A year ago, the Falcons fell to the Irish 76-44 on the road. They lost 65-63 on Saturday on a tip-in with five seconds remaining.
“(Last year) we just played timid and were passive,” Cupps said. “Our kids did a good job playing the way we play and played our style. We showed toughness. I couldn’t fault their effort.”
Graham turned the ball over just eight times in the game. Nick VanHoose had 40 points for the Falcons (8-1), nailing six 3-pointers.
“He was really efficient,” Cupps said. “It’s not like he took a ton of shots. He got a lot of good shots within our offense, and it helped us control the tempo.”
The Irish are just 6-6 on the season, but Cupps said they’ve played a national schedule.
“I don’t think there’s any doubt they can compete for a state championship in Division II,” Cupps said.
The game will help the Falcons prepare for the upcoming postseason in many different ways. It also gives them the confidence they can play against anyone.
“For us, it reinforces what we try to tell our kids,” Cupps said. “Games like that against really good competition validates some of the stuff we tell them.”
The Falcons dropped to 10th in D-II of this week’s Associated Press poll with the loss.
Also, Greeneview (9-2) is 14th in D-III and Catholic Central (9-1) dropped to seventh in D-IV.
Hard shot
Greeneview junior Evan Bradds took a hard hit to the chest during Saturday’s Ohio Heritage Conference 54-43 overtime loss at Catholic Central.
After the game, he was having trouble breathing and was taken to Springfield Regional Medical Center’s High Street campus. X-rays showed Bradds suffered a bruised sternum.
“He got nailed in the chest on a charge call in the third quarter,” said Rams coach Bill Green. “He had trouble breathing the whole fourth quarter and the overtime.”
Green said he doesn’t know how long he’ll be out. He may be ready to play Friday at Southeastern.
“He’s really sore,” Green said.
Bradds, a sophomore, is averaging 17.0 points and 3.4 assists per game. He’s also shooting 53 percent from the floor and 71 percent from the free throw line.
Streak snapped
The Cedarville boys basketball team snapped a seven-game losing streak with a 51-50 victory over Southeastern on Friday. It was their first victory since beating Xenia Christian on Dec. 5.
The Indians also snapped a seven-game losing streak to the rival Trojans. They hadn’t beaten Southeastern since Jan. 26, 2007. Every loss in that stretch was by double-digits.
No mask
Central’s Hayden Hagerman, the OHC’s leading scorer, suffered a broken nose on Friday at Mechanicsburg. He tried to play with a nose guard on Saturday against Greeneview, but felt uncomfortable. He removed it early in the first quarter.
“I tried to play with it and it started scaring me, so I had to take it off. People were calling me ‘Jason’ (from the Friday the 13th movies),” Hagerman said.
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