COLUMBUS: A whole bunch of senior Jayvon Graves and a couple of 10-0 scoring runs propelled St. Vincent-St. Mary to a Division II state championship Saturday at Value City Arena.
Graves scored 25 points and led the Irish to a 45-30 victory over Wauseon before a crowd of 11,928 at Ohio State University.
The victory gave St. V-M its seventh state title, matching Middletown for the most state crowns in the 95-year history of the Ohio boys basketball tournament.
“This means a lot after coming down here two other years, and finally getting it done,” said Graves, who made 10-of-18 shots from the field, including 2-of-5 3-pointers, and 3-of-4 free throws in 30 minutes.
Graves also had seven steals, six rebounds, one assist and one block, and heard chants of “M-V-P, M-V-P, M-V-P” from the Irish student section as he trimmed a piece of net from one of the baskets after hoisting the trophy with his teammates.
“That felt good,” said Graves, a 6-foot-3 University at Buffalo recruit. “It was unreal.”
Wauseon coach Chad Burt described Graves’ play as “very, very impressive.”
Six-foot-3 senior Justin Sampson had six points, eight rebounds and two steals for St. V-M (25-5), and 6-1 senior Jonathan Williams contributed five points and three assists.
“All the hard work paid off,” Williams said. “This is an amazing feeling.”
St. V-M coach Dru Joyce II praised his players for playing with “character and heart,” and also liked that his Irish forced 23 turnovers. St. V-M committed just seven turnovers.
“These guys, I can’t say enough about who they are and how much they give,” Joyce said. “It’s been special, these two [Graves and Williams] especially. ... The will that these guys have shown is impressive.”
Austin Rotroff, a 6-9 junior, paced Wauseon (27-2) with 18 points, nine rebounds and two assists. Six-foot-2 senior Carter Bzovi scored eight points for the Indians.
Wauseon jumped out to a 5-0 lead and held a 12-10 edge at the end of the first quarter. St. V-M then used its full-court pressure to take control of the game.
The Irish erased a 14-12 deficit with a 10-0 run to grab a 22-14 advantage with 2:31 remaining in the second quarter. Graves scored eight of the 10 points, including a two-hand slam dunk, before Rotroff added his own two-hand dunk moments later. Graves added a layup to give him 14 points and to make it 24-16 at halftime.
“We could see that the pressure was getting to them,” Joyce said.
Graves dropped in nine points in the third quarter, including another two-hand dunk, as the Irish extended their lead to 35-26 heading into the fourth quarter.
St. V-M closed out the victory in the final 2½ minutes of the fourth quarter with a flurry of buckets at the rim after Wauseon trimmed its deficit to 35-30. Sophomore Lunden McDay made a layup, Graves dunked, Sampson and senior DeAmonte’ King both made layups and sophomore Jordan Addison capped the scoring with a two-hand dunk.
“That is a good basketball team that we just played,” Burt said. “I thought early on we did a nice job, first quarter specifically, handling the pressure. The second quarter got away from us. The tempo and pace of the game got away from us, but as a whole in the second half we did a much better job and got it where we wanted it.
“They were up five [35-30] and we had a 3 [by Bzovi] rattle in and out. I’d liked to have seen that gone down because I thought they were getting a little bit tight and we were getting more confidence, but it wasn’t meant to be.”
St. V-M made 19-of-47 field goals, including 3-of-13 3-pointers, and 4-8 free throws. Wauseon converted 12-of-28 shots, including 2-of-7 from deep, and 4-of-13 free throws.
“We had a good season and I am proud of these guys,” Burt said. “The reality is we haven’t faced that kind of pressure and that kind of athletes. Obviously, [Columbus] Eastmoor on Thursday presented a challenge like that, but those kids at St. Vincent-St. Mary are just such good basketball players.”
Quick shots
• All 14 of St. V-M’s state tournament appearances have come since 1983. The Irish won a Class AA championship in 1984, Division III titles in 2000 and 2001 and Division II titles in 2003, 2009 and 2011. St. V-M was a runner-up in 2002, 2013 and 2016, and a semifinalist in 1983, 1987, 2006 and 2014. St. Mary won a Class B title in 1929 and St. Vincent was a Class A semifinalist in 1949 before the schools merged in 1972.
• Burt said seven of the eight coaches on the Indians staff are Wauseon graduates, including him. He graduated from Wauseon in 1994 and helped the Indians finish as Division II state runner-up to Cleveland Villa Angela-St. Joseph as a senior.
• Middletown won its seven state titles between 1944 and 1957. VA-SJ enters Saturday with six state titles. VA-SJ won its state semifinal game Friday over Fairland to advance to the Division III final against St. Bernard Roger Bacon at 5:15 p.m. Saturday.
Michael Beaven can be reached at 330-996-3829 or mbeaven@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the #ABJVarsity high school blog at www.ohio.com/preps. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MBeavenABJ.