Climbing the ladder — both chronologically and climactically — has been a recent-history focus for the tradition-rich Rams, who made another trek up the ladder Saturday by defeating Tecumseh 66-40 in in a Division III district final game at UD Arena.
A few moments after the final buzzer, and after all of the medals and trophies had been presented, Badin went about its most pressing business of the day — and the season — as each player and coach stepped up the ladder to claim their forever-prized piece of the victory net.
“That’s three (district crowns) in a row for our guys, which is the first time it’s been done in school history,’’ said Badin coach Ben Cosgrove. “I’m very proud of our group. Historically, Badin has been a very, very good team in a tough conference, so we have that expectation (for success) every year.”
The Rams, with 12 seniors, have been dominant the entire campaign, rolling to a 23-2 record with a lineup loaded with depth and talent.
Those intangibles were on display Saturday nine different players dented the scoring column, led by Carson Lowe with 16 points.
Badin never trailed after the midpoint of the initial stanza of action and led 24-16 at the break, but the pesky Arrows (14-11) managed to stay within striking distance before the Rams went on a 12-1 spurt in the third quarter that featured consecutive treys from Lowe.
“Our identity is on the defensive end, and we were find on that end the entire way,’’ Cosgrove said. “Once the offense kicked into gear, which we knew it eventually would — that’s when we took off.”
Despite the loss, it was a solid postseason run for the Arrows, who were making a rare district appearance. Tecumseh was able to get a late-season boost from reigning Clark County Mr. Basketball Chase Stafford, who missed much of the campaign due to a pelvic injury.
“I came back for Senior Night but then took two weeks off — the doctor didn’t clear me," said Stafford, who scored nine points in his career finale. “But this is my senior year, and I wanted to try to play through this.
“Obviously, we wanted to win this one, but (Badin) is a really good team. We’ve wanted to play in Dayton (for the districts) — that’s been a goal since I was a freshman. We went through some ups and downs this year, but we came back and were able to play in this amazing (arena). We can’t ask for any more.’’
Corey Russell paced the Arrows with 16 points to go with eight boards.
The Rams advanced to play Cincinnati Hughes, which beat Bellbrook in the fourth district final of the day at UD Arena.
Hughes 49, Bellbrook 45: The Golden Eagles finished the season as district runners-up, falling short in a tight game.
Bellbrook fought the whole game and took their first lead on a pair of Aiden Caswell free throws with 2:13 remaining in the game. Hughes took the lead back on a pair of free throws of their own on the next possession, extended the lead on the possession after that, and never gave it back.
The Golden Eagles were down 18-7 at the end of the first quarter but cut the lead continually from that point, trailing 27-19 at the half and 35-31 at the end of the third.
Jack Howard led the team with 14 points and Caswell scored 10. The Golden Eagles finish the season 17-8.
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