Defensive stops seal win for Pickerington Central
A bevy of timeouts and fouls in the final minute killed the flow of an otherwise entertaining Division I district final Saturday. Just the way Pickerington Central drew it up.
Twice in the waning seconds, the Tigers stymied a potential final shot opportunity and came away with a 59-57 win over Westerville North before a tense crowd at Ohio Dominican.
“We had fouls to give and we wanted to slow down what they wanted to do,” Central coach Eric Krueger said. “We took all of our timeouts because we wanted the guys to be certain where all the switches were. Basically, we wanted to change up their rhythm and not allow them an open look off a screen. Fortunately, we were able to get enough stops to come out of here with the win.”
Julius Brown was stuffed by two defenders on a drive to the basket. On the ensuing inbounds with 1.2 seconds left, Noah Voorhies — flirting with a five-second violation — found Brown around the three-point line, but he couldn’t get off a shot in time.
“We were trying to isolate a side for Julius or Jeremiah (Keene) but it didn’t work out,” North coach Shan Trusley said. “They did a great job preventing us from getting off a quality shot. Their length bothered us all day.”
Javohn Garcia and Adrian Nelson scored 14 points for ninth-seeded Dublin Coffman’s Dominiq Penn, who scored 30 points, celebrates the Shamrocks’ 68-51 win over Upper Arlington in a Division I district final at Ohio Dominican.
Central (16-8), which won its ninth straight game to take its fifth district title in six years. Both made huge plays down the stretch when the Tigers were exploiting open lanes off the dribble. Nelson had four highlight-reel dunks.
Brown scored 17 points and Julian Malone 15 for fourthseeded North (20-5).
Dublin Coffman 68, Upper Arlington 51
Dublin Coffman validated the adage that it’s tough to beat the same team three times in a season, and did so in emphatic fashion with an upset of second-seeded UA.
“You always expect the unexpected when these teams get together,” Coffman coach Jamey Collins said, shaking his head. UA won the Ohio Capital Conference Central Division meetings 44-41 and 44-42 on late three-pointers.
This time, UA (23-2) had no answer for precocious Coffman sophomore point guard Dominiq Penn. Flashing his slick ball moves and a lightning quick pull-up jumper, Penn finished with 30 points, 19 of which came in the first half when the Shamrocks build a substantial lead.
“Dom controlled the pace of the game,” Collins said. “That was maybe the best game of his career.”
Said Upper Arlington coach Tim Casey, “Penn was magnificent. He was just too much for us. They scored at will on us
driving to the basket.”
Dane Goodwin topped UA with 22 points, but fouled out with 5:46 remaining.
Reynoldsburg 51, Mount Vernon 36
Although his team took some tough losses in the rugged OCC Ohio Division and in nonleague play, coach Scott Davis always knew his Reynoldsburg team — despite a No. 10 seed — had the potential to win a district championship.
“I felt we had as good a chance as anybody,” Davis said. “We lost to five real good teams and we beat a few of them, too. We’ve got some length, some nice athletes and we’ve been playing well. Sure, this was in our sights all along.”
Ben Fort scored 17 points and Jamiel Goliday 14 to pace the Raiders (19-7), who jumped out to a 16-2 lead and were never threatened. Mount Vernon (18-8) — which upset top-seeded Pickerington North on Wednesday — went stretches of 6:29 and 4:40 without a field goal.
Collin Barteau had 11 points for Mount Vernon, which was making its first district title game appearance since winning it in 1993.
Hilliard Bradley 59, Westerville South 46
Racing to a 19-5 lead, hot-shooting Hilliard Bradley used its inside strength to wear down smaller Westerville South for the program’s first district title.
“Anytime you get somewhere where you’ve never been before, it’s special,” Bradley coach Brett Norris said. “But basketball skill aside, this is just a special group of kids that has been building to this for a few years now.”
Isaiah Speelman scored 16 points and Chris Mayfield added 11 for the third-seeded Jaguars (25-1), who emerged as the only top-five seed to survive the district.
Bradley dominated the offensive boards and converted five putbacks.
“We’ve been a great rebounding team all year and we realized that while they’re very scrappy, Westerville South isn’t the biggest team and we had to take advantage of that.”
Jordan McMillian scored 24 points for South (16-10), which shaved a 21-point deficit to nine in the fourth quarter.