DAYTON, Ohio — Jack Zapolnik scored a team-high 14 points and Michael Lamirand made three triples as Cleveland St. Ignatius fought off Centerville 66-56 in the OHSAA Division I boys’ basketball state championship game at UD Arena on Sunday.
Cleveland St. Ignatius (26-3), which has made the semifinal round in three of the past four years, won its first state title since 2001.
“It’s an amazing feeling,” Cleveland St. Ignatius head coach Cam Joyce said. “You talk about the sacrifices these guys have made all year long. I’m so proud of them, man. We fought tooth and nail to get this.”
The Elks (20-9) led by as many as three points late in the second quarter. Cleveland St. Ignatius finished the first half on a 9-0 run and stretched its lead to 30-24 at halftime.
Centerville cut the deficit down to 30-28 at the start of the third quarter after Baboucarr Njie laid in a score and Jonathan Powell followed with another in transition.
But a 13-3 run coupled with the Elks shooting 30% in the third quarter gave Cleveland St. Ignatius a 45-32 lead entering the fourth.
“Just be us and don’t let them dictate the tempo,” Cleveland St. Ignatius senior Reece Robinson said. “We didn’t want that to happen this game, and we showed that.”
The Wildcats shot 62.5% in the fourth quarter led by seven points from Matt Ellis.
Zapolnik shot 4-of-7 from the field and went 6-for-6 at the free throw line. Ellis finished with 12 points, Lamirand had 11 and Robinson totaled 10.
“I think we showed that we’re the best team in the state,” Joyce said. Centerville made its fourth-straight trip to the state semifinal.
Powell led all scorers with 17 points on 6-of-21 shooting along with 11 rebounds. Eli Greenberg had 15 points and Ethan Greenberg scored 11.
“I think the best thing about this group is that they came together late in the season and figured things out, started to play for each other, and tried to play Centerville basketball the way we want to play it,” Centerville head coach Brook Cupps said. “It was cool to see the progression of the group over the course of the season and see that they were kind of buying into the selflessness that we try to get our guys to play with.”