The Warriors beat the Elks 52-50 on Dec. 7 and 35-30 on Feb. 7 when Njie was injured. To say the Elks figured it out would be an understatement. The Elks dominated the first half 35-7 with hot shooting and a stingy zone defense and cruised in the second half to a 74-42 victory.
âThey knocked down shots early and I think it gave them tons of confidence and tons of momentum, and you could see them feeling good about themselves,â Wayne coach Nathan Martindale said.
Centerville coach Brook Cupps didnât expect a 28-point halftime lead. But heâs had a growing suspicion the past couple weeks that his young team was about to play like a mature one.
âWe figured out who we really were, and guys really bought into roles over the last two weeks,â Cupps said. âWeâre just different. Itâs hard to explain.â
The top-seeded Elks (14-11) will play for a second straight district title at 6 p.m. Sunday, March 8, at the Cintas Center in Cincinnati against upstart Lakota West (15-11), a No. 14 seed who beat No. 6 Cincinnati Princeton 81-71.
âMost of those guys donât have any idea what districts are,â Cupps said. âSome of that youth is a good thing. They donât know any better, so just go play.â
Njie said the team has the lofty goal of winning the state title, but early on he wasnât sure how this season would unfold.
âAt first I thought it was going to be a struggle,â he said. âBut as the season went on and watching them practice and how much work they wanted to put in and invest into the team, they definitely showed me that they wanted to be here.â
Wayne (13-12) lost in the sectional final for the second straight year. This loss will hurt for a while, but Martindale isnât down on his young team.
âItâs a 32-minute game, and I donât think that defines who you are,â he said. âAnd I donât think thatâs going to define us moving forward, but weâve got to get back to work. Weâre not going to quit. Weâre going to continue to fight.â
The Elks have grown up around Njie with freshman guard Gabe Cupps running the offense and teammates like Rich Rolf, Tom House, Jayson Hayes, Drew Thompson, Kebba Njie and others learning their roles. On Friday, Cupps scored 20 points, Rolf scored 13, Mo Njie scored 11, blocked and altered shots and dominated the boards, and Hayes scored nine.
âAll of them love to play with each other,â Mo Njie said. âAt no time did we go our separate ways. They do everything together.â
Njie has even seen House, a sophomore, join him as a leader.
âTom is always getting us in huddles and keeping us together because one of our core values is unified,â Njie said. âSo being tough and together is the main thing.â
The Elks entered the game averaging 52.1 points a game. But in their past four games they are averaging 73.7.
âI knew we werenât going to be like this at the beginning of the year,â Coach Cupps said. âI was hoping we would be like this by the end.â
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