WOOSTER — For the first time in a dozen years, Wooster is the Ohio Cardinal Conference girls basketball champion.

The Generals clinched their crown outright in front of their home crowd Thursday evening with an 84-32 rout of Madison.

Senior Ny’Eemah Brown, who was a flawless 10 of 10 from the field to score a game-high 20 points against the Rams, was in kindergarten the last time the Generals claimed the OCC title.

"It means a lot," said Brown after the team celebrated by passing out championship T-shirts. "I try my best to get my teammates involved, keep everybody involved, so we did it together. And that’s all that matters — it wasn’t just me, it wasn’t one person, it was everybody.

"I’m just really proud of my teammates. They mean everything to me and to see us all do it together, that means a lot."

Full involvement was not hyperbole Thursday night, as the Generals’ starting five all had double-digit scoring efforts. Jaida McCloud and Daisha Brown had a dozen points each, while Macyn Siegenthaler finished with 14 points and nine assists and Stephanie Smith had a double-double of 18 points and 14 rebounds.

The Generals, now 10-0 in the OCC, were relentless from the tip, capitalizing on fast break after fast break. Brown scored 10 of her 20 points in the first quarter, driving hard down the court and putting away easy layups. With 10 seconds left in the opening stanza, Brown took an inbound pass at midcourt and immediately flew through the backcourt and inside for yet another layup to put the Generals up 23-6 after one.

From then on, it became an anticlimactic session of victory laps, up and down the court. 

"The first time we played them (Madison) we started out kind of slow, we ended up 25-30 points better, they’ve been playing well lately, so we just had to get out and get ’er done," said eighth-year Wooster coach Mike Baus, whose team improved to 13-4 overall. "We really didn’t have any magic game plan other than just to play hard, push the ball up the court and get some rebounds and that seemed to work."

The Generals outrebounded the Rams 33-14 and had 16 offensive rebounds. Even more key, Wooster earned 18 second-chance points and 17 points off turnovers, as WHS stole the ball 21 times, led by Sydney Clapp with six thefts.

"They’re definitely a very aggressive team, a physical team. We have issues sometimes with their physicality. They’re able to get out in transition," said Madison coach Brian Davis, whose team dropped to 7-9 overall and 2-8 in the OCC. "It looks like we were 15 of 56 maybe, so that’s 41 shots we missed and we had seven offensive rebounds, so that’s 32 opportunities we gave them to score in transition where they’re best at, and they were able to do it."

Mackenzie Mullins led Madison with six points, while Rebecca Phelps added five points and five boards for the Rams. 

The third quarter turned out to be the busiest for the Generals, even after their stellar opening eight minutes. Up by 30 at halftime (40-10), they added 30 more points in the third period alone. Siegenthaler intercepted Madison’s ball on the very first possession of the second half and handed it over to McCloud, who used the helper to make the first of back-to-back field goals. McCloud scored half of her total points in the third quarter and Smith also added nine of her 18 during the same span. 

"We’ve been pushing the ball up the court pretty well, but on any given night we have to be ready," said Baus. "We don’t take anybody lightly, so the girls got after it, showed up and it was fun to clinch the OCC. I’m real proud of them, they’re working hard.

"The season’s not done yet. We’ve got a few more games, so we’re just trying to get ready to try to stay undefeated in the OCC and try to make a little run in the tournament."