Elder, Moeller to meet again in DI regional semis; Hamilton wins first title since 2004

Xavier's Cintas Center was the place to be for championship Sunday in the Division I Southwest District boys basketball tournament.

Four teams were set to punch their tickets to the Division I regional tournament, which is Wednesday, also at Xavier. Here's a rundown of the first two games:

Hamilton wins 1st district championship since 2004

Hamilton lost to Sycamore 54-43 in the regular season this year, hurting the Big Blue’s chances for the Greater Miami Conference.

The Big Blue earned a title of their own against Sycamore in the final DI district final of the night at the Cintas Center, beating Sycamore 38-32.

Hamilton, now 16-9, won a district championship for the first time since 2004, when the team the Division I state championship, beating Sycamore in the regional semifinals along the way. Hamilton will play Centerville at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Xavier in the regional semis. Sycamore finishes 19-7.

“It’s big,” head coach Kevin Higgins said. “It’s big for the city. It’s great for these kids. They put a lot of time into it. I don’t think anyone picked us in the beginning of the year to be here, but these kids have fought through a lot of things and they earned it.”

Hamilton lost at Sycamore Jan. 23. The Aviators scored 54 points, had four players in double figures and shot 49 percent from the floor.

Tonight, only three Aviators scored any points and Hamilton limited the team to 35 percent shooting.

“I thought we defended better,” Higgins said. “We didn’t defend well against them the first time but we really guarded tonight. We hit timely shots. It was a total team effort. You never know who’s going to step up for us.”

Juniors Morgan Reed and Peyton Davis scored 12 points apiece for Hamilton and senior Andrea Holden eight, highlighted by a one-handed windmill dunk in the first half.

Davis had eight points for Hamilton in the first half, including a layup at the buzzer, to put the Big Blue up 16-14 at halftime. He later scored two layups on putbacks in the third quarter to give his team a six-point lead at 24-18 midway through the period.

Elijah Hill scored five unanswered points for Sycamore to end the quarter, pulling the Aviators within one at 24-23.

In the fourth, Reed caught fire, hitting two 3-pointers, the second putting Hamilton up by four, 30-26, with three minutes left to play. Sophomore Austin Paige scored his only basket of the game to make it 32-26.

Trailing 32-29 with a little over a minute to play, Sycamore missed three straight shots, two from 3-point range. Paige rebounded the third shot, and the Big Blue made six straight free throws to ice it.

“We’ve been in close games all year, and that showed tonight,” Davis said. “We stayed together and stayed connected as a team. We really locked in on defense. It feels great. It feels good to win. It means a lot for the school. Football started it in the fall, having a good year, and we’re carrying the torch.”

Hamilton 38, Sycamore 32

HAMILTON: Reed 4 2 12, Holden 3 2 8, Davis 5 2 12, Tillery 0 4 4, Paige 1 0 2. Totals: 13 10 38.

SYCAMORE: Hill 2 2 6, Burgess 4 1 9, Imade 7 1 17. Totals: 13 4 32.

Halftime: H 16-14; 3-pointers: H 2 (Reed 2); S 2 (Imade 2).

Middletown rally falls short in loss to Centerville

Jonathan Powell, a 6-foot-6 senior guard who has signed with Xavier, scored 14 of his 16 points in the third quarter to help hold off a Middies' comeback as Middletown fell 68-60 in the third district final of the day.

Middletown finished 18-8, while the Elks will look to defend their Division I regional title from last year. Centerville plays Hamilton at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Xavier.

Middletown trailed by 11 at halftime, 30-19. Powell, a first-team all-district selection averaging over 20 points per game, scored 14 straight Elks points in the third quarter, 12 of them on four 3-pointers.

All his baskets helped Centerville stay ahead as Middletown started hitting shots, too. None were bigger than the end of the quarter after Middletown guards Michael Maldonado and Chancellor Knight hit 3-pointers in the final minute to cut the lead to eight at 43-35. Powell hit a three at the buzzer to push the lead back to 11 at 46-35.

