If girls high school basketball teams were part of the futures market, there wouldn't have been many buyers for Gahanna going into the tournament.
The Lions finished fourth in the Ohio Capital Conference Ohio Division, had no name players after 6-foot-2 center Haley Schmitt and were in a power-packed lower bracket.
A lot of people would want shares in the team now after it defeated fifth-seeded Northland and second-seeded Tri-Valley to win its first Division I district championship since 2006.
What everyone found out is Gahanna (17-6) played in perhaps the deepest conference in the state, with Pickerington North (23-1) and Reynoldsburg (19-5) also having made it to the regional at Otterbein. Pickerington North plays Xenia and Reynoldsburg plays Gahanna in the semifinals Tuesday.
"We knew our division was tough because I complained about it all year long," Lions coach Rick Hauser said. "We had five league losses. We lost to Pickerington North by three points and one point and to Reynoldsburg by six points and eight points."
Hauser said that this isn't the most talented team has coached.
"These kids play together," he said. "The last thing is team spirit. It's contagious."
Guard Casey Salopek said the Lions win because of their toughness.
"We just never back down from anyone," she said. "We play hard. We have a lot of confidence. I think our conference (schedule) helped. In the beginning of the season we were a little shaky. We had to teach the new players. We've progressed as the season has gone along."
Reynoldsburg, which finished second to Pickerington North in the OCC Ohio, is in the regional for the first time since 1991.
The Raiders broke through after having lost in the district final two of the previous three years.
"But we're not done," senior forward T'Shera Lucas said. "We're getting right back into it. We aren't going to take a day off. You can't do that at this stage."
Say what you will about the difficulty of beating a team three times in a season or that the third time is a charm.
The simple matter was that fifth-seeded Dublin Coffman edged fourth-seeded and previously unbeaten Upper Arlington 50-48 yesterday in a Division I district semifinal in the Ohio Expo Center Coliseum because it was a little bit better this time. Like an inch or so better.
UA's Carter Smith rimmed out a jumper with one foot on the three-point line in the final second that would have forced overtime.
"Actually, we didn't do a whole lot different today than we did in losing to them twice this year," Coffman coach Jamey Collins said. "We just didn't fall into such a hole this time, and we were more aggressive consistently throughout the game."
Shamrocks forward Michael Green said revenge was a motivating factor.
"Them beating us on our senior night left a real sour taste in our mouth and gave us extra incentive," said Green, an Akron recruit. "We've been practicing especially hard and talking about this ever since that night."
Green and Christian Heine scored 14 points each and Kyle Molock 13 for the Shamrocks (19-3). Also playing vital roles were Conner Viers, who converted three straight steals into baskets during a third-quarter run, and Chuck Carkhuff, who didn't score but provided stout defense on Upper Arlington center Jeff Vaughn.
Although the Golden Bears (20-1) kept it close with timely three-point shots and a significant rebounding advantage, standout guard Brian Sullivan - who torched the Shamrocks for 35 and 28 points in the previous games - was limited to 10 on 3-of-13 shooting. The Bears shot 19 of 54 as a team.
"We didn't hit as many shots as we usually do," UA coach Tim Casey said. "They defended us well and took us out of our rhythm. Even so, we had a good shot opportunity at the end of the game that wouldn't drop. It was just the kind of game I anticipated it would be."
The decision to move Westerville North's Josh Demas up two weight classes to 171 pounds this season had gone according to plan until last week.
Demas became ill and dropped to 162 pounds. For the first time, Demas and his coaches wondered whether the move might have not been the best. He was weak, but Demas persevered and advanced to the Division I final.
He showed no signs of illness or apprehension last night. Demas scored with an ankle pick on Copley's Sam Wheeler in the first six seconds and easily won his second state title, 9-3.
"(Wheeler) told me he had a dream about (the match) and he won," Demas said. "I told him I was going to wake him up, and that's what I did with the ankle pick."
Demas celebrated with Randy Languis of Dublin Scioto. Languis edged Shane Foster of Massillon Perry 5-4 to win the 140 title. He is Scioto's second champion. Jake McCombs of Marysville lost to Gus Sako of Lakewood St. Edward 3-1 in the 125 final.
Demas (47-1) used the ankle pick later for another takedown, one of four he had in the match.
"That was the game plan," Westerville North coach David Grant said. "(Wheeler) has a very split stance, and we wanted to get that ankle pick. He had never wrestled Josh, and we kind of knew he wasn't going to respect (the move). You can think you are training for it but, if you aren't used to it, it's hard to defend."
Languis (50-4) had lost to Foster this season but took a 2-0 lead in the first 10 seconds on a takedown. There was little scoring from that point until near the end.
Foster (40-8) scored a takedown with 26 seconds left for a 4-3 lead but was penalized a point for locking his hands, to tie the match. Languis chose bottom on the restart and escaped with 18 seconds left for a point and the win.
"I was thinking 'Oh, crap, I gotta get out,'" Languis said. "But I got out anyways, so instead of tying it up, that won it."
Languis didn't doubt he would escape, even though Foster had ridden him for nearly four minutes in their earlier match.
"State champions don't get ridden and he absolutely did not get ridden," coach Scott King said. "As soon as that whistle blew, he got up to his feet and cocked his hips and got out."
The Reynoldsburg High School girls basketball team finally got the breakthrough it was looking for Saturday at Olentangy Liberty.
