Urbana to face season’s stiffest test vs. Trotwood in district finals

Urbana played many strong nonconference opponents in regular season, including state-ranked teams in Alter and Versailles. But the Hillclimbers have a challenge unlike any other waiting in a Division II district final on Wednesday.

Urbana (15-9) faces Trotwood-Madison (23-2) at 5:30 p.m. in the first of three district finals at UD Arena. The Rams were ranked second in the final state poll and average over 91 points per game. They've rolled over nearly every opponent, with the exception of losses against Prolific Prep (Calif.) and Sidney.

“We’ve played a pretty tough schedule to get to this point,” Urbana coach Jeremy Dixon said. “… But none of those teams are Trotwood. But I don’t think we’ll be shocked when we play a team of that caliber.”

Torrey Patton, Myles Belyeu and Amari Davis all average over 16 points per game for Trotwood. As efficient as the Rams have been on offense, their defense has proven just as strong. They’ve held opponents to an average of 55.3 points per game, and they average 15.9 steals and seven blocks.

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“It’s just constant pressure,” Dixon said. “They’re just on you from the opening tip until the game’s over. We’ve really got to limit the live-ball turnovers, because they’re very good at converting in transition. When we force them to miss, we’ve probably got to do the best job we’ve done on the defensive glass.”

Urbana will bring three 6-foot-5 forwards to help with the rebounding effort. Junior Levi Boettcher leads the team with an average of 6.5 rebounds, while Kalen Howell and Riley Emmons average 4.7 and 3.9, respectively. The trio also averages a combined 30.8 points.

“We’ve had a height advantage a lot this year, and we certainly feel we have guys that can compete with them on the glass if we bring it,” Dixon said. “Trotwood has one 6-6 sophomore (Justin Stephens) that plays, and even though they don’t have anyone else that tall, they’re all around 6-2 to 6-4, and they get after it.”

It’s the second year in a row that Urbana has advanced to a district final. Boettcher is the only returning starter from last year’s team, which lost by 12 points to Cincinnati Aiken in the districts. Several other players saw time off the bench in that game, including Jace Underwood, who leads Urbana with an average of 16.2 points this season.

The Hillclimbers lost three out of their last five regular season games, and Dixon said their run through the Springfield sectional shows the team’s resiliency.

“We’ve had some losses this year, but every time that happened, we did not have to convince our guys to keep working,” Dixon said. “They came back ready to go every time. This is something they wanted. A lot of these guys were kind of on the bench last year for the district run, so they wanted to be there themselves and play.”

The other two D-II district finals on Wednesday are Cincinnati Taft vs. Carroll at 7:30 and Dunbar vs. Cincinnati Wyoming at 9:30.


WEDNESDAY’S GAME

Urbana vs. Trotwood, 5:30 p.m. at UD Arena

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