“I got boomed,” the Badin junior guard smirked. “But it didn’t faze me at all.”
Stroud went on to score a game-high 17 points and the third-seeded Rams took care of the No. 13 Woodward Bulldogs 58-35 in a Division III tournament opener at Princeton.
Badin faces Greater Catholic League Coed rival McNicholas in a district semifinal Wednesday at 6 p.m. at Princeton. The Rams (17-6) have won three in a row and five of their last six.
“This is the best time of the year,” Badin coach CJ Fleming said. “We just wanted to come out and win. It’s win or go home. We wanted to get after it defensively.
“We’re just happy with a win. You’ve got to take them at this point in the year. Now we’ve got a big challenge with playing McNick next week.”
Woodward (3-18) banked two shots in to start things off, but Badin took an 11-7 advantage into the second quarter and never relinquished the lead.
“We knew they were going to shoot some crazy shots,” Fleming said. “So we knew we had to go after the boards. Rebounding and defense are always our emphasis. It was a huge emphasis the last couple of days.”
Cooper Ollis scored 13 points for the Rams, who led 27-13 at the half. Badin owned its largest lead at 50-25 in the first couple minutes of the fourth quarter.
The Rams shook off some recent illnesses to shoot 20 of 48 (42%) and record 12 steals.
“We’ve been facing adversity all year,” Stroud said. “We had a bunch of dudes sick last week, so our focus was just to get healthy this week.
“We were thinking that we haven’t taken two losses in a row this season. Well, we lost practice yesterday. We had a horrible practice, so we couldn’t lose tonight.”
The takeaway
Badin was able to empty the bench in the second half while holding a sizeable lead.
“I really did like how I was able to get everybody in,” Fleming said. “We got everybody some time. We had some new faces who haven’t played at this level in the tournament. Getting them a little bit of run was really, really nice. Getting the young guys in at the end of the bench was really cool.”
In the know
Badin beat McNicholas in both meetings during the regular season. The Rams won 51-41 at home on Dec. 13 and 55-49 in overtime on the road Jan. 31. ... The Rockets defeated Mount Healthy 72-52 on Thursday. ... McNicholas (12-11) has won five of its last six.
About the Author