COLUMBUS — Ding dong, the drought is dead!
The Rogers Rams, led by their supremely talented junior point guard Zia Cooke, won the first girls basketball state championship for a Toledo team since 1981 Saturday night, taking a 51-37 victory over third-ranked Gates Mills Gilmour Academy at Ohio State University’s Value City Arena.
“We put an end to it,” Rams coach Lamar Smith said. “We don’t want to hear it no more. It’s over. We did it, it’s a great feeling and I’m proud for us. We’re bringing it back home to Toledo.”
In a word, the 5-foot-9 Cooke, was sensational.
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The recruiting target of almost every top college program affirmed those assessments of her talents by scoring 33 points, grabbing 14 rebounds, and basically willing her sixth-ranked Rams (27-3) to victory.
“I’m so blessed to be able to do something so special,” Cooke said. “It’s an unreal feeling. We knew we had to step it up. The defense was kind of lazy, and we had to step it up.
“Tonight I played for my grandmother [Rose White], so I put it all on the floor for her tonight. She passed away about a month ago. I have her charm [on necklace], and I did everything for her tonight.”
Since the Scott boys won Toledo’s last basketball state title in 1990, six other Toledo boys teams and five girls squads had reached state finals, only to come up short.
But, not on Cooke’s watch.
She outdueled the Lancers’ Michigan-bound 6-2 senior post player, Naz Hillmon, who topped Gilmour (25-4) in defeat with 16 points and 19 rebounds.
“I worked for this,” Cooke said. “I kind of knew what the outcome would be, but I didn’t want to be too cocky about it.
“I knew it was going to be an amazing feeling, but I’m still trying to get it into my head. This is unreal.
“The fact that it never happened for Rogers. The fact that so many people didn’t believe in us. That’s what pushed us today. We knew we could do it.”
VIDEO: Rogers’ Zia Cooke
Down three at halftime, Rogers opened the third quarter on a 7-0 run to take a 28-24 lead. The Rams would never trail again.
Freshman guard Madison Royal-Davis opened the surge with two free throws, Tanaziah Hines (nine points) converted a three-point play, and Cooke hit a pull-up 12-foot jumper from the lane at the 4:57 mark for a 28-24 Rams lead.
After Gilmour’s Sarah Bohn hit a 3-pointer to pull the Lancers within a point, Rogers closed the third quarter by outscoring them 8-2, and carried a 36-29 edge into the final period.
Hillmon opened the fourth quarter with an inside bucket to get Gilmour within five, but the Lancers could get no closer against a determined Rams squad that got a great second-half group effort on defense and battling Hillmon on the boards.
Senior sub Myia McLeod grabbed seven of her nine rebounds after halftime, helping Hines battle the Lancers’ sturdy post standout.
“It means so much to me to get this done for him,” said senior guard Lauren Smith, Lamar’s daughter. “We promised we would. Just to be able to fulfill that for him means everything to me.
“It was not only big to get the first state championship for Rogers, but it hadn’t been done for so long by Toledo. By halftime, we got fired back up and stepped up our defense. That was the key. Defense wins championships.”
Cooke, who was 14-of-23 shooting from the field, answered Hillmon’s basket with a driving layup, then added a 3-pointer for a 41-31 lead with 5:38 remaining.
That is when the Rams appeared to sense the Toledo drought might be over, and they removed any doubt by outscoring the Lancers 10-6 down the stretch.
“It wasn’t like we didn’t concentrate on her,” Gilmour coach John Curran said. “She just did a pretty good job of compromising what we were trying to do on defense.
“We’ve played against some really good players, and she’s every bit as good as anybody we’ve seen. She played really well today. She’s a really good player and she proved it today.”
Added Hillmon: “She’s an excellent player. I play with her in AAU [for Sport City U], so usually she’s a luxury to me. Today she wasn’t obviously. She’s a very talented player, and I know how hard she works. She really took it to us today.”
Rogers had lost in the 2014 D-II state semifinals, and fell in the 2015 state
Final, both times against Kettering Alter.
The last Toledo girls team to win state was Libbey, which captured a Class AAA crown in 1981. Woodward won the AAA title in the first girls state tourney in 1976. Start (2009), Waite (2010), and Notre Dame (2015 and 2017) were all Division I state runners-up.
In the opening half, Rogers had trouble solving Gilmour’s defense, with the exception of Cooke, who managed to produce in the transition game, and slash into the lane for jump shots.
Cooke had 16 points and eight rebounds by the break, but the Rams trailed 24-21 after owning a 14-11 lead entering the second quarter.
Royal-Davis – who scored a team-high 23 points in Rogers’ 52-47 win over New Philadelphia in Friday’s state semifinals, and came in averaging 22.6 points through seven tourney games – was held scoreless in the first half, attempting just one shot just before the half ended.
She finished with four points, three rebounds and three assists, played on a swelled right ankle which she sprained in Friday’s semifinal.
Rogers was 20 of 44 (46 percent) from the field, including 3 of 13 on 3-pointers, and was 8 of 14 at the foul line. They committed 10 turnovers and forced 13.
Gilmour was just 13 of 50 (26 percent) from the field, including a subpar 5-for-25 effort on 3-pointers, and were 6 of 12 at the line, all of that from Hillmon. The Lancers edged the Rams 37-33 in rebounding.
“It was a very tough battle,” Hines said of palying inside against Hillmon. “She is a very good player, and we just had to keep working through everything. And, we picked up our intensity on offense.
“Zia had a great game, and I’m so proud of her, our whole team, and what we did. We kept our heads in the game and just kept playing. I love my team. This means everything.”
Contact Steve Junga at sjunga@theblade.com, 419-724-6461, or on Twitter @JungaBlade.
First Published March 17, 2018, 10:50 p.m.