In the fourth quarter, Middletown continued to rally. Junior Jeremiah Landers, Middletown’s leading scorer for the year, scored 11 of his game-high 22 points. Knight hit two 3-pointers and Maldonado one.

Landers scored on a 3-point play to pull Middletown within 4 points (59-55) with 1:11 left. Maldonado then committed a foul on Centerville’s Eli Greenberg in the backcourt on a play where it appeared Greenberg stuck his arm out.

Greenberg hit both foul shots as Centerville went 6-for-6 from the line to finish.

Middletown only shot 6-of-21 in the first half (28.6 percent) vs. 12-of-19 for the Elks (63.2 percent).

Baboucarr Njie, a 6-foot-7 senior, had 13 points on 6-of-9 shooting with five rebounds.

Landers had 10 points in the first half with two 3-pointers.

Centerville shot 58 percent from the floor for the game and had four players in double figures. Maldonado and Knight were also in double figures.

Centerville 68, Middletown 60

MIDDLETOWN: Maldonado 4 6 16, Landers 5 9 22, Shields 1 0 2, Stamper 2 2 6, Knight 5 0 14. Totals: 17 17 60.

CENTERVILLE: Montgomery 5 3 13, Eli Greenberg 2 12 17, Ethan Greenberg 3 2 9, Njie, 6 1 13, Powell 6 0 16. Totals: 22 18 68.

Halftime: C, 30-19: 3-pointers: M 9 (Knight 4, Landers 3, Maldonado 2); C 6 (Powell 4, Eli Greenberg, Ethan Greenberg).

Moeller rallies to beat Springboro, 51-34

A big reason for Moeller’s rise to the ranks of state basketball contenders is the Crusaders’ seemingly endless supply of players who are around 6-foot-5 with long arms.

It was a shorter player with plenty of talent of his own whom head coach Carl Kremer singled out after a physical win over Springboro to win a district championship Sunday at Xavier’s Cintas Center.

Senior Kyle Havens, the defensive player of the year in the Greater Catholic League-South, used those skills to lead the Crusaders to a 51-34 win over Springboro in the first of the day’s four Division I district finals.

Moeller, 25-1 and ranked first in the Division I Associated Press state poll, will play Elder in the second regional semifinal 8 p.m. Wednesday, also at Cintas Center. Springboro finished 18-7.

Moeller won its first district championship since 2021 and is four wins away from its first state title since 2019, when current New York Knick Miles McBride led the way.

“Just making our own history,” Havens said. “They talk about everything in the past. The whole theme this season is making our own legacy.”

Springboro led by nine points, 25-16, in the second quarter and by four at halftime, 27-23.

A lot of that was from senior guard Will Yates, who had 12 points on four 3-pointers in the first half, and five more points early in the third quarter. He is a first-team all-district selection averaging 17 points per game.

With Yates leading the way, Springboro made 7 of its first 11 3-point shots. Moeller put Havens on Yates early in the third quarter, and Yates only scored two points the rest of the way.

“Yates is a great player,” Kremer said. “He was really on a roll. He played great in the first half. Kyle shut him out. In my mind, he was the star of the game. We had a lot of guys do great things, but you have to see us play to understand how valuable he is to our team. Kyle covers up so much. He is a really good player.”

As the Panthers cooled off, the Crusaders heated up with their stars using their length and size for layups and pressure defense.

Senior Eric Mahaffey scored nine straight Moeller points in the third quarter. He made a transition dunk to tie the game at 32, then Alex Kazanecki followed with one of his own after stealing a pass in his backcourt to give the Crusaders a 34-32 lead.

In the fourth quarter, A.J. McBride and Noah George scored a pair of open layups apiece to give Moeller a quick eight-point lead at 42-34.

The Crusaders wore down the Panthers the rest of the way, outscoring them 17-0 in the fourth quarter.

