From cleveland.com:
About the Elks: Since the OHSAA moved its state championships to Dayton, Centerville has been a constant presence. Coach Brook Cupps returns for a fourth season, but for the first time without his son and former Mr. Basketball winner, Gabe Cupps, who is now at Indiana. “I don’t know how good we are, but we’re playing our best basketball right now,” said the coach, who has leaned on Powell (20.3 points per game) and 6-7 Baboucarr Njie with junior guard Eli Greenberg. They beat Moeller twice this season, including last Saturday’s 70-69 win in overtime at St. Xavier in Cincinnati. It marked a second time the Elks beat Moeller, the top-ranked team in the
final Associated Press state poll. “I think a lot of people looked at this team as not being on the level of teams from the last two years,” said Cupps who added that even his own team made those comparisons. This team has size, including five players at 6-4 or taller, which could be crucial against Whitmer. “The guys who rebound it and get those extra shots for those guards,” Cupps said of the Panthers. “They rebound it so well. But you have to slow those other two down (junior guard Antione West and sophomore Andre Young III). You have to make them defend some. We play a really good schedule, and they’re two of the best guards we’ll see.”
About the Panthers: In a strange twist, the last time Whitmer made it to a final four in 2012, it had to go through current coach Anthony Stacey when he led Medina to regionals. He has steadily grown the Whitmer program, which should remain a state power next season. Only one of his five starters is a senior, and they are led by junior standout Antione West. A 6-3 guard, West holds scholarship offers that include Ohio State, Penn State, Arizona State and Toledo. Dayton and Xavier are interested, too, as he led the Panthers with 19.7 points per game this season. He took the final perimeter shot Saturday against the Bulldogs before 6-2 junior Makhi Leach tried to putback his shot at the rim and Napoleon Jemison had positioning to tip that back and beat the buzzer. “It was fortunate for us that we were on the side of the tip in,” Stacey said. “The game was back and forth. We made some mistakes and were careless with the basketball and fouled their 3-point shooters twice.” Whitmer also benefited from a controversial fouling situation in which West, who scored a game-high 21 points,
appeared to commit his fifth foul in the final three minutes but was charged with only four fouls. Despite it, Whitmer’s only losses this season have come to Findlay. “We had a few hiccups there, getting beat by the same team twice,” Stacey said. “We lost two years in a row in the district finals and were able to get over the hump this year.”
About the Wildcats: In five seasons as St. Ignatius’ coach, Cam Joyce has now guided the Wildcats to three state semifinals. They just missed another run last year with a 38-37 loss to Garfield Heights in the regional semifinals but came back to Kent State as the No. 1 overall seed in the Northeast District and ran past Massillon Jackson before rallying to beat Brunswick,
46-43, on Friday night last week for a regional crown. The journey has
come full circle for St. Ignatius, which made a point to begin its summer at Dayton for a team camp. Junior guard Quinn Woidke has emerged for a team that could have brought back three starting guards from that 2022 run, before Ace Buckner (La Lumiere), C.J. Little (Garfield Heights) and Carter Jackson (Garfield Heights) transferred out the last two seasons. Joyce reloaded and didn’t lose a beat with not only Woidke, who missed most of last season because of injury, but senior point guard Jack Zapolnik. With senior Matt Ellis off the bench, they have complemented a big front line led by 6-foot-10 junior Damon Friery and 6-8 Reece Robinson. Both are Division I college prospects, with Robinson headed to Cleveland State, and are playing without injured 6-7 senior Sam Springer. An Air Force commit, Springer had surgery on his foot the day of the regional final. In his place, Joyce called up senior Mike Lamirand to the starting lineup. Throughout the season, Joyce said he considered Lamirand and Ellis to be sixth and seventh starters. That has been put to the test, which St. Ignatius has passed, thus far in the tournament. “We had a tough schedule,” Joyce said Tuesday during an OHSAA teleconference. “I think we were ranked in a lot of polls as having the toughest schedule in the state.” He thinks that paid dividends for this postseason. One of those wins included a 94-92 win in double overtime on Jan. 13 at Centerville. The Wildcats forced the first overtime in that one on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer by Woidke.
About the Pacers: The only team not to have a down-to-the-wire regional final, Delaware Hayes raced past Olentangy Orange on Saturday last week at Ohio Dominican with a 74-56 victory. Both teams came in with just one loss. “It was a high level game, as you’d expect for No. 1 vs. No. 2 in Central Ohio,” Hayes coach Adam Vincenzo said. The Pacers are making their first trip to the state semifinals, led by senior 6-4 senior guard Jesse Burris. He is an Ohio University signee and averaged 16.1 points with 6.5 rebounds and 3.5 assists on the season. He also is a four-year starter. “We handed him the keys as a freshman,” Vincenzo said. “We were kind of rebuilding when he was a freshman. It was a process these last four years, and we had a vision leading to his senior year.” They also added Landon Vanderwarker as a transfer last year from Northside Christian. A 6-7 junior forward, Vanderwarker had 16 points and 12 rebounds in the win vs. Orange. He made the All-Ohio first team last season in Division IV and has seven Division I college scholarship offers. Vanderwarker could be the X-factor for the Pacers in their matchups with Friery and Robinson.