Dunbar boys win D-II state title game

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Dunbar High School’s boys basketball team won its fifth state championship Saturday by beating Elida 54-52 at the Schottenstein Center in Columbus. This is the first time the Wolverines have finished a championship season undefeated:

COLUMBUS — Andre Yates didn’t have time to think about his place in Dunbar basketball history. That would come later.

“I felt like it was in my hands,” said Yates, who raced up court following a missed free throw and long outlet pass and nailed a banker in the final seconds to beat Elida 54-52 and win the boys high school basketball Division II state championship Saturday.

“Afterward, you start to think, was it destiny? The ball comes to me wide open on my left-hand side. It just felt like, it’s your turn to put the team on your back and close the game out for the team.”

After Dunbar pressured Elida sophomore Dakota Mathias into missing a half-court buzzer heave, its fifth state title was secure. Even better, it put the finishing touch on a 28-0 season, the first perfect run by any Wolverines team.

Dunbar seemed to be a heavy favorite, but Elida (24-4) was in great position to rock the Wolverines’ world after mounting a 35-24 lead early in the third quarter. Sparking the Bulldogs was deep-ball threat Reggie McAdams, who scored a game-high 24 points and buried four 3-pointers.

But like they had all season, the Wolverines cranked up the defensive heat and answered with a game-changing 20-0 run. By then, the 11,773 who packed The Ohio State University’s Schottenstein Center knew what they were witnessing: Dunbar history.

“Every game is like that,” Dunbar coach Pete Pullen said. “We’ll have a spurt in one of the quarters and that’s how we’ll win the game.”

Trailing 52-51, Elida went to McAdams in the final seconds. His leaner in the lane missed, but he was fouled. His first free throw with 11.8 seconds left rattled home to pull the teams even. But the second bounced high off the rim. Yates corralled the miss and raced into Dunbar history.

“Once I saw the miss, you panic a little bit,” said McAdams, a 6-foot-6 super senior who’s headed to the University of Akron to play basketball. He also was Elida’s quarterback and guided the Bulldogs into the D-III state semifinals against Springfield Shawnee.

“It hurts coming that close on a last-second drive.”

Had there been overtime, Dunbar would have been hurting. Already fouled out were power frontliners Deontae “Teddy” Hawkins (14 points, 12 rebounds) and Gary Akbar (10 points).

Junior Damarion Geter added 11 points for Dunbar, and Yates had 10. Mathias had 16 points for Elida.

Ironically, the Bulldogs were strong at the line, converting 19 of 21 free throws. But their last miss was fateful.

“It was like, wow,” Yates said of McAdams’ miss.

“For him to miss that free throw, honestly, I was surprised. That’s the flow of the game. Things happen.”

It was fitting that Yates would provide the winning heroics. The senior transfer from Trotwood-Madison had set winning a state title as his and his teammates’ ultimate goal.

“He came here with a purpose,” Pullen said of Yates.

“He wanted to win state. That was our goal all year long. We talked about it every day.”

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2381 or mpendleton@DaytonDailyNews.com.