by COLUMBUS, Ohio- In a game that saw five different lead changes, it was Cincinnati Moeller that found themselves hoisting the Division I state championship trophy for the second consecutive year.
The Crusaders outscored the Fighting Irish by seven points in the fourth quarter to edge out a 52-44 victory, finishing off a 29-0 season.
“They’re in the history books for Ohio basketball and that’s something they will carry with them forever,” Cincinnati Moeller head coach Carl Kremer said after his team won 57 of its last 58 games played.
St. Vincent-St. Mary came out and started the game off strong, ultimately building an eight-point lead with less than two minutes left in the first quarter. Moeller would struggle shooting the ball to start off, sinking just three of their first 10 shots, but ended the first quarter down by a score of 11-8.
Moeller would slow down the Fighting Irish, limiting them to just two field goals in the second quarter. The Crusaders gained a 9-6 advantage during the first five minutes of the second quarter and both teams would go scoreless the rest of the way, resulting in a tie game at 17 heading into halftime.
With the Fighting Irish controlling most of the game in the first half, that forced coach Kremer to switch things up on the offensive end. He tried to employ an offense that would be able to open up the game for the Crusaders.
They did just that. With two minutes left to play in the third quarter, Moeller took their first lead since the first quarter and ended up with a one-point lead heading into the fourth quarter.
Free throw shooting and efficient shots headlined the Moeller fourth quarter. The Crusaders finished the fourth quarter sinking 7-of-11 free throws while knocking down 7-of-12 shots from the floor to really put the game out of reach for the Fighting Irish.
With the team up five with under 50 seconds to play in the game, senior forward Alec Pfriem converted an And-1 layup to push the Crusader lead to seven points with 22 seconds left.
Moments later, Pfriem found himself celebrating in front of the team’s student section after the buzzer rang throughout The Schottenstein Center.
Pfriem finished with a team-high 19 points during the win. Senior guard Miles McBride and Michael Shipp rounded out the scoring with 16 and 9 points, respectively, for the back-to-back Division I state champions.
For St. Vincent-St. Mary, sophomore guard Seth Wilson led the team with 19 points and three rebounds. Lunden McDay had 9 points with three others scoring four points during the loss.
Despite suffering just their fourth loss of the season, Fighting Irish head coach Dru Joyce was proud of the way his team fought throughout the game. After getting to their first state championship game at the Division I level due to competitive balance, Joyce remains confident in his team’s ability to learn from this experience.
“This isn’t the end,” Joyce murmured. “We’ll be back.”
