MOUNT ORAB — The Ross High School boys basketball team came out on the better end of a Butler County rivalry matchup Wednesday night.
Ben Voegele scored a game-high 22 points and the 10th-seeded Rams pulled away from the No. 12 Edgewood Cougars for a 55-41 Division III tournament victory at Western Brown.
Ross (13-10) has won three in a row, including a 63-46 regular season finale victory against Edgewood (10-13) last Friday.
“It’s one of those games obviously where we’re very familiar with each other,” Rams coach David Lane said. “It’s a rivalry game. You can throw the records out the window. You can throw where you’re playing out the window — whatever the case may be. It’s going to be a battle.”
The Cougars took the first contest during the regular season 46-42 on Jan. 25 at Ron Kash Court.
“We lost to them earlier when we played them, which was tough,” said Voegele, a senior. “That was a bad one. But we came back, faced adversity and got it done.
“We faced a lot of adversity in the first half tonight. We didn’t play very well. We came out better in the second half. We continued to face adversity head on, and that’s what good, great young men do.”
Ross plays top seed Aiken on Tuesday at 6 p.m. at Western Brown in a district semifinal.
Juniors Amir Cannedy (12 points), Tyson Daley (11) and Keegan Sullivan (10) contributed on the offensive end for Edgewood, which led 14-13 after one quarter.
“Ross played a great game,” Cougars coach Jason Osterman said. “It’s two in a row they put on us now, which hurts. But contrary to Friday, I thought our guys showed up tonight, and I thought we played really hard. It kind of just got away from us there towards the end of the third quarter where they were hitting shots — and we weren’t.
“I thought we were getting good looks. We just weren’t finishing. Before you know it, they were hitting a bunch of 3s in a row.”
Ross took a 26-24 advantage into the halftime break before gradually pulling away in the second half.
Hendricks scored the first eight points of the fourth quarter — which were his only points — to give the Rams a boost.
“He gave us a little bit of breathing room,” Lane said. “But all of our guys stepped up big time.”
Lane credited senior forward Mason Smith for providing Ross some early momentum with eight first-half points.
“He did a great job of making plays around the rim and finishing at the rim,” Lane said of Smith. “He kept us in the flow of the game and not letting their lead get too big in the first half. He was a very big spark for us in the first half.”
Play of the game
Rams senior guard Will Schaefer knocked down a 3-pointer at the third-quarter buzzer on a play that wasn’t even designed for him to take the shot. That gave Ross a 39-32 lead heading into the fourth.
“That was a big play,” Lane said. “We drew something up, and they did a good job of taking it away. That’s a play where having a guy like Will Schaefer — who is our X-factor that does everything for us — was able to make something happen. That’s a huge game-changing momentum shot, and I expect nothing less from a kid like that.”
“We made some big plays down the stretch in the second half,” Voegele chimed in. “That’s what we’ve got to do in games like that.”
Schaefer finished with 15 points while going 6 of 7 from the free throw line.
‘The right direction’
Edgewood brings everyone back for next season except Christian Harley, who graduates this year and “did a lot of good things for us,” Osterman said.
“We knew we had a young team with not a lot of varsity experience,” Osterman added. “It was nice to see us grow and get better as the year went on. We’re obviously not satisfied with 10 wins, but it is a step in the right direction I think for our program.
“So, we’re excited where we are. We will obviously take some time off and get back to work.”
AIKEN 82, TALAWANDA 45
Cale Leitch scored a team-high 15 points and Brayden Douglas added 10 in the Brave’s Division III season-ending tournament loss to the Falcons on Wednesday night.
Aiken led 18-7 after the first quarter and 39-24 at the half. Jaiden Arnold scored a game-high 16 points for the Falcons, who outscored the Brave 43-21 in the second half to close it out.
“They didn’t miss,” Talawanda first-year coach Rodney Parrett said. “They made everything they shot, and when they did miss, we let them get a second shot. We had to rebound every shot, and that’s hard.
“Their smallest kid’s as big as our biggest kid. Our gameplan was to slow the tempo down and make them sit down and play defense and try not to get beat on long passes.”
Parrett said preparation for the state’s No. 2 ranked team in Division III — according to MaxPreps — was to practice half-court basketball with a half-flat ball.
“I didn’t want them to dribble,” Parrett elaborated. “You have to move. I think you watched us enough. I was very happy with how we moved the ball. We snapped crisp passes. We didn’t dribble around with no direction. They handled the ball well, and I think that helped.”
Talawanda finished 6-16 and graduates seniors Adam Kolb, Sam Lippmann and Leitch.
Leitch will walk away as the school’s all-time career 3-point leader, season 3-point leader and single game 3-point leader.
“I’m felling good,” Parrett said. “They won two games last year. We’re losing three seniors, and we’re losing a lot of leadership with Cale. We’ve got to have that leader back. … Cale was the glue. I’ve got to find glue now. I’m looking for glue is what I’m looking for.
“Because these kids are buying in. Our locker room in there was like, ‘Hey, we’re coming back.’ That’s the first time they’ve had a coach come back in four years. Them three seniors had four coaches. I’m their fourth coach, and I’m telling these kids, ‘Look, I’m coming back. You guys know what to expect now.’”
