Ross (13-10) has won three in a row, including a 63-46 regular season finale victory against Edgewood (10-13) last Friday.
“It’s one of those games obviously where we’re very familiar with each other,” Rams coach David Lane said. “It’s a rivalry game. You can throw the records out the window. You can throw where you’re playing out the window — whatever the case may be. It’s going to be a battle.”
The Cougars took the first contest during the regular season 46-42 on Jan. 25 at Ron Kash Court.
“We lost to them earlier when we played them, which was tough,” said Voegele, a senior. “That was a bad one. But we came back, faced adversity and got it done.
“We faced a lot of adversity in the first half tonight. We didn’t play very well. We came out better in the second half. We continued to face adversity head on, and that’s what good, great young men do.”
Ross plays top seed Aiken at 6 p.m., Tuesday, at Western Brown in a district semifinal.
Juniors Amir Cannedy (12 points), Tyson Daley (11) and Keegan Sullivan (10) contributed on the offensive end for Edgewood, which led 14-13 after one quarter.
“Ross played a great game,” Cougars coach Jason Osterman said. “It’s two in a row they put on us now, which hurts. But contrary to Friday, I thought our guys showed up tonight, and I thought we played really hard. It kind of just got away from us there towards the end of the third quarter where they were hitting shots — and we weren’t.
“I thought we were getting good looks. We just weren’t finishing. Before you know it, they were hitting a bunch of 3s in a row.”
Ross took a 26-24 advantage into the halftime break before gradually pulling away in the second half.
Hendricks scored the first eight points of the fourth quarter — which were his only points — to give the Rams a boost.
“He gave us a little bit of breathing room,” Lane said. “But all of our guys stepped up big time.”
Lane credited senior forward Mason Smith for providing Ross some early momentum with eight first-half points.
“He did a great job of making plays around the rim and finishing at the rim,” Lane said of Smith. “He kept us in the flow of the game and not letting their lead get too big in the first half. He was a very big spark for us in the first half.”
Play of the game
Rams senior guard Will Schaefer knocked down a 3-pointer at the third-quarter buzzer on a play that wasn’t even designed for him to take the shot. That gave Ross a 39-32 lead heading into the fourth.
“That was a big play,” Lane said. “We drew something up, and they did a good job of taking it away. That’s a play where having a guy like Will Schaefer — who is our X-factor that does everything for us — was able to make something happen. That’s a huge game-changing momentum shot, and I expect nothing less from a kid like that.”
“We made some big plays down the stretch in the second half,” Voegele chimed in. “That’s what we’ve got to do in games like that.”
Schaefer finished with 15 points while going 6 of 7 from the free throw line.
Edgewood brings everyone back for next season except Christian Harley, who graduates this year and “did a lot of good things for us,” Osterman said.
AIKEN 82, TALAWANDA 45
Cale Leitch scored a team-high 15 points and Brayden Douglas added 10 in the Brave’s Division III season-ending tournament loss to the Falcons on Wednesday night.
Aiken led 18-7 after the first quarter and 39-24 at the half. Jaiden Arnold scored a game-high 16 points for the Falcons, who outscored the Brave 43-21 in the second half to close it out.
Talawanda finished 6-16 and graduates seniors Adam Kolb, Sam Lippmann and Leitch.
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