Miamisburg and Northmont landed in Division II. And as the GWOC has done for years, it finished off the Miami Valley League’s Division II programs the past four days at Butler High School.
Miamisburg, seeded fourth by the MaxPreps RPI formula, dispatched No. 3 Troy on Friday. On Monday night, the Vikings pulled away in the fourth quarter to sink No. 1 Sidney 56-37.
The Vikings showed that their 11-13 record and last-place finish in the eight-team GWOC doesn’t matter once the tournament begins.
“That was kind of in the back of my mind when they made the decision to make us Division II that we would benefit by playing in the GWOC,” Miamisburg coach Tim Fries said. “Even though our regular season record wasn’t great, it really felt like those games prepared us for this. Our last week of the regular season we were at Centerville, at Fairmont, at Kings. We took our lumps, but it had us ready for this tournament.”
Northmont (14-9) has won five of its last six games and easily sent an undermanned Fairborn team home with a 78-37 victory.
“I believe we play in the best league in the state from top to bottom,” Northmont coach Darnell Hoskins said. “Any one of our teams that you face in the postseason is going to give you all you want.”
Hoskins says the talent in the GWOC is only one aspect of the league that prepares teams for tournament season.
“There’s so many contrasting styles in our league, and being able to play against multiple styles is a great thing when it comes to the postseason because you never know what you’re going to run into,” he said. “I love playing in this league. The competition is healthy. The coaches are really, really good. It really makes your kids think, and that’s what the postseason is about. The teams that can execute the best when the pressure is on.”
Next for Miamisburg is a district final appearance against the winner of Tuesday’s game between Cincinnati Winton Woods and Harrison. The Vikings will play close to home again at 7 p.m. Friday back at Butler.
Northmont travels to Mason at 4 p.m. Saturday to play the winner of Tuesday’s game between Kings and Loveland. The Thunderbolts last played in a district final in 2017.
Miamisburg’s path has been more difficult. The Vikings had to survive a fourth-quarter comeback Friday to beat Troy 52-48. Against Sidney they led by five late in the third quarter. But a couple of misses by Sidney opened the door to a closing 23-9 run.
Senior Andrew Hoerner, a 6-foot-9 center, hit his average with 20 points. Sidney, with no starter over 6-2, tried to corral Hoerner, but his experience got the best of them. He made difficult shots and found open teammates when the shot wasn’t available.
“He’s an excellent passer, he’s really unselfish, and he gets really frustrated when he’s doubled and guys aren’t cutting to that space,” Fries said. “So he’s been working with our guys on that, and he definitely found guys tonight.”
Hoerner knows the extra defensive attention is coming. He’s used it to build his offensive game enough to be recruited by Army and NCAA Division II schools Cedarville, Ashland and Thomas More.
“I’m used to it,” he said. “My teammates do a great job of getting me the ball quickly. So I get position, and then if they come quick, you got to look for the dish. But just really moving quick, getting a quick spin, quick drop step, just get an angle and go up with it.”
Chrys Ngoh, a 5-foot-8 junior guard, took advantage of the attention on Hoerner to drive and pull up for 14 points.
“He’s just gotten better and better, and his confidence is high,” Fries said. “And he’s so stinking fast that if he gets downhill he’s doing a pretty good job of finishing.”
The Vikings held Sidney’s trio of dynamic guards A’Zon Steele, Jayce Daniel and Julius Spradling to a combined 24 points. The average a combined 45 points.
“They’re good defensively, all five of them can guard, and then their subs can guard,” Sidney coach John Willoughby said. “We were really loose with the ball today for some reason. We probably tried to overdo some things.”
Northmont, playing for the first time in 10 days, scored only 10 points in the first quarter against Fairborn (5-18) before rolling in the second half to a running clock halfway through the fourth quarter when the lead hit 35.
“I kind of expected a little rust, which we showed a little bit of,” Hoskins said. “Ten days is a long time to be off when you were in a good rhythm.”
Victor Drummond scored 14 points, B.J. Hatcher scored 13 and Kaleb Kelly scored 10 to lead Northmont. Brayden Lambros led Fairborn with 10 points.
Hoskins and his coaches tried to make practice as intense as possible and create the urgency that is needed at tournament time. And once they began to rebound better, make free throws, stop committing turnovers and stop taking chances on defense, the rust wasn’t as apparent.
“They had butterflies — now we can get back to playing pretty good basketball,“ Hoskins said. ”This week of preparation we’re looking forward to it, and our next opponent, whoever it is, is going to be way better than that. And that’s no discredit to Fairborn in any way. We’ve just been able to see a couple of times the teams that we’re going to face, and if we’re going to be able to make history, it’s going to be deserved.”
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