Moore makes difference for Warriors

Worthington Chr. 54, Columbus Academy 50

Jake Nowak and Nakimba Mullins each made threepointers in the final 3:06 Friday night to send host Worthington Christian to a 54-50 win over Columbus Academy, throwing the Mid-state League Ohio Division race into a frenzy.

But it was Warriors freshman DJ Moore who earned much of the praise.

“No offense to anyone else, but DJ Moore is the best

player I’ve seen in this league in 10 years,” Columbus Academy coach Jeff Warstler said. “Hats off to the kids who made those late threes for them, but that was a direct result of us crashing down on DJ that opened up those shots.”

Moore had 19 points and seven rebounds. His impact went beyond the stat sheet.

“What I noticed most was how DJ did a great job facilitating things for us,” Worthington Christian coach Kevin Weakley said. “Every day, I see him learning how to control and impact a game in other ways than scoring. In addition to his work on the boards, he played a fantastic defensive game and that’s what we needed to pull this win out.”

Nowak’s three-pointer from the corner — his only basket of the game — gave Worthington Christian a 47-44 lead with 3:06 left. With 1:20 remaining, Mullins made his three from the Columbus Academy’s Hayden Compton, left, and Worthington Christian’s Jake Nowak reach for a rebound.

same spot to make it 50-46.

Columbus Academy (10-4, 3-2), which was riding a seven-game win streak since the earlier defeat to WC, couldn’t get any closer.

“Coach got on us pretty hard about crashing the boards and getting stops at the end of the game, and I think put us over the top,” said Moore, a 6-foot-2 guard-forward. “It was kind of a battle of two different styles. They wanted to muscle it inside and we wanted to use our quickness to our advantage.”

Dalyn Decree had 13 points to pace Academy, which fell into a tie with Whitehall atop the MSL Ohio. Worthington Christian (12-4, 3-3) and Grandview are one game back.

“We’re a little undersized so we have to embrace the mentality of blocking out to keep our opponents from getting easy baskets,” Weakley said. “By the same token, we want our guys to shoot it. In theory, we’d like to be more up-tempo, but Academy plays some great defense.”

Warstler said his team’s inability to rebound at key moments down the stretch was costly.

“We’ve won those battles all year long, and we’ve gotten a lot of the hustle play to go our way,” he said. “Tonight, they seemed to get them.”

Columbus Academy was playing without one of its top players, junior Carter Warstler, who slipped on the ice loading into the team van and suffered a sprained ankle.