Bennett re-found his shooting touch at just the right second and knocked down a game-winner as time expired in overtime to beat Wayne 60-58 in a boys Division I high school basketball regional semifinal at Xavier University’s Cintas Center on Wednesday night.
The win vaults Trotwood (24-2) into Friday’s 7 p.m. regional final against Moeller (24-1), which beat Middletown 53-50 in Wednesday’s other regional semi. Friday’s winner advances to next week’s state final four at Columbus.
Bennett, among the area’s scoring leaders, was mired in a 6-for-20 shooting slump against Wayne. Even when he drove as instructed against the Warriors, he often clanged point-blank finger-rolls.
But none of that mattered as the final seconds of OT ticked off. He snared the ball at midcourt, drove to the right baseline and banked in the winner from about 18 feet over 6-foot-7 Wayne defender Ahmad Wagner.
“I was thinking the whole time, please miss that,” reflected Wayne’s D’Mitrik Trice, whose two free throws forced OT and two more tied it at 58-all. “It looked good. He has amazing balance and just levitated over Ahmad.”
Trice’s father Travis, the Warriors’ head coach, was even more to the point.
“(Bennett’s) a great player,” he said. “I knew he wasn’t going to continue to miss shots.”
Bennett finished with a team-high 19 points. Kieran Winn added 11 points and Kendric Mallory 10 for the Rams.
Trice led Wayne (21-5) with 20 points. Xeyrius Williams added 14 points and Wagner 10 for the Warriors.
Incredibly, Wayne’s much taller front line of Wagner and the 6-6 Williams were the difference-makers in a staggering 58-21 advantage in rebounds. Wagner had 23. That’s how the Warriors overcame Trotwood’s early 13-point advantage.
“It doesn’t matter who we play, we’re gonna be out-sized,” admitted Rockhold. “There’s not a team left in the state who doesn’t have bigger kids than what we have. So we’ve got to turn the (defensive) pressure up.”
But Trotwood offset that key stat discrepancy by harassing Wayne into 34 turnovers, easily the most for the Warriors all season.
“We just didn’t take care of the ball,” said Travis Trice.
The regional final will mark the first time Trotwood has ventured that deep into the postseason since placing runner-up to state champ Canton McKinley in 2006. Trotwood also lost in the 2007 and ’08 regional semifinals.
“It means a lot to the Trotwood community and our kids,” Rockhold said. “It just means a ton to everybody who’s involved in our program.”
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