Wellington romps into state fi nal

Upper Arlington police gave Wellington the royal treatment by getting the Jaguars to Value City Arena on time for a boys basketball state tournament semifinal with an escort complete with sirens and flashing lights.

But the Jaguars still needed a jump-start after falling behind by nine points in the first few minutes. They got one with 6-foot-9 Dustin Harder pulling down 21 rebounds to tie a Division IV semifinal record and Solomon Pierre-Louis scoring 16 points in a 68-47 victory over Lima Perry on Thursday night.

Wellington (22-7) will play Cleveland Heights Lutheran East (19-9) for the championship at 2 p.m. Saturday.

“I’m just ecstatic about our guys’ grit,” Jaguars coach Artie Taylor said. “We didn’t start the game the way we wanted to, but these guys stayed poised, they never blinked their eyes, they just kept grinding one possession at a time until we started getting into our rhythm.”

Perry had a lot more to play for than a trophy — assistant coach Herb Lane, 44, was

killed in an automobile crash the night of March 13. Players wore T-shirts with “Coach Lane” on the backs and black ribbons on the right shoulder of their jerseys.

The Commodores scored the first nine points, with six coming on three-pointers by Plummie Gardner and Orion Montford, in the first 2:13.

Then it was the Jaguars’ turn to play their game, and that was dominating underneath the basket and controlling tempo with a 2-3 zone defense. Perry was 8 of 28 from threepoint range.

After Gardner drove the baseline for a basket that gave Perry an 18-11 lead, Wellington scored 15 straight points beginning with two free throws by Bob Faller and ending with a three-pointer from the side by John Faller.

“We knew they didn’t play very many players and I knew with our stamina and bench that we could bounce back,” Harder said. “We knew (the run) was coming.”

Pierre-Louis said, “We weathered the storm.”

The Jaguars’ lead grew to 31-20 with 1:03 left in the first half on a jumper by guard Dallas Patrick.

There was no drop-off in the third quarter when Wellington took a 41-28 lead with 6:08 left on a three-pointer from the baseline by Pierre-Louis.

Pierre-Louis might have been the most athletic player on the floor.

“Coach always has taught me to attack open gaps and attack space, and I tried to create closeouts and penetrate,” he said.

Any chance for a comeback by Perry (24-4) was dashed when Wellington point guard Guy Schmidt scored eight points on two driving layups and four free throws in a little more than 1½ minutes midway through the fourth quarter.

“It was patience and playing our central defense,” Pierre-Louis said.