“The whole thing is we came out kind of flat,” Havens said. “We just knew we had to attack them first in the second half. The first half they were the aggressor and the second half we had to come out and just take it to them.”

After Springboro’s 7-of-11 start from behind the arc, the team went 1-of-13 the rest of the way. Springboro shot only 4-of-23 overall from the field after enjoying the 25-16 lead.

Moeller shot 51.4 percent (19-of-37) including 0-for-7 from 3-point range.

Moeller 51, Springboro 34

MOELLER (25-1): George 5 0 10, Mahaffey 5 6 16, Kazanecki 2 2 6, Havens 0 2 2, McBride 5 3 13, Land 2 0 4. Totals: 19 13 51.

SPRINGBORO (18-7): Yates 7 0 19, Butler 2 0 6, Brigger 1 0 2, Bimwal 1 0 2, Rambo 1 0 2, Meek 1 0 3. Totals: 13 0 34.

Halftime: Springfield 27-23: 3-pointers: S 8 (Yates 5, Butler 2, Meek); M 0.

Elder rolls over Wayne for second-straight district title

Elder dominated Huber Heights Wayne from the get-go to win its second district championship in as many years. Elder (21-4) beat Wayne (17-9) 61-42 Sunday at Cintas Center and will play round three with GCL-South foe Moeller Wednesday night in the regional semifinals, also at Xavier.

Tyler Johnson, Elder’s 6-foot-7 senior center, scored 12 points in the first half on 5-of-7 shooting. He also had four rebounds.

Johnson ended with a career-high 23 points plus 10 rebounds for his fourth double-digit rebounding effort of the season. He averages nearly 12 points and 7 rebounds a game.

“Just happy to get a win, on to the next,” Johnson said. “We’re not done yet, we got a few more to win.”

Johnson hit a 3-pointer in the fourth quarter and earned a career-high with a dunk after that, then got the Panthers bench on its feet with another dunk with 2 minutes to play.

“My teammates got it to me in the post,” Johnson said. “(Wayne was) not as tall so I got in there and finished. We played them earlier in the season and we knew we could get it inside, so that was our game plan.”

Six Panthers scored in the first half as they shot 60 percent from the floor overall (12-of-20) to lead 26-13 at intermission. Cam Williams had three assists.

Elder limited the Warriors to 5-of-16 shooting in the first half (31.3 percent).

The Panthers scored the first eight points of the third quarter to quell any hopes of a Warriors comeback. Johnson scored the first basket. Drew Murphy had one, then senior Ryan Brass posted two baskets to give Elder a 34-13 lead.

Elder head coach Joe Schoenfeld credited Murphy and Brass with outstanding defense. Elder limited Juan Cranford, a first-team all-district honoree averaging 17 points per game, to 9 points, 8 below his average.

“Wayne’s really good,” Schoenfeld said. “We knew we had to keep them out of transition, and overall we did a pretty good job of doing that. We tried to take care of the ball, get the ball inside as much as we could.”

Up next is Moeller, which has handed Elder half of its four losses this season by an average of 15 points.

“Moeller is really good,” Schoenfeld said. “We played them pretty well out there for three quarters, kind of lost it in the fourth. Similar in the second game, so I think we know what we have to do. The question is whether we can do it or not.”

Elder 61, Huber Heights Wayne 42

ELDER: Williams 3 3 9, Murphy 2 0 4, Brass 5 2 12, Richie 2 1 5, Johnson 10 2 23, Breitfelder 1 0 2, McDonald 1 1 3, Palicki 0 3 3. Totals: 24 12 61.

WAYNE: Perkins 3 0 1, Cranford 4 0 9, Crawford 2 1 5, Price 4 0 10, Howard-Morrison 2 1 5, Marshall 3 0 6. Totals: 18 2 42.

Halftime: Elder 26-13; 3-pointers: E 1 (Johnson); W 4 (Price 2, Perkins, Cranford).

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: OHSAA boys basketball: Elder, Moeller, Hamilton advance to regionals