Loaded week sets up exciting sprint to finish
After the snowstorm swept through Columbus and the rest of Ohio at the end of last week, canceling just about every high school sports event Feb. 3-4 and some on Feb. 5, there’s a lot to catch up on in this week’s column.
Many events were rescheduled for this week, adding to an already loaded schedule as basketball and hockey hit the final stretch before the postseason. The tournament draws have all been done, and in just five weeks’ time all of the winter state champions will have been crowned.
This week around the Columbus area saw several basketball players reach 1,000 career points, numerous buzzerbeaters, the crowning of bowling league champions, the continuation of the football coaching carousel and more.
Here are the top performances and notes from the past week of greater Columbus high schools.
Boys basketball
Desales senior Atticus Schuler scored a season-high 30 points — 62.5% of Desales’ points — in a 50-48 loss to Ready on Feb. 5.
Cooper Davis scored 17 points and Trent Majidzadeh added another 12 for Olentangy Liberty in a 57-49 comeback win over Hilliard Davidson on Monday. Cade Norris scored 16 for the Jaguars in the loss.
Beechcroft senior Amani Lyles scored a game-high 24 points, accompanied by three other scorers in double figures for the Cougars, in a 74-71 win over Northland on Monday. Rob Dorsey scored 23 points to lead the Vikings.
With 15 points in a 63-60 win over Eastmoor Academy on Tuesday, Africentric senior Dan Wagner became the second player in Africentric history to reach 1,000 career points and has 1,007 points for his career. Dennis Asoro scored 31 points for Eastmoor in the loss.
Dublin Coffman senior and Ohio University commit Ajay Sheldon led the way with a game-high 28 points in a 6746 win over Worthington Kilbourne on Tuesday. Sheldon followed that effort up with 27 points in a 55-48 loss to Upper Arlington on Friday.
Upper Arlington senior Nick Heath scored a season-high 25 points in a 5543 win over Olentangy Orange on Tuesday.
Westerville South senior and Wright State commit Drey Carter had 28 points in an 82-46 win over Canal Winchester on Tuesday that brought the Wildcats to 18-0 for just the third time in school history.
LB Towns led Linden-mckinley to a 45-38 win over Hartley on Wednesday with 20 points.
Wellington senior and Denison commit Chase Ouellette poured in 27 points in a 49-38 win over North International on Thursday.
Briggs senior Devonte Curry scored 40 or more points for the second straight game with 40 in a 79-55 win over Marion-franklin on Thursday.
Asoro and James Nowell combined for 49 points and 19 rebounds on Thursday as they led Eastmoor’s rally from a 33-point deficit in the second half to a narrow 63-61 loss to Northland.
Centennial freshman Isaiah Skinn, son of Ohio State assistant coach Tony Skinn, scored 23 points and added five assists — while taking three charges — in a 52-49 upset road win over Mifflin on Thursday. In the first four games of his high school career, after missing seven months with an injury, Skinn is averaging 23.8 points per game.
Whitehall junior KJ Satterfield scored a season-high 36 points in a 7165 win over Bexley on Friday.
Hilliard Davidson senior Jayden Nervis gave his team its only lead of the night with a layup at the buzzer to earn a 50-48 win over Olentangy Liberty on Friday. Nervis finished with 10 points and five rebounds, and Peyton Frey led the way for Davidson with 15 points. Cooper Davis and Trey Majidzadeh each scored 14 for the Patriots.
Girls basketball
Westerville South took down Watterson 59-57 on Feb. 5 thanks to a buzzerbeating 3-pointer from Leila Jones, who finished with 24 points.
With a career-high 32 points in a 7158 win over Lima Senior on Feb. 5, Marion Harding senior Justice Steinmanross passed 1,000 points for her career.
Led by 19 points from Harper Annarino and 16 from Cate Schieber, Granville avenged a January loss to Watkins Memorial with a 58-39 win over the Warriors on Monday.
Delaware Hayes senior and Butler commit Chloe Jeffers scored 21 points in a 42-31 win over Dublin Scioto on Monday. Jeffers then went for 23 points in a 53-42 win over Canal Winchester on Friday.
Hilliard Davidson senior Kierstyn Liming passed 1,000 career points as she scored 22 in a 54-39 loss to Dublin Coffman on Monday.
Imarianah Russell, a Reynoldsburg senior and West Virginia commit, capped a 28-point, 11-rebound performance with a buzzer-beating layup to send the Raiders to a 50-49 win over Newark on Tuesday.
Upper Arlington senior Alyssa Gest scored 24 points in a 45-28 win over Olentangy Orange on Monday and added another 21 in a 35-28 win over Dublin Scioto on Tuesday. With those two performances, she had a four-game streak of scoring 20+ points, though that streak was broken with six points in a 43-20 loss to Dublin Coffman on Friday.
Mara Mcglone scored 24 of Worthington Kilbourne’s 48 points in a win over Dublin Jerome on Tuesday.
Africentric sophomore Kamryn Grant scored 16 points and pulled down 18 rebounds in Wednesday’s 36-31 City League championship win over Northland.
Danville sophomore Ella Proper scored 20 points — 17 in the fourth quarter and overtime — as she led the Blue Devils to a 68-63 double-overtime win over Cardington on Thursday, snapping Cardington’s 67-game win streak in the KMAC that stretched back to the origination of the KMAC in 2017.
Taylor Roberts became the third player in West Jefferson history to hit 1,000 career points on Friday night.
Bowling
The Briggs boys bowling team won the City League championship for the fourth consecutive year.
After winning zero no matches in the KMAC last year, East Knox won the boys KMAC tournament on Friday.
Hall of fame
Gary Mason and Mike Stilwell were inducted into the Liberty Union-thurston school district’s athletics hall of fame on Feb. 5 in honor of their combined 102 years of service. Mason served as the basketball and football scorekeeper for 52 years and Stilwell was a basketball clock operation and football announcer for 50 years.
Football
Jeremy Mckinney will be the new coach at Bloom-carroll, replacing Wade Bartholomew, who took the head job at Olentangy. Mckinney had been the Bulldogs’ defensive coordinator. bjohnson@dispatch.com @baileyajohnson_