Catholic Central held Cedarville to just two points in the fourth quarter en route to a 61-43 victory on Tuesday night at Jason Collier Gymnasium in Springfield.
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“It’s great seeing all of our hard work finally pay off — again,” Dunn said. “We knew after last year that we were supposed to win. This year, we had a lot of high expectations coming in and fulfilling them means a lot.”
The Senior Night win clinched Catholic Central’s second straight title with three division games remaining. It had been 31 years since the Irish last won back-to-back conference championships, a feat even the 1996 state champion Irish didn’t accomplish.
Catholic Central coach Cody Sarensen could see the talent when he arrived in Springfield three seasons ago. Last year, the Irish experienced success for the first time, winning the school’s first league title in 17 years and advancing to the D-IV regional semifinals. Sarensen knew it would be even more difficult to repeat.
“I always say it’s easy to get the A,” Sarensen said, “but it’s hard to keep the A. It’s hard to sustain success. With what they were able to do tonight on Senior Night, it was pretty special.”
After the game, the Division IV sixth-ranked Irish cut down the nets sporting conference championship T-shirts with a large crowd of supporters taking photos with their cellphones.
“It was awesome to see all the support we got from the community and the fans,” said senior Sabien Doolittle said. “They’ve been with us all of my high school career. It’s really nice to see all of the hard work paying off, for sure.”
All five senior starters scored in double figures for the Division IV sixth-ranked Irish, who improved to 15-2 and 11-2 in the OHC South.
Peyton Harris had a game-high 17 points, while Dunn scored 12 and Mykah Eichie added 11. Doolittle and Jayden Borden each scored 10 points.
Cedarville junior Colby Cross had 16 points for the Indians (9-9, 7-6), who entered the game having won six of their last eight games — and it showed. Cedarville took a 17-14 first quarter lead on a buzzer beater by sophomore Isaiah Ramey. The Irish tied the game at 31 at the half on a buzzer-beating putback by Borden.
The Irish opened the second half on a 15-6 run, stifling the Indians with a 3-2 zone. Central led 48-41 at the start of the fourth quarter and wouldn’t allow another basket until the final minute.
“I thought we did well against the zone late in the (second quarter),” said Indians coach Ryan Godlove. “Usually, our eyes get big when a team goes zone. We were hoping they’d stay in the zone, but we went cold in the third quarter. Our lack of hitting shots and their offensive rebounding was the difference in the game.”
The Irish have four games remaining in the regular season, including three division games against Greenon, Greeneview and Southeastern. They also play a nonconference game against Clark County rival Shawnee.
“We need to continue to get better,” Sarensen said. “We’ve got tournament coming up, so you never know what’s going with seedings and the draw. We’ve got to do our own business and get ready for that.”
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