As real as Centerville winning its fifth straight Division I district title Saturday at UD Arena in a 63-39 manhandling of Cincinnati Anderson (22-4).
Gabe Cupps and Emmanuel Deng have four district medals. But O’Connor transferred this season from Tecumseh after three years, two tournament victories and two tournament losses to Centerville, looking for shining moments.
“It’s great,” he said. “It’s my first district championship, playing in an arena like this, its’ crazy. I never experienced anything like this before.”
O’Connor and the the Elks’ next experience will be against Cincinnati Elder (21-4) at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Xavier’s Cintas Center. The regional final is 5 p.m. next Saturday at Cintas.
O’Connor, with his basket-attacking style, helped get the Elks going after a slow start and scored nine of his 11 points in the first half. The Elks went from a 10-7 lead after one quarter to 34-13 at halftime.
Head coach Brook Cupps said he and O’Connor recently talked about what this season has been like for O’Connor, who was named to the all-Southwest District second team.
“We just talked about how much he’s won this year and how it’s been really cool to experience that and experience it with guys that have been working with him,” Cupps said.
Saturday was special for O’Connor, but the special feelings began almost a year ago.
“I love these guys,” O’Connor said. “They come in every day, and we’ve worked so hard since after the season. We came in every morning and shot, lifted, built that bond. I can’t ask for better teammates.”
Some of those teammates were involved when the blowout became showtime for the Elks in the third quarter with three dunks in the space of two and a half minutes. Jonathan Powell dunked at the end of a fast break, Baboucarr Njie dunked on an alley-oop pass from Cupps and Powell drove baseline for a one-handed slam to push the lead to 52-18.
O’Connor, Cupps (nine points, nine assists), Deng, Powell (11 points), Tommy Gankhuyang (12 points, eight rebounds), Kyle Kenney, Njie and all the others continue their quest next week to reach the state final four for a third straight year. But a district championship at UD Arena always means a lot.
“You don’t want to take them for granted because it doesn’t happen all the time,” Cupps said. “So we’re just grateful for the opportunity. Guys did a great job. Happy to be able to practice again.”
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