The Middies shot just over 32 percent from the floor — slightly better than its 29 percent effort in last Friday’s loss to Moeller — and it led to a season-ending 57-50 loss to Woodward on Wednesday, March 3, in the Division I sectional semifinals at Xavier University’s Cintas Center.
The Middies (13-8) were 18-of-56 from the floor and missed “ 21 layups,” according to Ronai.
“You just can’t miss the amount of shots we did and expect to win,” Ronai said. “There’s no excuse for that. We’ve got to make those.”
The Bulldogs (14-6) didn’t do anything spectacular to shut down Middletown, but they didn’t do anything to hurt themselves either. They were quick up the floor in transition and limited the Middies’ offensive rebounding.
“We were just trying to be aggressive,” said Woodward coach Lannis Timmons, who said he was an assistant coach at Middletown for 10 years under Butch Carter, Ron Smith and Jay Byrne. “This was a bittersweet win because of my time in Middletown, but I had seen them play Colerain twice and felt we matched up with them well.”
Woodward led most of the game, but never got more than an eight-point lead at 32-24, which came early in the third period. From there, Middletown clawed its way back to a 32-32 tie a few minutes later and stayed within three or four points the rest of the way, but never had that same kind of offensive spurt again.
“They are a good team and did a good job,” Ronai said. “But we had opportunities to score and didn’t.
“The difference was they capitalized on the offensive boards and we didn’t,” Ronai continued, mentioning one particular instance in the second half where Woodward missed a free throw, but got another possession because the ball went out of bounds off Middletown. “I think that typified the whole night for us.”
Senior forward Mervin Taylor had a game-high 21 points to lead the Bulldogs, who also got 11 points and 12 rebounds from senior Jeremiah Chancellor. Trent Donald added 10 points in the win.
Junior center Kirby Wright had a double-double for the Middies with 14 points and 10 boards. Anthony Strother and Geovonie McKnight had 11 and 10 points respectively.
The loss was obviously a disappointment for Ronai and his team.
“There were still good points to the season,” Ronai said. “I had some other coaches tell me they were surprised we had 13 wins with all the injuries we had, but I would have liked to had 14 wins tonight.
“I felt we were right there,” he continued. “But we were just trying to do too much with the ball and then we’d lose it. It was more of us beating ourselves and that’s frustrating.”
Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2852 or sweaver@coxohio.com.
About the Author