Northwestern wraps up CBC Mad River title

With one minute left, the chant began: C-B-C, C-B-C.

That hadn’t been heard at a Northwestern boys basketball game since 2006.

When it ended Friday night, the Warriors were 68-55 victors over Indian Lake and owners of the Central Buckeye Conference Mad River Division title.

“I’ve never felt so good,” senior point guard Ryan Cleland said. “To come out and win a CBC title my senior year, there’s nothing like it. It’s incredible.”

The Warriors (14-7, 10-3) ended years of futility in head coach Gerald Embry’s fifth season. When he returned to his alma mater, this year’s six-man senior class had an 0-14 eighth-grade season. On Friday, senior Kurt Waters scored 25 points to get within one point of 1,000. Cleland had 18.

“That first year I was wondering what I signed myself up for,” Embry said as he sat in his office with the net around his neck. “But today the kids made me realize it was great coming back home. This senior class has gotten so much better. They just wanted to be good. I told them what it was going to take, and they bought in.”

The Warriors had a share of the league title coming in, but they needed to beat Indian Lake (12-9, 8-5) to win it outright.

“We wanted to be greedy,” Embry said. “We wanted to win it outright.”

Cleland reminded his teammates of that during the huddle at the end of the third quarter. The Lakers had cut a 33-23 halftime lead to 41-37.

“I said, ‘How bad do you want to see our number on that banner? How bad do you want to see 2017?’” Cleland said. “We’re the only class up there who has won that outright. The other two have tied.”

After the student section stormed the floor and after the net had been cut down, the ladder was moved to the banner and 2017 was placed next to 2004 and 2006. The crowd roared.

In the fourth, the Warriors took control at the free-throw line with eight of 10 points to stretch the lead from 46-43 to 56-46. Waters followed with his second 3-pointer and the lead was 13 with three minutes left.

“It was just defense,” Waters said of the fourth quarter. “We had to stop them from coming back.”

The Warriors had a 10-game winning streak this season, but they lost their past three games. Now they finish their season Tuesday at home against Mechanicsburg. They begin Division III sectional play next Saturday at 6 p.m. as a No. 11 seed vs. No. 13 Northeastern at Northmont High School.

Cleland was one of the first players up the ladder. As he talked after the game, he kept looking at the little piece of net his hand.

“I’m going to hold on to this for a long time,” he said.

And look at that 2017 on that banner every chance he gets.

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