Mount Vernon upsets Pickerington North
Jeffrey Rucker scored a career-high 23 points and Mount Vernon held on to shock No. 1-seeded Pickerington North 61-58 in a Division I district semifinal game Wednesday at Granville.
The Yellow Jackets came in as the 16th seed.
Mount Vernon (18-7) stormed to a 43-30 lead after three quarters and held off a late charge by North (20-5) by sinking 12 of 15 free throws in the final period.
Jerome Hunter and Corey Baker scored 18 points each for Pickerington North, which was unable to get off a final shot.
In other Division I district semifinals: stretch top defeat 12thseeded Logan (22-3) at Pickerington Central. Ryan Greggs scored 16 points and Manny Sunnyway 14 to pace the Wildcats. Bo Myers scored a game-high 27 points for Logan.
Ben Fort had 22 points and Treauhn Williams and Jamiel Goliday each had 17, helping Reynoldsburg (18-7) defeat Westerville Central (17-8) at Worthington Christian. The score was tied 34-all midway through the third quarter.
Adrian Nelson and Jaiden Lipscomb each scored 13 points and Coleton Landis had 11, and ninth-seeded Pickerington Central (15-8) downed seventh-seeded Gahanna (17-8) at Watkins Memorial.
The one-two punch of Jeremiah Keene (31 points) and Julius Brown (27) powered fourth-seeded Westerville North (20-4) over Canal Winchester (13-11) at Olentangy. Brady Snyder had 18 points and Bilal Sow 17 for Canal Winchester.
Dane Goodwin scored 26 points and Max Martz 20, leading second-seeded Upper Arlington (23-1) over Northland (13-9) at Marysville. It marked the third straight year that the Golden Bears eliminated the Vikings in a district semifinal.
Braden Norris led a balanced attack with 14 points and third-seeded Hilliard Bradley (24-1) beat Chillicothe at Central Crossing. The Jaguars led 27-11 at halftime. In Division IV district semifinals:
After a steal by Nolan Blowers, Caleb Collins sank two free throws in the final 10 seconds to lift seventh-seeded Fairfield Christian (11-14) to an upset of top-seeded Fisher Catholic (16-10) at Lakewood. Caleb Collins and Bradley Anderson scored 18 points each for the Knights. Zach Saffell had 18 for Fisher, which missed a three-point try as time expired.
Andrew Konjevich made two free throws with 5.3 seconds left to give fifthseeded Tree of Life (22-4) an upset of second-seeded Danville (16-8) at Highland. Skyler Durbin, who scored 25 points, missed a three-point attempt for Danville as time expired. Craig Mazzoli had 18 points and Ian Leach 17 points and six assists for Tree of Life. Dylan James scored 24 for Danville.
Girls
Back-to-back turnovers by Amanda-Clearcreek (21-6) helped Western Reserve (23-3) score six straigh points in the final two minutes to edge the Aces in a Division III regional semifinal at Lexington. Amanda led 15-10 at halftime and didn’t trail until the final 1:04. Alyssa Evans led Amanda with 20 points.