The Wildcats closed the first half strong, closed the third quarter even stronger and never let the Elks get close in the fourth quarter in a 66-56 victory that deprived Centerville of a second state title.
“We didn’t do the little things right,” senior forward Baboucarr Njie said. “Just being able to do those little things make a huge impact in a game like this.”
The Elks (20-9) led 24-21 in the second quarter, but Ignatius (26-3) led 30-24 at halftime. The Elks scored the first four points of the second half, but Ignatius closed the quarter with a 15-4 run to lead 45-32 heading to the fourth. Then the Wildcats finished off the program’s second state title.
Centerville lost to St. Ignatius in double overtime in January, so it was no surprise that the Ignatius guards would seek to get the ball in the lane to set up shots for themselves and their teammates. The Wildcats outscored the Elks 30-24 in the paint and 13-4 on fast breaks. That allowed their balanced attack to shoot 53.5% and gave them space to make 7 of 15 3-pointers.
“We knew what they were going to try to do,” Centerville coach Brook Cupps said. “We just didn’t do a very good job of keeping them from doing it. All that’s because they’re pretty good at it.”
Centerville shot 35.2% and made only 5 of 19 3-point shots. Jonathan Powell led Centerville with 17 points and Eli Greenberg scored 15, but the Elks’ offense never flowed consistently.
“Our shot selection really hurt us,” said Cupps, who gave credit to Ignatius’ ability to keep the Elks from what they wanted to do. “We had some good ones that we missed that we usually make, but if you’re not shooting it as well as you want to shoot, then get better shots. I didn’t think we did that very well.”
Cupps’ team had its ups and downs in a 20-9 season. They lost their last three regular-season games.
“Our guys chose to choose the team over themselves,” he said. “I don’t know that we did that early in the year, and we got to a point where they chose to embrace all the hard stuff that went with it, sacrifice anything personal and just turn everything over to the team. That led to, as much as anything, the way we’ve been playing throughout the tournament.”
The Elks played in their third state final in four years and played in the final four each of the past four years. They won the state title in 2021 and lost to Pickerington Central in the 2022 final. Njie was a part of all four state teams.
“The connection that we’ve built each and every year as a team, not a lot of teams made it this far,” he said. “I feel like we do a great job coming together as a team and playing well.”
Powell, who played at state with Chaminade Julienne as a freshman, transferred to Centerville for his junior year and led the Elks in scoring both years. His college choice is Xavier.
“When I first came I was always thought will I be accepted, will they judge me?” Powell said. “But the first day of practice they made me feel endless love and made me feel like I had nothing to worry about. With Coach Cupps it really didn’t take me any time to really buy in. I wanted to be a part of this.
“Obviously I’m upset, but at the same time the adversity that me and my teammates went through this year — no one would have thought that we would have been where we were at today. So I’m grateful that I was able to experience this.”
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