Then he did it again. And again.
By the time Knapp was done, the spark he provided had turned into a full-blown blaze.
Knapp drilled four of his five attempts from beyond the arc and finished with 14 points as No. 1 seed Badin rolled past No. 16 Talawanda 78-28 in a Division III first round game at Princeton High School.
“We needed a spark,” Knapp said. “We came out really flat, and this is a team we knew we could beat. So we needed a spark, and I just tried to go out there and get my first shot. I stood there for a second in rhythm and let it go.
“We always say if one goes in, let another one fly. So I just kept putting it up, and they kept finding me.”
Badin (21-2) never trailed after Chandler Taylor converted a layup to give the Rams a 5-4 edge midway through the first quarter. Talawanda’s Silas Petri had scored to put the Brave ahead 4-3 with five minutes left in the opening period, but Taylor’s bucket ignited a run that Badin never relinquished.
The Rams led 34-18 at halftime, then overwhelmed the Brave after the break. Badin outscored Talawanda 44-10 in the second half, turning a competitive opening stretch into a runaway.
Carson Lowe led all scorers with 15 points for the Rams. Taylor added 10 points and six rebounds, and 12 different Badin players found the scoring column in a balanced performance that underscored the top seed’s depth.
Talawanda (2-21), which closed out a tough season, got eight points apiece from Brayden Douglas and Petri. The Brave’s only victories this season came against Ansonia and Eaton. The program went 1-22 in 2018-19 and 2-21 last year.
“We played a great first half,” Talawanda coach Rodney Parrett said. “We just got, like you said, outmanned. We got outgassed. No matter how many (Badin coach Ben Cosgrove) puts in, they’re tough. He can rotate five in — it’s just like a starting five on the floor. He’s got 12 seniors. I start two freshmen who’ve never been in this spot before.
“We knew what we were getting into coming here. I told them, ‘Play hard. Play physical. Play hard with everything you’ve got.’”
Badin entered the tournament riding a 15-game winning streak after a 42-35 loss to Hamilton on Dec. 20 at the Butler County Bash at Fairfield. The Rams’ only other defeat came against Alter, 61-58, on Dec. 12.
Still, Rams first-year coach Ben Cosgrove wasn’t pleased with his team’s early edge Friday. He noticed a slight lull in team chemistry following Badin’s regular-season finale against CHCA, a 44-37 road win.
“We wrote up on the board before the game all our keys. I scouted them like any regular opponent,” Cosgrove said. ”Don’t care what their seed is. We’re all 0-0 now. At the bottom of our keys to victory were our standards and respect. Got to respect the opponent. And we started slow because we were in cool mode. We thought we were better than we are, right?”
Knapp admitted the message landed.
“Coach was on us from the very beginning,” Knapp said. “He told us at one point when we were on the court that you five were about to come out. That kind of got to us.
“At halftime, he said even though we had the lead, we still had a whole other half to play. So we just had to come out and respond. At the end of the game, that’s how you respond — win by 50 — but we still feel like we could have improved a lot.”
Cosgrove credited Knapp’s shot selection and poise.
“That’s been Cody all year. Cody Knapp is a joy to watch practice,” Cosgrove said. “The pace that you see all these high school kids playing at in the fourth quarter of their last high school game, he practices that way every single day. He deserves moments like that.”
Parrett, who wrapped up his second season leading the Brave, praised his team’s effort despite the lopsided final.
“It’s tough. But I couldn’t be prouder of these kids,” Parrett said. “We’re 2-21, and they just kept coming back. Not once did I have kids not coming to practice. Not once did I have kids saying, ‘I don’t want to do this anymore.’
“It’s a culture thing, building a culture, and it’s coming. We’re going into our third year now, so it’s starting to be our turn. It’s time to see some results.”
Badin will face No. 10 Turpin (9-14), which defeated Woodward 70-50 on Friday, in a district semifinal game at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Princeton.
“We had a lot of success in the regular season, but everybody’s 0-0 right now,” Knapp said. “It doesn’t matter what happened in the regular season. We’ve just got to go one game at a time and not take anybody lightly. As you saw, we started off really slow. Just moving one game at a time.”
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