Centerville senior Cohen Ellis had 10 points and senior Ethan Greenberg added nine points as the Elks improved to 14-8. They will play either West Clermont (8-14) or Lakota East (15-7) in a D-I district final game at noon Saturday at Mason High School.
They’ve advanced to a district final every season since 2018.
“Hopefully we can keep playing,” said Elks coach Brook Cupps, “and keep practicing. That’s the best part.”
Springfield junior EJ Rice had nine points for the Wildcats, which finished its season 8-15 overall.
The Wildcats jumped out to a 7-0 advantage, forcing an early Centerville timeout.
The Elks would go on a 15-0 run, including two 3-pointers from Ellis and another by Eli Greenberg, to grab the lead for good.
“It would have been an easy one where we get down at the beginning, come to the huddle, and you got those seniors that this means everything to,” Cupps said. “I’m proud of the way they responded. It was good. I thought our guys competed and played really well in second half.”
The Wildcats, playing without sophomore point guard CJ Wallace due to foul trouble, would cut the lead to four points twice in the second quarter, but wouldn’t get any closer. Centerville led 27-17 at the half.
“We had a difficult time with CJ going right back to the bench,” said Springfield coach Matt Yinger. “We just had some difficulties scoring the ball. Hats off to Centerville. They definitely came with a chip on their shoulder and they played well.”
Centerville broke the game open in the third quarter, outscoring the Wildcats 25-6 to extend their lead to 31 points.
“I thought in the (third quarter) our guys really defended,” Cupps said. “I thought we sat down, we were very locked into the scouting report and player tendencies trying to take away what they wanted to do. We really active defensively, and we finished possessions where (Springfield) only got one shot. I thought we played a lot in transition. The guys did a good job of executing in the half court, of just lifting stuff up and giving us a little bit more space to attack. Our guys did a good job.”
Springfield beat the Elks twice in the regular season, but were the sixth seed in the six-team D-I North district draw — which includes six Greater Western Ohio Conference teams — meaning they had to play the Elks a third time.
In the offseason, Yinger and other GWOC coaches hope to create a super sectional that seeds all 25 teams in both Dayton and Cincinnati.
“I didn’t love the setup of the GWOC guaranteed game,” Yinger said. “We’d much rather see a super sectional. ... It would’ve been really nice to see a situation where if we wanted to that we could’ve picked a Cincinnati team. I fully realize in a pool of 25 with an 8-14 record we may have not been one of the higher seeds, but we still would’ve had options. The way it played out, we just had to take the line (against Centerville).”
The Wildcats will graduate four seniors, but expect to bring back three starters and seven other players with varsity experience.
“We’re very optimistic about that,” Yinger said. “We would’ve enjoyed seeing a lot more wins. We lost a lot of close contests and learned a lot of lessons. I felt like this year we were learning how to win and things didn’t always go the way we wanted when you’re learning how to win. We valued the lessons we learned and hope to propel those forward as we look to find our footing.”
About the Author
