“I would go to war with this team I have any day,” Middletown coach Mark Baker said. “We have had games like this all year. We have been through adversity and have triumphed from that.”
Edwards finished with a team-high 34 points and 11 rebounds. But once again the win did not come easy.
Leading 39-35 heading into the third quarter, the fifth-seeded Middies were on the ropes against the 22nd-seeded team. Winton Woods senior Ronnie Rousseau scored 34 points and did all he could to keep the Warriors’ season alive.
The four-point deficit was the closest the Warriors would come as the Middies outscored the Warriors 25-18 in the final period. Edwards scored 23 of his 34 points in the second half.
“They are a very good team with a very good player,” Baker said. “Ronnie (Rousseau) is an exceptional talent and once he gets going it can be dangerous for us.”
Baker said his team did a better job in the second half of shutting the rest of the Warriors down.
“The goal tonight was to make sure Ronnie did not have a career night and the rest of the players did not go off,” Baker said.
This was the Middies’ sixth straight win. They have not lost since Jan. 31 against Lakota East.
“I think we are getting close to playing our best basketball,” Baker said. “We have to get better at shutting teams down, and I thought down the stretch we did that and got the lead.”
The Middletown defense held Winton Woods to just over 38-percent shooting from the field.
Middletown’s Khylan Jackson followed up his 20-plus point performance on Friday night against Princeton with 15 points, including three baskets from behind the arc.
The Middies will meet Elder for a sectional championship at 5:30 p.m. on Friday at Xavier University’s Cintas Center.
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