Jandan Duggan did not score a point in the Class A Private championship game, but he played a huge role in bringing the state title back to Greenforest.
Duggan spent most of the day guarding St. Francis guard Kobi Simmons, a McDonald’s All-American who was averaging 26.5 points. Duggan, a 6-foot-1 junior, spent the afternoon shadowing, fronting, denying and occasionally mugging Simmons.
The strategy worked. Simmons, who has signed with Arizona, didn’t score his first basket until 2:32 left in the first quarter. He finished with 31 points, 20 of them before Duggan fouled out with 4:04 remaining. Simmons shot just 8-for-25 from the field and did much of his damage by hitting 12 of 18 free throws.
With Simmons negated as best as possible, Greenforest was able to run away to a 78-66 victory over St. Francis, derailing the Knights’ attempt to win their third straight championship.
“It was a hard matchup because he’s one of the best players in the nation,” Duggan said. “I just tried my best to limit his touches. I was trying to do whatever I could to get my team to win.”
Meanwhile, Greenforest (30-2) got 27 points from guard John Ogwuche, 17 points and seven rebounds from Abayomi Iyiola, 13 points and six rebounds from Justin Forrest and 10 points and seven rebounds from Precious Obiagu.
St. Francis (23-8) also got 12 points and 14 rebounds from Chance Anderson.
“This is just a great group of guys and they come to work every day,” said Greenforest coach Larry Thompson.
Greenforest took command in the first half, leading 12-7 after one quarter and 34-25 at halftime. St. Francis was able to trim the lead, which was 11 points in the second period, to 26-24 with 57 seconds left. But Greenforest concluded the half with an 8-1 run that was punctuated on a buzzer-beating jumper by Ogwuche and had a 34-25 lead.
St. Francis was able to get within nine points at 69-60 on a 3-pointer by Simmons with 2:17 left in the game. But Greenforest scored six unanswered points to put the game away.
Greenforest won its other state title in 2013 when the Eagles beat St. Francis. Greenforest also got some payback from last year’s loss to St. Francis in the championship game.
Greenforest (78): Jandan Duggan, Justin Forrest 13, Precious Ayah 10, John Ogwuche 27, Ikey Obiagu 6, Michael Evans, Victor Enoh 5, Abayomi Iyiola 17, Mohammed Abdulsalem.
St. Francis (66): Wallace Tucker 3, Kobi Simmons 31, Anthony Showell 6, Chance Anderson 12, Drew Smith, Avery Showell 1, Dylin Hardeman, Sean Paradise 2, Jordan Ferguson 7, Noah Christy 4.
