Clayton, Ohio — On Feburary 11th, Arcanum beat Milton-Union by 11. So when the two teams pulled each other to play in the first round of the tournament, it was safe to say the Trojans felt pretty confident heading into this game.

Milton-Union made it clear that they didn’t want any part of Carter Gray. The Bulldogs tightly face guarded him most of the first half making Arcanum give the ball up to other guards. Blake Brumbaugh got off to a nice start hitting his shots early. Arcanum drew within one after a Grant Delk and-one but Milton-Union extended the lead after Sam Case hit a corner three. Things got heated after a tie-up between Grant Delk and Justin Randall. Both players stared each other down and a technical was assessed to Randall. Milton-Union still led 12-10 at the end of the first.

Carter Gray finally got on the board with a jumper to open the second quarter. Sam Case hit his third three of the game to put the Bulldogs up 19-12. Then he would drive to the basket and finished to put them up 23-14. Case then dished a pass to Nathan Brumbaugh who stroked a three and then a full-court pass to Brandon Lavy which put Milton up 28-14. They would add on some more to make their halftime lead 31-14.

Jake Goubeaux hit a three for Arcanum to start the third quarter, but Nathan Brumbaugh responded with an NBA range three of his own. The Bulldogs would then go up by 20 after a Blake Brumbaugh steal which led to and-one at the other end. Blake Brumbaugh would get a pair of scores before Brandon Lavy hit a three to put Milton-Union up 48-22 going into the fourth quarter.

Nathan and Blake Brumbaugh would each hit another three and Milton-Union continued their dominant night. Arcanum’s all-time leading scorer Carter Gray would check out one final time in the orange and black as he left the court and was subbed out with around 3 minutes to play. This obviously wasn’t the ending Gray wanted or expected. Milton-Union went on to win 61-25.

Blake Brumbaugh finished with a game-high 14 points, Sam Case had 13 along with three three-pointer’s, Nathan Brumbaugh had 11 and Brandon Lavy had 10 points for the bulldogd. Arcanum was led by Jake Goubeaux who had 6 points and Carter Gray and Cade Brubaker who each finished with 4.

Milton-Union will advance to the sectional final at Northmont as they will play Middletown Madison on Saturday at 6 pm. This is a rematch of a game Madison won earlier in the season at Milton-Union.