“They pushed the ball up super-fast, we weren’t expecting that from watching film,” Ophoff said of Rudyard. Rudyard (18-3) was paced by EJ Suggitt with 19 points and Tate Besteman added 13 points and nine rebounds. “I came in my sophomore year and ever since the talk has been, ‘we’ve got four, we’ve got four,’ and there’s four pictures on the wall and we need five. “It’s a great motivating factor,” Treece said. Treece said the program’s history is on his mind almost daily.
Keeler has been at the helm for all of them, and in 34 years has more than 625 wins. The school also has four other finals appearances. Tri-unity has won four state titles since the first in 1996.
What I love about him the most is he’s so coachable, so humble.” People do not realize his potential and he is an amazing young man. “So, what people saw today was pretty normal. “He is unbelievable, and I get to watch that every game,” Tri-unity Christian coach Mark Keeler said of Titus. Teammate Austin Treece added 11 points and eight rebounds. Titus led the Defenders (14-2) with 28 points, including 16 in the first half when Tri-unity built a 36-19 lead. “We’ve been trying it all year and a couple of them didn’t work but luckily this one did,” Ophoff said. Tri-unity went up, 52-31, with 6:15 remaining in the fourth quarter on a fastbreak feed from guard Brady Titus to Jaden Ophoff at the rim.