Buford leads Toledo Libbey over St. Paris Graham

By Mike Parris

March 13, 2008, 10:01AM

William Buford scored 21 points and Toledo Libbey held off a resilient St. Paris Graham team to capture a 51-44 victory in a Division II state semifinal at Ohio State's Value City Arena.

Buford, recently named Mr. Basketball, also chipped in 10 rebounds in the victory.

The two teams with contrasting styles felt each other out for most of the first quarter, calming the butterflies and adjusting to a large, raucous crowd. Despite five turnovers in the first stanza, Graham led 13-11 after one.

Buford began to assert his will in the second quarter, hitting a turnaround jumper and sinking a pair of free throws to give the Cowboys a 15-13 lead with 7:06 to play in the second.

Meanwhile, Graham went scoreless for over four minutes in the second in large part due to a smothering Libbey zone defense. They registered their first points of the quarter at 3:43 on a three-pointer from the wing by sophomore forward Ethan Ward. On the next possession, Ward tied the game at 17 apiece, hitting one of two free throws.

Buford, the 19th ranked player in the country, gave the Cowboys a 19-17 lead with a thunderous two-handed dunk with 2:12 to play. After Graham guard Ben Rosenberger hit a difficult three pointer to knot the game at 20, Buford put Libbey back on top 22-20 heading into intermission with a driving one-hander with two seconds left.

The teams shot an identical 8-23 (35%) from the field in the first half. Turnovers also were a factor in the low score, as the teams combined for 15 miscues in the first 16 minutes of play.

The slow pace continued in the third quarter. Rosenberger tied the game at 26-26 with 2:50 remaining in the quarter with his second three-pointer of the game. Ward then put the Falcons back on top a possession later with a 10-foot jumper from the baseline.

Despite struggling mightily from the field, Libbey was able to regain the lead in the fourth thanks to ferocious offensive rebounding by senior forwards Julius Wells and Lance Jones. An intentional foul by Graham guard Casey Crable resulted in two made free throws by Jones, pushing the Libbey lead to 33-28 with 5:48 left in the contest.

A Buford layup off a nice feed from senior guard Bradley Burton gave the Cowboys' a 39-30 lead with just under four minutes to play. On their ensuing possession, Buford found Lance Jones on the baseline who hammered home a two-handed dunk to extend the Libbey lead into double digits.

But St. Paris Graham wasn't finished.

Josh Schuler's 3-pointer with two minutes remaining cut the Falcons' deficit to 43-38. After Buford missed the front end of a one-in-one, Ethan Ward hit his second three-pointer of the game and the Libbey lead dwindled to 43-41 with 1:36 remaining.

That was as close as Graham would get, however, as Libbey was able to hit enough free throws down the stretch to secure the tough victory.

St. Paris Graham, who was making their first appearance at the state tournament, ended their season 26-1. The Falcons were led by Ward, who finished with 14 points and six rebounds.

Libbey, who will take on the winner of the Chillicothe-Poland Seminary semifinal, pushed their record to 24-2. The Cowboys, in addition to Buford, got strong contributions from Lance Jones (10 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists) and Bradley Burton (7 points, 5 rebounds, 2 steals).