Trotwood, OH — #1 Trotwood-Madison and #2 Thurgood Marshall battled in a rematch of last year’s district final at UD Arena. This game sold out two days before the tip-off as this highly anticipated matchup had the whole city of Dayton wanting to watch. Thurgood Marshall entered this game having not played since before the new year as they fell to Princeton in Coach Q’s Holiday Classic. Trotwood won a hard-fought game against Beavercreek the night before as they only won by 5. Thurgood started off red hot as the Cougars jumped on the board first as Prophet Johnson got an early layup to go. The Cougars continued and went on an 18-5 run that started the game. The run was capped off by an Anthony McComb layup to put Thurgood up huge in the first quarter. Sellers Littles and Carl Blanton both had some big buckets in the first quarter to bring the Rams back. It was the sophomore guard Littles who hit the three to make it an 18-16 game. Carter Mims than got a steal which Littles finished at the other end to tie the game at 18 apiece. Sammy Anderson then hit a three to give Trotwood their first lead of the game. Trotwood led at the end of the first 23-21. Sammy Anderson and Carl Blanton both played very well in the second quarter. Well enough that the Rams led 48-40 at halftime as Thurgood blew another giant lead in a big game. Mekhi Elmore and Anthony McComb both had giant third quarters for Thurgood Marshall as they led them right back into the game and a Chanze Amerson dunk cut the deficit to just 4. Anthony McComb then hit three straight layups to tie the game at 63-63. Carter Mims and Sammy Anderson both hit a pair layups to make it a 6 point Trotwood lead. Anderson stole the inbounds pass to get one of those easy layups. The score heading into the fourth was 73-69, Trotwood-Madison still led. The big three of Anthony McComb, Chanze Amerson, and Mekhi Elmore for Thurgood would not give up down the stretch. Whenever it seemed like Trotwood was ready to put the game away, that trio sparked a run for the Cougars. One of the best plays of the whole night came when Anthony McComb dumped off a pass to Chanze Amerson and Amerson dunked in over the Trotwood defender standing in his way. This ignited the Thurgood crowd and made it just a one-point game. Prophet Johnson then stole the ball from Blanton and laid it in with 1:20 remaining to give the Cougars a 91-90 lead. Chanze Amerson then stole the ball and threw it ahead to Elmore for the easy bucket. This gave Thurgood a 93-90 lead but Sellers Littles hit a deep three from NBA range to tie the game at 93. Prophet Johnson and Chanze Amerson both added layups to Thurgood’s lead as that put them up 97-94. Then Sellers Littles drove past McComb and kicked it out to a wide-open Carl Blanton who drilled the three to tie the game at 97. Thurgood had the ball with 15 seconds remaining, they gave it to Anthony McComb who drove to the hoop and was fouled by Carter Mims who was slammed to the floor and had to leave the game with an injury to his head. McComb missed both free throws and Trotwood pulled down the rebound. Littles threw it ahead to Sammy Anderson but the ball was tipped out of bounds with 0.4 seconds remaining, Then, out of the timeout, Sellers Little made the bounce pass to Sammy Anderson who made the 40-foot buzzer-beater to stun Thurgood Marshall and win the game. Fans rushed the court as the Rams improved to 8-1 on the season in dramatic fashion. This was a great contest by two amazing teams who have a very good chance to meet again in March.