MASON — Cooper Ollis wasn’t hitting much from outside the arc, but the Badin High School junior guard was told to keep putting them up.
He listened. He answered.
Ollis scored 10 of his team-high 12 points in the fourth quarter — including two crucial 3-pointers — and the ninth-seeded Rams maintained a game-long intensity that led them to a 49-36 Division II sectional victory over the sixth-seed Indian Hill Braves on Saturday afternoon at Mason Arena.
“I was hype. It was about time one of them fell,” said Ollis, who misfired on his first five shots in the first half — four of them from 3-point range. He connected on a pair of treys that gave Badin a 37-27 lead midway through the fourth quarter.
“Everybody was telling me to just keep shooting. I just put them in the air, and they went in finally.”
The Rams (13-10) held on to claim their 10th win in 12 games, snapped Indian Hill’s seven-game winning streak and face Clinton-Massie on Thursday, Feb. 29, at 7:30 p.m. at Mason.
“It’s huge,” said Badin’s CJ Fleming, who notched his first-career postseason victory as a head coach. “We don’t look ahead. We try to go 1-0 every single day. That would be practice, film or coming in today. Our goal was 1-0.
“We played a very good, well-coached Indian Hill team who had a great season. But our guys came out and battled and went on a little run after Cooper made a couple 3s.”
Alex Ritzie hit three first-half 3-pointers to score nine points for the Rams, who shot 14 of 32 (43.8%) from the floor. Aidan Brown had eight points.
“Credit to them. They played so hard,” Fleming said. “They fought. They fought their butt off. A couple plays offensively to extend the lead, and it kind of went from there.”
Zach Jones had a game-high 16 points for the Braves.
HITTING THE BOARDS
Badin prepared to face a relatively taller team in Indian Hill (15-8) which finished second in the Cincinnati Hills League behind fourth-ranked Wyoming. The Rams matched the Braves with 22 rebounds.
“It started on Monday. We had a big week of practice,” Ollis said. “We knew they were huge, so we had to rebound and box out. … Obviously, we want to play physical. We will always want to be the most physical people on the court. They’re a good team. Props to them, but we came out with it.
“It’s always about rebounding and defense,” Ollis added. “Offense can be going, but if you’re not playing defense, it’s not going to help you out with the final score. If you play defense, you’re going to get wins.”
QUOTABLE
“It feels like a couple different seasons in one,” Fleming said of his first stint at the Badin helm leading up to this point. “All the way back to Dec. 12, at Fenwick, our personnel was different, minutes were different. Credit to these guys in accepting their role and doing whatever needs to be done for the team.”
FENWICK 47, HUGHES 21
MASON — Bailey Temming scored 18 points, grabbed 16 rebounds and had five blocks in Fenwick’s Division II victory over Hughes on Saturday afternoon.
The Falcons (16-7) have won six straight and play Bethel-Tate on Thursday, Feb. 29, at 6 p.m. at Mason.
“We did our job — that’s all that matters,” said Temming, a 6-foot-10 senior. “We’re moving on, looking for the next round. That’s it.”
Hughes, which knocked Fenwick out of the postseason last year in a 51-49 battle, lost six straight to finish the season at 9-14.
“We were definitely looking for revenge, and we got it,” Temming said. “We’re just looking forward to the next game and moving on. … Our coaches did a good job of preparing us with a good gameplan and keeping us right in practice.”
The Falcons moved out to a 12-2 advantage after one quarter and used a stout — zone — defensive effort the entire game. The Big Red didn’t have an answer on offense and never gained any ground the rest of the way.
“It’s a team that we have a lot of respect for that plays in a really tough league,” Fenwick coach Andy McCarthy said. “We didn’t think we could stay in front of them man-to-man. So, it was something we worked on this week. The hard part is rebounding out of it. I thought the guys gave it as much effort as they could possibly on the boards today. That was a huge sign for us.
“We did talk about the fact that they got us last year. The kids were aware. Like I said, whenever you play a team from the (Cincinnati Metro Athletic Conference) that league is as tough as any league in Ohio. So, throw the record out. Throw the stats out — all of it. You’ve just got to be ready to play when you play teams like that.”
MARIEMONT 67, CIN. CHRISTIAN 30
SHARONVILLE — Cincinnati Christian fell behind 39-16 at the half and wasn’t able to make its way back in a Division III sectional loss to Mariemont on Saturday night.
The Cougars (6-16) lost five straight to finish their worst season since 2009-2010. Mariemont faces Georgetown on Thursday, Feb. 28, at 7:30 p.m. at Princeton.
CCS graduates seniors Noah Hines and Bruce Cyprien.
