Miamisburg, Ohio — Miamisburg hosted Wayne on Friday night for a GWOC battle with huge conference title implications. Wayne fell to Miamisburg on the road last year on a Thursday night game before Wayne Flyin’ to the Hoop matchup.

After falling to Centerville a week ago, Wayne has won two straight against Northmont and Ponitz. Prophet Johnson has played to the caliber of a conference player of the year candidate so far this season and looked to continue that coming into tonight.

Prophet came out of the gate swinging. He got a big block and then proceeded to score Wayne’s first two buckets to put them up 4-0. Miamisburg wasn’t able to get much penetration in the first quarter so they had to rely on fastbreak opportunities and long passes down the court. An Evan Otteson layup from a fullcourt pass by Sam Boardwine gave the Vikings the 9-6 lead at the end of one.

Wayne crashed the offensive boards to start the new quarter as both Aamil Wagner and Christian Rand got second chance layups. Then the momentum shifted as Prophet Johnson missed an open dunk opportunity before Evan Otteson found Luke Copsey to put Miamisburg up 15-10. Otteson then made a beautiful no look pass to Evan Logan as the Vikings led 19-12 at halftime.

Miamisburg extended their lead to double digits in the second half as Otteson and Alex Ball each hit tough contested layups. After Wayne attempted to make a run, Miamisburg junior Anthony Coppock stepped up. Coppock got a big putback layup and then made a baseball like pass to Sam Boardwine to add on to the 31-19 lead. Wayne needed something big in the final quarter as they trailed 33-21.

The spark the Warriors needed came immediately as Cam Fancher stole a pass and took it coast to coast and finished it off with a posterizing jam. Jackson McGohan got some momentum back as he had a highlight reel block as he sent back the Wayne player’s shot. Then down by eight, Malcolm Curry went to work. He did a spin-move around the Viking defender and scored to cut the deficit to just six.

Miamisburg’s ultra-conservative play style continued in the fourth quarter as they tried to milk as much clock as possible. Prophet Johnson then went to work down low, scoring back-to-back buckets to cut the Miamisburg lead to just two. He then tied the game at 35 with a shot that rolled around for a while before eventually finding the bottom of the net.

Then following a timeout, Malcolm Curry gave Wayne the lead with a heavily contested fadeaway shot. Alex Ball fed Anthony Coppock an assist to tie the game back at 37 apiece. Then one of the most momentum shifting calls in the game occurred. Following a block from Aamil Wagner, Evan Otteson drove before falling to the ground. The referee appeared to call a foul but quickly changed his call to a travel giving Wayne back the ball. Then Prophet Johnson’s missed shot was corralled and thrown back with authority as Malcolm Curry made one the best plays of his career with a putback dunk to give Wayne the 39-37 lead.

Alex Ball was fouled and made both free-throws to tie the game at 39-39 with just 51.5 seconds remaining. Wayne gave it to Lawrent Rice who drained the clock down all the way to 10 seconds. Then Rice euro-stepped through multiple Miamisburg defenders before his shot eventually fell to give Wayne the lead with 4 seconds left. Then after a timeout, Luke Copsey attempted to take the ball coast to coast before being tripped. Curry snatched up the loose ball and layed it in off of a 360-layup to give Wayne the 43-39 win.

Prophet Johnson led Wayne in this gritty low-scoring affair with 14 points. Lawrent Rice had 9 and the game winning basket. Alex Ball led Miamisburg with 10 points and Anthony Coppock had 7. Wayne improves to 9-1 (7-1, GWOC) and Miamisburg will fall to 11-3 (5-2, GWOC). These two will square off right away as they face each other again on Tuesday at Wayne.