Cardinals, Wilson finding their ‘mojo’ at right time

Before Cardinal Stritch boys basketball had to shut down a week for COVID-19 protocols, postponing or canceling four games from Feb. 2-9, they were on a nine-game winning streak.

The biggest wins during that stretch came over Lima Central Catholic (9-7), 62-57, and Toledo Christian (13-3), 75-61. 

LCC (9-7) had already defeated the state’s ninth-ranked Division III team, Ottawa-Glandorf (11-3), 69-65, and Toledo Christian had a big 60-52 win over Convoy Crestview (13-4). 

To put that in perspective, O-G has seven state final four appearances with three titles and one runner-up finish, LCC has nine state final four finishes, three championships and two runner-up finishes, and Crestview has five final four appearances with two state titles, including winning the last Division IV state championship game actually played in 2019 before a global pandemic hit.

That same year, Stritch made their only state final four appearance ever in school history, losing to Cleveland Heights Lutheran East, 58-53, in a D-III semifinal to finish the season 24-4. In that game at Ohio State’s Schottenstein Center, then-sophomore guard Jhaiden Wilson had six points, four rebounds and blocked a shot for the Cardinals.

Wilson was playing behind standouts Jordan Burton, Little Anderson and Joey Holifield. Two years later as a senior, Wilson scored his 1,000th career point during a 66-43 win over Toledo Area Athletic Conference opponent Emmanuel Christian in Stritch’s 10th game this season. He is just the fifth player in school history to reach that mark. Wilson currently stands at 1,131 career points.

Wilson says he would not be the player he is today without Burton, Anderson and Holifield, who are all playing collegiately.

“Joey, Little and Jordan just pushed me every day and that helped me a lot,” Wilsons said. “They are like my brothers, so we still joke and play the game for hours when they are away from college.”

Wilson was 18 points away from 1,000 heading into the Emmanuel game. He hit the mark in what coach Jamie Kachmarik calls “in true fashion” — on a three-point shot 30 seconds before halftime. Wilson had 19 points by intermission and finished with 23. Once he hit his trey, Kachmarik called timeout, Emmanuel allowed a quick celebration where Wilson went over and hugged his mother and the game continued.

Wilson said he knew beforehand the mark was within reach, which in a way did not help. Once he relaxed, he was fine.

“When I first stepped up, I was itching to get it, but then Coach K called a timeout and said to let just it come, so I let it come after that,” Wilson said. 

‘Scorer’s mentality’

Wilson, who has committed to playing collegiately at Wayne State University, is averaging 25 points per game, is shooting 37.1 percent from behind the arc, 58.2 percent from inside the arc, 43 percent overall from the field, and 87.2 percent from the free throw line. 

He is 5-foot-9 but can score from anywhere on the floor and leads the team in steals and assists at over three per game. In one four game stretch with wins over Bowling Green (49-33), Ottawa Hills (74-45), LCC and Northwood (93-39), he scored 100 points, meeting his mark.

“He has really got that scorer’s mentality and he’s worked on the game to try and have a quick release from the outside, but he always works on different finishes, so when he does get inside over guys, he knows how to finish over them,” Kachmarik said. 

“He knows how to use the glass, he has a lot of different spins on the ball, and it’s just from putting in a lot of hours and being one the smallest guys on the floor and being told that he couldn’t do it because he is too small. He is stubborn and out to prove that he can. 

“The thing about it is he’s scored 1,000 points and he didn’t play one minute of a varsity game as a freshman. He has really done this in two-and-a-half seasons. He can do it from the inside, he can do it from the drive in, or can he shoot it from the outside, and he has a real good midrange game, so his game is really diversified.”

Wilson says he is still learning, and he had to do some early season learning when the Cardinals took on larger schools because other TAAC schools were unavailable to play because of the Lucas County Health Department shutdown.

“I’m always trying to get my team a lot more involved and show them that they can play as well and help me out a little bit more on the court,” Wilson said. “At the beginning of the season, my shooting percentages were not that high, and I was shooting a lot more than passing, but now I’m doing a little bit of both, getting them the ball and letting them be able to score. It makes it a lot easier for me to score because they are not just focusing on me.”

Wilson says his skills developed by practicing every day and “working on the little things.” In the summers, he works out with Kachmarik and plays park ball. Most importantly, he wants to get Stritch back to Columbus.

“This team means a lot. I’m just trying to finish out strong my senior year and get a lot of wins and make it to state,” Wilson said.

It is wins over LCC and playing against larger programs like BG, Johnstown-Monroe (80-53 season opening loss) Lexington (63-50 win), Clyde (52-51 buzzer-beater loss), Perrysburg (50-42), Willard (66-59 overtime loss) and Kenton (77-56 win) that will help his team get ready for tournament time. 

At LCC, Stritch found out the hard way that the Thunderbirds do not like to lose, and when Stritch got a double-digit lead, the game got extremely physical.

“It came down to the wire. We let them come back in the game. We were up by 20, maybe 25 at one point. It was a very weird game,” Wilson said. “From that game, I think we matured a lot, so I think everyone knows that now we need to keep our foot on the gas.”

Kachmarik added, “That was a big one. We just played well. We are starting to play the way we can now that we are practicing in our gym. It’s starting to get better.”

The Cardinals, 10-4 overall and 4-0 in the TAAC, have three scheduled games remaining and three postponed games waiting to potentially be rescheduled.