Xavier Saturday Evening Standouts

The Cintas Center on the campus of Xavier University was the site of four regional championship games, in this article we'll break down the standout performers from the last two games of the day where Trotwood Madison and Cincinnati Princeton advanced to Dayton!    The best player on the court, Reaves dominated the game offensively with impressive perimeter shot making off the dribble. Knocking down some deep 3-pointers from behind the college line and hitting a tough isolation jumper against a switch, Reaves was getting to his spots and rising up to connect. Badin was unable to keep Reaves out of the paint and he had a couple drop off assists to teammates on the block for easy layups. Great performance by the Rams who fell in this round last season at this same venue.     The top athlete on Badin, Taylor stood out on both ends of the court in his final career basketball game. The future Alabama baseball player had a couple of defensive stocks (steals + blocks) and took a pair of charges. Offensively, Taylor scored multiple times off spin moves and provided rim pressure all game. Badin had balanced scoring all season and got scoring from their core four seniors of Taylor, [player_tooltip player_id='3148641' first='Eli' last='Stroud'], [player_tooltip player_id='3148642' first='Carson' last='Lowe'] and [player_tooltip player_id='2445463' first='Bryson' last='Bowling'] but it wasn't enough in the end.     Princeton played maybe their best defensive game of the year and rolled past conference rival Oak Hills, who knocked them off in the regular season. Gill used his length defensively for blocks and jumping passing lanes. To end the third quarter, Gill had a lefty layup just before the buzzer that was in the middle of Princeton's big run to win the game. Impressive resiliency by Princeton to defeat multiple conference rivals who either beat or took them to the final buzzer in the regular season and have no trouble in March.     Maybe the best overall game I've seen Johnson have in the regular season, Johnson was active all over the court with elite on ball defense, dribble drives to the rim and passes to cutting teammates for layups and dunks. On a team with a ton of scoring talent, having another guard who takes pride in doing the dirty work on both ends of the court. After going 1/9 from the field in the two district games of the playoffs, it's nice to see Johnson build a little confidence as a scorer heading into the state tournament.     The biggest transfer in Ohio this year, Mercer joined Princeton in December and got his feet under him by January. Mercer is a dominant athletic force who is tough to keep off the offensive glass and to stop at the rim. Mercer has the frame to finish through contact and had a monster and-1 layup in the third quarter to extend the Viking's lead. In the fourth quarter, Mercer had a monster dunk off a spin move in the fourth quarter to help put the game away. If Mercer starts to make 3-pointers, Princeton will be incredibly tough to beat in Dayton.

The Cintas Center on the campus of Xavier University was the site of four regional championship games, in this article we'll break down the standout performers from the last two games of the day where Trotwood Madison and Cincinnati Princeton advanced to Dayton!