ROSSFORD — Rossford boys basketball ran in transition and in turn ran away with a 71-46 sectional final
win over Rogers at home Friday night.
The Bulldogs found success in transition right from the jump as 6-foot-4-inch senior forward Jamari Croom
put through the first two buckets of the game, including an alley-oop that caused Rogers to take a
timeout two minutes in.
“We felt that if we could rebound, defensively it was going to set the tone and if we could force them to
miss shots and commit turnovers, that will allow us to get in transition and have a ton of confidence
going forward,” Rossford head coach Brian Vorst said.
The good run continued right after Croom’s slam as CamRon Gaston, the Division II Northwest Ohio player
of the year, hit a rare 3. Gaston ended with just five points on the night but had seven assists.
The run got to 9-0 in favor of the Bulldogs to start the game, six of which came from Croom.
For the lack of defense that was shown by Rogers, they had some skilled players on offense who were able
to start trading buckets with Rossford.
Nate Houston and Jordan Kynard started to get going for the Rams, and they trailed 17-7 after one quarter
of play.
The second quarter was the Ben Morrison show. After hitting a 3 in the first quarter, Morrison got six
more, consistently finding lanes to the basket in transition. As the transition play continued,
Rossford’s lead continue to grow and they led 36-18 at the half.
Rossford was sharing the ball nicely in the first half as seven players were able to get on the
scoreboard.
The third quarter mirrored the first two, as Rossford again got in transition, drew fouls and got to the
line. They led 53-25 after three quarters.
In the final quarter Rossford emptied the bench and their reserves competed with Rogers, who left their
starters out for the entirety of the final quarter.
In all, the Bulldogs saw 11 players score and saw nine players record at least one assist. The defense
was solid for them as well, holding an athletic Rams team to 46 points.
“We were just trying to apply as much pressure as we could, just to try to force them to make plays.
Fortunately our defense was stepping up and being pretty stout,” Vorst said.
Leading the way for the Bulldogs was 6-foot-5-inch senior Gavin DeWese, who started earlier in the season
but came off the bench in this one. He had 13 points, mostly coming in the fourth quarter, and added 7
rebounds as well. Three others finished in double figures for the Bulldogs as well as Morrison had 11
while Nick Borojevich and Croom each had 10.
Rogers was led by Mehki Smith, who had 13 points. Houston added 12 points and six rebounds. Kynard
finished with 10 points.
Next up for the Bulldogs will be a district semi-final matchup on Wednesday with Central Catholic at Lake
High School. Tip is set to follow the first game of the evening between Tiffin Columbian and the winner
of Sandusky and Sandusky Perkins.
ROGERS 7 11 7 21 — 46
ROSSFORD 17 19 17 18 — 71
ROGERS
Smith, 2-3-0—13; Houston, 6-0-0—12; Kynard, 2-2-0-—10; Brown, 2-0-0—4; McBeth, 0-0-2—2; House, 0-0-2—2;
Hudspeth, 0-0—0; Holland, 0-0—0. TOTALS: 12-5-4—43
ROSSFORD
DeWese, 5-0-3—13; B. Morrison, 4-1-0—11; Croom, 4-0-2—10; N. Borojevich, 1-1-5—10; J. Morrison, 0-2-0—6;
Gaston, 1-1-0—5; Vorst, 0-0-4—4; L. Borojevich, 1-1-0—5; Bihn, 0-1-0—3; Ellison, 1-0-0—2; Murphee,
1-0-0—2; Williams, 0-0—0; Swope, 0-0—0; Walker, 0-0—0; Linkous, 0-0—0. TOTALS: 18-7-14—71
