WELLINGTON

“It’s satisfying to get a big win against a great basketball team, and I emphasize the word team when I speak of Ready,” Taylor said. “I don’t really care that much about our regular-season and nonconference record. We want to see as many styles as we can so we’re not surprised against anybody down the line. This has been a good formula the past couple of years and I’m sticking with it.”

The size and length of Wellington (10-4) played a huge factor, forcing smallish Ready (12-1) to rely on threepoint shots. With a starting lineup that goes 6 feet 9, 6-6, 6-5, 6-5 and 6-4, the Jaguars blocked 12 shots.

“We recognize that our defense is what’s going to carry us,” senior forward John Faller said. “I really felt like our length threw their offense out of whack. We made them force a few shots they normally don’t like to take.”

Faller scored 18 points, Pierre-Louis 16 and Dallas Patrick 12 to lead Wellington, which broke open a tight contest with an 11-2 run in the second quarter.

“That was the longest team we’ve faced and we knew coming in we were going to have to shoot threes,” Ready coach Dan DeCrane said. “We said at the outset, let’s make it a four-quarter game and see what happens. It seemed like the whole fourth quarter, we were looking for that one big play to launch us, but it just didn’t come. And Wellington did make big plays and baskets at opportune times.”

Ready trailed just 50-47 with 4:41 left. But a controversial player-control foul on Chanc Dawson led to a 7-1 run that sent Wellington on its way. Pierre-Louis, an Air Force signee, hit a runner in a lane and converted a nifty baseline move into a threepoint play in the surge.

“That was a huge and-one late in the game,” Taylor said.

Brady Thomas had 14 points and Dawson 13 for Ready, which is shooting for its first Central Catholic League title since 2002.

Zach Sawyer scored 14 points — including making 8 of 10 foul shots in the fourth quarter — and host Watterson (5-8) got past visiting Jonathan Alder (11-3) in a nonleague game. Jacob Koenig led all scorers with 17 points for the Pioneers, including nine in the fourth quarter. He made a three-pointer with five seconds left to cut the deficit to three and, after a pair of missed free throws, heaved a desperation three that was off the mark at the buzzer.

Dane Goodwin scored 18 of his 25 points in the second half as host Upper Arlington (12-1) pulled away from Westerville North (12-3) in a nonleague game. Max Martz added 18 for the Golden Bears, who led 30-26 at intermission. Teneea Heston made six free throws in the fourth quarter on the way to 15 points as host Hilliard Bradley (7-8, 4-4) held off Worthington Kilbourne (4-14, 1-8) in the OCC Cardinal. An Arissa Maynard basket brought Kilbourne within three with 36 seconds left, but Heston iced it at the foul line. Shammara Bridges hit two free throws to lift visiting Centennial (3-11, 3-7) over Mifflin (5-10, 5-5) in a City North game. Aliyah Mullins scored 23 points for Mifflin, but she missed a three-pointer at the buzzer to tie. Neveah Brown had 13 points for the Stars, who outscored the Punchers 13-4 in the final quarter.