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Wayne holds off resilient Northmont

Thunderbolts stage comeback but can’t complete the rally in key GWOC game.

Wayne junior guard Travis Trice is all alone under the basket after a fast break during game Friday, Jan. 15, against Northmont at Wayne High School.

Staff photo by Jan Underwood Wayne junior guard Travis Trice is all alone under the basket after a fast break during game Friday, Jan. 15, against Northmont at Wayne High School.

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By Greg Billing, Staff Writer Updated 3:09 AM Saturday, January 16, 2010

With its win Friday, Jan. 15, Wayne High School’s boys basketball team gave itself a little more breathing room in the Greater Western Ohio Conference.

Good thing. The Warriors, who pride themselves on wearing opponents down, instead found themselves winded in an up-tempo win over Northmont, 69-66.

And fittingly, Wayne had to survive Northmont’s last-gasp effort. Steve Newell’s 3-pointer with seven seconds left pulled the Thunderbolts to 68-66. But with Northmont out of timeouts, Wayne ran off valuable seconds before in-bounding the ball, and Northmont managed to foul with 0.9 seconds left to all but end the game.

“As a coach I’ll take the win,” Wayne’s Travis Trice said, “but there are not very many areas of the game I am happy with. We didn’t progress tonight.”

Wayne (9-1, 4-0 GWOC Central Division) entered ranked No. 1 in the DDN’s Division I ratings. Northmont (8-4, 2-2 GWOC Central) was ranked No. 4.

The Thunderbolts never led and trailed by as many as 12 points in the first half.

But the T-Bolts — who trailed 65-54 with 1:45 left in the game — saw Newell strike twice with 3-pointers. His trey with 22 seconds left made it 67-63, and after Wayne made one of two free throws, he nailed that second trey with seven seconds left.

“I’m really proud of my kids because we never, ever gave up,” Northmont coach Jim Brown said. “We had all kinds of opportunities to say we’re not going to win this game, but we kept battling and battling.”

Newell scored a game-high 27 points, including 5-of-6 3-pointers. Teammate Zach Newsome was strong inside with 12 points and 14 rebounds.

“This was a good test for us. We came into a tough environment and could have won,” Brown said. “I told the guys your goal ought to be a district championship. They are capable of doing that.”

Travis Trice II led Wayne with 18 points and Xavier Jones added 14.

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