The Knights proved a lot to themselves and anyone else paying attention. They took advantage of their strengths — a big man on the low post and their shooting ability — to hold off Dunbar 58-50 in the first of two Division II region semifinals Thursday night at Butler High School.
The Knights (20-7) haven’t proved yet that they are a state final four team like last year, but they proved to their fans that they’re good enough to get this far. Even head coach Eric Coulter admits he didn’t imagine it in November.
“These guys are playing together and playing hard and things are going our way right now,” Coulter said.
The next step brings the most familiar of foes, Chaminade Julienne, in Saturday’s 7 p.m. final at Butler. The Eagles, who have reached a level expected of them, defeated Columbus Watterson 57-45 in the second semifinal. The rivals met in the region semifinals in 1989, 2003 and 2008, with Alter winning twice, but this will be the first meeting in the final.
Dunbar (20-7) wasn’t expected to make it this far either. Head coach Tony Dixon, who played on a Dunbar state title team, was glad to see Dayton represented by three teams in the four-team regional.
“We’re back,” he said. “A lot of people around the state are overlooking this area. This season we showed that we’re back and it’s going to be a tough out to beat a team from the Southwest District.”
What made Alter to tough to knock out Thursday was the play of 6-foot-8 sophomore Charlie Uhl. Ruffolo scored his customary 25 points, driving hard to finish with his left hand and making four 3-pointers. But it was Uhl’s size, 16 points and interior defense that was something the Knights didn’t have in the first meeting.
“He was a huge difference,” Coulter said. “We saw on film they struggled with good post players and teams that wanted to exploit them a little bit. We tried as well to do that tonight, and Charlie really responded.”
Ruffolo said he told Uhl he could dominate around the basket and encouraged him to go have a big game.
“It’s his most complete game,” Ruffolo said. “He’s had a lot of games defensively he’s played great, and offensively he’s been solid. But he put it together tonight somehow and that was huge.”
Dixon said, “He definitely was a problem. Our game plan was to outwork him. He outworked us.”
Antone Allen scored 14 points and Eric Brewer 13 in another balanced scoring night for Dunbar. But their other downfall was a four-point third quarter that turned a 20-20 halftime tie into a 34-24 Alter lead heading to the fourth.
“We tried to emphasize with our guys coming out of the half that we’ve got to come out ready to play,” Dixon said. “And whatever happens we’ve got to be able to weather the storm or come out and be aggressive. We weren’t aggressive enough offensively and went away from the game plan.”
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