-42 and set up a regional semifinal against Greater Catholic League South rival Moeller.
Wayne (17-9) trailed 15-4 before running off nine straight to cut Elder’s lead to 15-13. The rest of the game belonged to Elder (21-4) and big man Tyler Johnson, who finished with 23 points and 10 rebounds.
“They came out, punched us in the mouth,” Wayne senior Juan Cranford Jr. said. “We stopped their sets, but they wanted it more and it showed. They were the tougher team, and that’s what our coach told us. He said the tougher team is going to win today.”
Wayne coach Nate Martindale praised Elder for its consistent play, but he’s not sure why his team lacked the intensity it showed during the second half of the season.
“From the very start, our intensity level wasn’t as high as it needed to be,” he said. “We always talk about controlling our effort. And it wasn’t where it needed to be as far as that level today against a really good Elder team. At times I thought they were a little bit hungrier.”
The Warriors were outrebounded 31-17 and allowed 46 points in the paint to allow Elder to shoot 55.8%. Elder’s numbers are not what the Warriors are accustomed to allowing.
“They scored a lot of points in the paint and we couldn’t finish a lot of possessions with box outs,” Martindale said. “Stuff that we’ve been able to do lately we weren’t able to do that today.”
Wayne’s progress since a loss at Flyin’ To The Hoop allowed the Warriors to finish in a three-way tie for second place in the Greater Western Ohio Conference and survive overtime against Lebanon in the sectional final. Cranford said the team’s late-season success was possible because they got better at the little things that lead to winning.
“Once we got that down in practice, it turned into good,” he said. “We figured it out all throughout the season.”
Cranford Jr. scored nine points in his final game, drawing a lot of attention from Elder’s defense. Cranford, who also played football, wants to play college basketball. He has Division II offers and Division I interest.
“I’ve been doing this since I was little,” Cranford said. “And deep down in my heart it’s what I really love.”