DaytonDailyNews.com

DAYTON — It was nearly the collapse of their careers. It was almost the meltdown of their season.

Almost doesn't count.

The Thurgood Marshall Cougars saw two huge leads slip away, but rode one final scoring wave to a 67-59 victory over Cincinnati Roger Bacon for one of three boys high school Division II district championships at UD Arena on Wednesday night, March 11.

Greg Gainey unleashed a "double-double" — 19 points and 10 rebounds — while Juwan Staten added 15 points, Shawn Robinson 13 and DeAngelo Gates 10 as the Cougars (19-4) reached the "Sweet 16." They'll face Wilmington in a regional semifinal at 8 p.m. March 19 at Xavier University's Cintas Center.

"This is just huge for our program," Marshall coach John N. Ralph said about his 2-year-old school formerly known as Colonel White. "It's a positive step. We tried to give it away four or five times, but our guys came through when we needed them most."

To reach Columbus for the state tournament, the Cougars need to play more like they did when building leads of 27-11 and 44-30, not like they did when Roger Bacon stormed back to within 29-28 at 7:08 of the third quarter and 56-55 with 2:17 to go.

Marshall had no answer for Roger Bacon freshman Adolphus Washington. The bruising 6-foot-6 center poured in 27 points and single-handedly kept the Spartans in the game.

Staten, the junior point guard who has committed to the Dayton Flyers, stepped forward at the perfect time. He scored six straight points for the Cougars for a six-point cushion (62-56) with 52.8 seconds to go. Just enough breathing room.

"We got big leads, then started making mistakes," Ralph said.