Summit Wins D3 State Championship

Cincinnati has a state trophy coming back to the city again this year as the Summit Country Day Silver Knights won their first Ohio State Championship in boys basketball in school history with a convincing 16 points victory over the Portsmouth Trojans in the D3 title game….. Celebration Photos

Summit 53 Portsmouth 37: A focused Silver Knights team jumped out an 11-2 lead after the first quarter behind some great defensive energy, forcing Portsmouth into contested jumpers and turnovers, leading to a comfortable victory for the State Championship. Summit would lead by eight at the half and first extend the lead to double figures moments into the third quarter behind 7 straight points, and an assist, from junior guard Kevin Johnson. “KJ” had one of the better games of his storied career totaling 11 points and 8 assists in the game and making it look easy as he blew by Trojan defenders off the dribble. With Portsmouth making a run to cut the margin to just five it was sophomore guard Antonio Woods, of Summit, who hit the biggest shot of the game. Woods nailed a three at the buzzer to end the third quarter, re-extending Summit’s lead back to eight headed into the final period. The star point guard’s play was extremely gutsy considering he was unable to start, and almost unable to play, due to a knee injury that he suffered in the semifinal game. The Knights then opened the third quarter with four more points, all by senior center Holden Hertzel, to put any doubts to rest. Sophomore forward Mike Barwick provided the dagger for Summit with just 2:06 remaining as his hoop plus the foul gave the Knights their biggest lead at 48-30. For the game Summit got 11 points from Johnson and Barwick, 9 points from defensive stopper and junior guard Jake Rawlings, 8 points from Woods, and 7 points from both Hertzel and senior sharpshooter Tommy Kreyenhagen. Portsmouth was led by the 16 points of Zaide Whitley and the 13 points of Dion McKinley in the loss. The win gave Summit their first ever State Championship and head coach Mike Bradley couldn’t have been more proud after the game, complimenting the team on their desire, attention to detail, and team togetherness. Bradley was particularly complimentary of Kevin Johnson, saying that the guard could easily have averaged 25 points somewhere else but chose to play within the Summit system, where he took just eleven shots a game and was still the most dominating player in the Division III State Tournament.