After edging No. 7 seed Northwest 55-51 in a similar early regular-season matchup, No. 4 Monroe found itself on the wrong side of the final possession this time as the Knights advanced to a district semifinal against No. 5 Hughes at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.
“You know, I’m going to try to be humble, but I looked back to see who was guarding me, and the rest is history,” said Stroud, who led Northwest with 14 points. “The whole game, I felt like I could get my way, and at that moment, I knew what I wanted.”
Monroe (18-5) had beaten Northwest in a similar down-to-the-wire battle earlier this season, when Colt Howard poured in 22 points on Dec. 2. But Thursday, Stroud — a self-described “film guy” — shadowed Howard, the Southwestern Buckeye League Southwestern Division Player of the Year, and held him to just seven points.
“That was our focus — 2 and 5,” Northwest coach Nick Argentati said, referencing Howard and Ty Perkins. “We did a pretty good job, especially on Howard. He’s really good, and we made it tough on him most of the night.”
Perkins nearly willed Monroe back into control, scoring 17 of his game-high 21 points in the second half. David Hernandez added 12 points and Steven Rude chipped in eight as the Hornets built a 14-11 lead after one quarter and carried a 25-20 advantage into halftime. Monroe extended the margin to 40-34 entering the fourth.
But Northwest (14-8) refused to fade.
“We’ve lost a lot of close games this year,” Argentati said. “Other than the Badin game, every one of the other seven losses was by single digits. We could easily be 18-3 or whatever. Honestly, it was just about time one of them went our way.”
Travontay Thomas and Christian Craig each added 11 points for the Knights, who rallied behind timely perimeter shooting and a poised final possession.
Perkins drained a go-ahead 3-pointer with 11 seconds left to put Monroe on top 50-49. But then the Knights cleared the entire court out for Stroud.
“To be honest, he’s the only guy we’ve got that can get the length of the court downhill one-on-one like that,” Argentati said. “With 12 seconds left, you’re not running a set play. You’re not doing a whole lot. You just let a player make a play. He did a great job playing off two feet, being calm and under control. That’s about as easy of a last-second shot as you can ask for in that situation.”
Monroe coach Casey Popplewell said his team anticipated a different look.
“We had seen them a couple times, and in any type of late-second situation, they like to set some flares,” Popplewell said. “It just never occurred to me that they would take somebody one-on-one. Maybe I didn’t talk about that enough. But you’ve got to stop the ball when it’s being brought up the floor first.
“We just didn’t get a stop there when we needed to. As a head coach, I’ll take the blame for that. Kids win games and coaches lose them.”
The loss ended a historic season for Monroe, which captured a share of its second consecutive SWBL championship — the program’s first back-to-back league titles since 1966-67. The Hornets reeled off separate win streaks of eight and six games during the regular season.
“We were 18-4 and repeated as league champs for the first time in 59 years,” said Popplewell, the SWBL’s Southwestern Division Coach of the Year. “That’s something you talk about. But we’ve got to get over the hump of being physical in a tournament game and handling that.”
The defeat also closed the careers of seniors Bryant Lee and Steven Rude. Lee, the SWBL Southwestern Defensive Player of the Year, leaves as Monroe’s all-time steals leader in both a season and a career.
“In terms of the season, it was everything I could have dreamed for Bryant Lee,” Popplewell said. “He leaves as our all-time steals leader in school history — and for a season as well. I wish it would have kept going for him.”
Lee called the season “a heck of a year.”
“It’s been 60 years since we’ve gone back to back, and that’s definitely something we’re all super proud of,” Lee said. “Even though it may not have ended how we anticipated, I think it leaves a lesson for the guys for next year.”
For Northwest, now in its first season as an independent after the dissolution of the Southwest Ohio Conference, the win snapped a three-game skid and validated a roster heavy on underclassmen.
“We’re playing four juniors and a sophomore,” Argentati said. “Last year we won every close one. This year it feels like we’ve lost almost all the close ones. But they’re learning.”
Stroud said the breakthrough meant more after consecutive early tournament exits.
“It felt good because the past few years, we always had first-round exits,” Stroud said. “So it feels good to finally get past the first round.”
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