Centerville went on a 13-0 run in the closing minutes to round back into form and prevail 65-59 against Springfield at Centerville High School.
“I thought our guys got their feet back under them, which for this group was big,” Centerville head coach Brook Cupps said. “Not a whole lot of varsity experience and I thought those guys did a good job of settling back into the game and doing the things that we need to do at the end to win.”
Centerville (2-0, 2-0) led most of the night against a Wildcats team which won both regular season matchups a year ago before the Elks ended their year in the first round of the postseason. Only a small handful of players are back from last year’s Greater Western Ohio Conference championship team, notably junior Trey Sam who scored 20 of his 22 points in the first half, and Cupps liked what he saw against Springfield, which could be its biggest challenger for this year’s crown.
“Something we fought with this group early on is our response to adversity and challenge, and early in the season in our scrimmages and some of our practices, we weren’t very good at that,” Cupps said. “So that’s promising that they kept their head up, they kept playing and kept competing.”
Springfield (3-1, 1-1) began the season with three close wins while shorthanded with juniors C. J. Wallace and Immanuel Carey and freshman Timmothy Thompson all temporarily sidelined. They never wavered despite falling behind by as much as 12 in the first half and head coach Matt Yinger said he believes his team will show it’s a good one as the campaign progresses.
“We’ve got to be a little bit more consistent in our approach and make sure that we’re a tough, physical and disciplined for 32 minutes,” he said. “This one game doesn’t define our season. It doesn’t define our goals. We’re not shy about saying we think we can be in the hunt for a league championship.”
Credit: Steven Wright
Credit: Steven Wright
Sam capped his stellar two-quarter stretch to open the game with a three from the right corner — the fifth three he hit in the half — as the buzzer sounded, putting the Elks up 35-25 at the break.
Coaches on both sides said they expected Springfield to go on a run in the third quarter and that’s exactly what happened.
The Wildcats chipped away at its deficit in the early minutes before a pair of dunks by E. J. Rice brought his bench and crowd to their feet late in the period. Springfield only trailed by one heading to the fourth and didn’t let up from its pressure when play resumed.
Senior Charles Cunningham eventually got Springfield level for the first time all night after draining a three off an inbounds pass with roughly 6 minutes to play. A steal by junior Preston Burkhardt 11 seconds after created open floor where he raced down and one-hand slammed home a dunk to give Springfield its first lead of the game.
“We shot the ball fair,” Yinger said. “I actually think we’re even better than that. I thought we attacked the rim in transition, forced some turnovers through the third quarter.”
Springfield built its lead to 54-50 before Centerville began its comeback. A pair of free throws got things started and junior Spencer Maxwell tied the score with a close range shot shortly afterward. Getting a defensive stop on the ensuing Springfield possession, the Elks raced down the floor and junior Ty Rohrer cut and accepted a pass into the lane for an easy layup to give Centerville the lead back at 56-54 with 2:31 left.
“We stayed composed. I mean, we practice hard for that and we expected them to go on a little bit of a run because they were a good third quarter team,” Rohrer said. “Just really proud of us and how we battled back in the fourth.”
Credit: Steven Wright
Credit: Steven Wright
Following a time out that came after a basket by Trey Sam to extend the lead to four, the Elks drew a charge against Rice and on the other end had junior Myles Houston fire up a three from the corner that took several bounces off the rim before dropping in for a dagger with 1:12 to play. Centerville got a steal seconds later and Rohrer went completed a transition layup to put the game away.
“That’s what the program is about,” Rohrer said. “Just everyone picks up everyone. It’s never anyone’s individual game, it’s always the team and that’s how we win games.”
Centerville got support from Rohrer with 13 points, including seven in the fourth quarter, and another 10 points by Keely.
Springfield was led by 25 points by Rice, 14 from senior Sherrod Lay, and another 10 by Cunningham.
“I think at times they found some size mismatches that were exploited on us,” Yinger said. “I think they shot the ball really well and tip of the cap to them for that. ”
The two teams will rematch near the end of the regular season on Feb. 3 in Springfield.
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