Catholic Central had already clinched its share of the title and needed one win in its final three conference games to win the outright championship.
With perseverance and a little help from their conference rivals, the Indians are South Division champions for the second straight season.
Cedarville juniors Nate Van Loo and Brett Haemmerle each scored 15 points as Cedarville overcame a 20-5 first quarter deficit to beat Catholic Central 50-44 on Friday night at Jason Collier Gymnasium in Springfield.
With the victory, the Indians earned a share of the OHC South title. After starting the season 6-7, Cedarville won eight of its last nine games to finish 14-8 and 11-5 in the division.
“I couldn’t be more proud of this group,” Godlove said. “I don’t think a lot of people expected this from us, but the guys in the locker room were like, ‘Coach, this is what we’re about. Our goal is to compete for a conference championship.’ We thought we were out of it, but we told our guys, let’s keep getting better, worry about what we can control and I think we’ve done that. We took care of the things that we can and we got some help.”
Indians junior Will Mossing scored 10 points for Cedarville, which has won three conference titles in the last five seasons.
“We knew we had a great chance to come and get it,” said Ryan Reed, the Indians lone senior. “This is what we worked for all year and we just wanted to keep it going.”
Irish senior Zac Thompson and junior Berkeley Little each had 12 points and junior Keegan Guenther added 10 as Catholic Central (14-8, 11-5) lost its third straight game.
Catholic Central won its fourth Ohio Heritage Conference title in school history (‘17-18, ‘18-19, ‘21-22, ‘24-25). The Irish clinched a share of the title with a win at Triad on Feb. 4, but lost four straight to end conference play.
“At the end of the day, we played so well early on that we built a good enough lead that even if things collapsed — which they did — we still had a chance at the league title,” said Catholic Central coach Matt Mullen. “Obviously, we wanted to win tonight. We wanted to send these seniors out on a better note than we did. I’m super proud of their effort, their coachability. It’s been a joy with this group. They’ve grown so much individually and as a team. I’m so proud of them.”
Little had seven points and Thompson and Guenther each had six in the first quarter as the Irish jumped out to a 20-5 first quarter lead.
The Indians surged back to grab a 26-25 halftime advantage, taking the lead on a steal and layup by Van Loo with about thirty seconds remaining.
Catholic Central regained the lead at 33-29 on a layup by senior Owen Young, but Reed hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to give the Indians a 34-33 lead after three quarters.
The Irish went on a 7-0 run to make it 40-36 with 5:37 remaining, forcing a Cedarville timeout.
Haemmerle scored five straight points to give the Indians a 43-41 lead. With less than a minute remaining, Guenther converted a three-point play to give Catholic Central a 44-43 lead.
Van Loo countered with a driving layup with about 45 seconds remaining to give the Indians the lead for good. The Irish had two possessions to take the lead, but were called for charging twice in the final 30 seconds.
Mossing hit two free throws and Van Loo converted a three-point play in the final moments to seal the game for the Indians.
“We gave a really good effort tonight,” Mullen said. “Sometimes other teams make more shots than you do, especially tough shots, down the stretch. We got the ball where we wanted to and didn’t convert for various reasons. We executed what we wanted to do and our kids were coachable. That’s all you can ask for.”
The Indians were resilient throughout the game and the entire season, Godlove said. They played portions of the season without several key players, including Mossing and sophomore post Nate Terrell, due to injuries.
“We’ve had different guys step up all year when we need them,” Godlove said. “We went down 20-5 and for such a young team, it’s tough to come back in this type of game, but they just didn’t give up. That’s something that we’ve shown all year. Maybe not the first half (of the year), but I think the second half that’s something that we’ve shown we’re capable of.”
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