Unbeaten in the regular season last season, the loss dropped Wayne to 7-2. Its other loss was 61-54 to Buford (Ga.) in a three-game Arby’s Classic set at Bristol, Tenn., during the holiday break.
That snapped a streak of 30 consecutive games over two seasons the Warriors lost to an Ohio team in the regular season. The last to do that was host Centerville in the 2014-15 regular-season finale, another 73-69 OT thriller. Wayne responded by going 8-0 in the postseason to finish that year with its first Division I state championship.
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“The thing we’re figuring out is this isn’t the (Wayne) team of two years ago or last year,” Warriors coach Travis Trice said. “We’ve got some guys who our coming into their first minutes of varsity time and it’s going to take some time to figure some things out. I like the group that I have and I wouldn’t want to play us later in the year.”
Here’s why: Wayne is a combined 93-15 over the last four seasons and hasn’t won less than 21 games in that span. District finals, regionals and that state title back those words.
Wayne was scheduled to host Lima Senior on Saturday and is at Meadowdale on Tuesday. High-scoring junior transfer Darius Quisenberry (Tecumseh) will become eligible for the Jan. 13 game at Springfield after sitting out half of the regular season, as required by the OHSAA. The next night Wayne will play national power Huntington Prep (W.Va.) in the Premier Health Flyin' to the Hoop at Fairmont's Trent Arena on Saturday, Jan. 14 (8:15 p.m.).
Despite Northmont’s great upset victory, recent seasons reveal Wayne’s still the team to beat.
“You had some great guards and great bigs and high energy,” Trice said of the Northmont loss. “It was high paced and knock-down, drag-out the entire game from the start. Credit and hats off to them. We’ll learn from it and get ready to go.”
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