After building as big as a 12-point first-quarter lead, the sixth-seeded Raiders held on to beat No. 4 Brookhaven 56-50 to capture their first Division I district championship since winning back-to-back titles in 1990 and '91.
Reynoldsburg will play in a regional semifinal Tuesday in Otterbein College's Rike Center against Gahanna or Dresden Tri-Valley.
"It's a great feeling," senior T'Shera Lucas said. "We wanted to be the team to win the first district championship for coach (Jack Purtell). I really think we deserved this."
The Raiders ended the Bearcats 18-game winning streak and improved to 19-5. Brookhaven finished 21-3.
"It's an amazing feeling," senior forward Aryelle Covington said. "I've been on varsity since my freshman year, and we've always come up short. And it's not over yet."
Reynoldsburg girls basketball coach Jack Purtell thinks his team (15-5 10-4) is peaking at the right time.
The Raiders finished second in the Ohio Division of the Ohio Capital Conference behind Pickerington North (19-1 14-0), the state's top-ranked Division I team and top seed in the district tournament.
The Raiders finished the regular season strong with three wins to face a four-win Columbus West at Hamilton Township Wednesday, Feb 17, in the tournament opener.
"Pick North played well when they had to, beating Gahanna and us twice," Purtell said, adding, "the top of our league was extremely competitive and we just dropped a couple of close games. We expect West to play extremely hard against us."
With a win over the City League representative, the Raiders would face the winner of the Logan-Chillicothe game, which was also scheduled for Feb. 17.
As for the tournament seeding, Purtell was realistic.
"We had five losses, and a six seed was pretty much what we expected," he said.
"There are several teams with better records seeded ahead of us, but I don't think they played as tough a schedule as we did."
The top bracket of the Powell district includes Upper Arlington and Brookhaven, both of which are coming off strong seasons. The Golden Bears (17-1, 12 -1) finished atop the OCC Capital Division and, like Pickerington North, was named a top team in the state.
The Bearcats (18-2, 13-1) took top honors in the City League.
"It's going to be tough to get through Arlington and Brookhaven to move on, but we're healthy and we're hitting our stride at the right time," Purtell said, concluding, "the tournament should be fun.
"We won 75 percent of our games against some tough competition and, with our numbers down this year, I'm very proud of the players."
Meanwhile, T'Shera Lucas and Kacia Grant struck for 12 and 10 points, respectively, in host Reynoldsburg's 46-39 win Friday, Feb. 12, over Gahanna.
The Raiders (15-5) led after every quarter break. They were up 11-8 after the first eight minutes, 20-15 at halftime and 32-27 entering the final period.
Reynoldsburg went up by a commanding 13 points with four minutes remaining, but the never-say-die Lions went on a 10-0 run, whittling the margin to just three points (42-39) with a minute to go.
The Raiders' Lucas helped halt the rally, however, sinking two free throws with 41 seconds left. Grant added two more charity tosses to account for the final margin.
Gahanna fell to 12-6 with the loss.
Take care of business and business will take care of you.
The Orange Pioneers held off a stubborn Hayes Pacer team 54-50 in Ohio Capital Conference Capital Division action Friday on the first senior night at Orange High School, then received the surprise of their year as New Albany knocked off Mount Vernon, giving the Pioneers a share of the OCC Capital title.
Free throws proved Orange’s (16-3, 12-2 OCC Capital) savior and Hayes’ (11-9, 8-6) downfall. The Pioneers and Pacers both attempted 21 free tosses, but Orange hit 15 of its tries while Hayes drained just five.
Orange used a 12-0 run early on to take a 14-4 lead on Hayes and kept the Pacers at arm’s length the rest of the half. The Pioneers led 17-11 at the end of the first quarter and jumped ahead 26-15 and 32-21 in the second before taking a 32-23 lead into the locker room at the half.
Hayes made a 7-2 run early in the third quarter, trimming the Orange lead to just four points, 34-30, but the Pioneers scored the final seven points of the quarter, shutting out the Pacers in the final five and half minutes of the period, to take a 41-30 lead into the final period.
Hayes made a valiant run in the final quarter, slowly clipping the Pioneer advantage down.
The Pacers scored the first seven points of the quarter to again drop Orange’s lead to four points, received a three-point play from sophomore Matt Bingaya with 1:48 left to cut the deficit to three, 46-43, then got a Bingaya jumper with 25 seconds to go to narrow the lead to two, 52-50.
But needing to foul, Hayes did so, and senior Zach Joseph hit two free throws with 20 seconds left for the final margin.
Hayes had the ball in those final seconds, but a stiff Pioneer defense kept the Pacers from getting off any kind of shot at all.
Senior Taylor Rieger had 17 points to lead the way for Orange. Senior Cameron Sheehan had a strong all-around game, closing with 15 points, five rebounds, two assists, three steals and a block.
Joseph added 10 points, eight coming from the foul line. Seniors Jason Hoskins and Bryce Agler also closed with five points each.
Bingaya led all scorers with 19 points for the Pacers, scoring 13 of Hayes’ 20 points in the final quarter. Bingaya also had eight rebounds and two steals.
Junior Nick Potter added 12 points for Hayes while fellow junior Braxton Coleman pumped in nine points and hauled down eight more boards. Coleman, however, was a microcosm of the Pacers’ free throw troubles, going just 1 for 12 from the stripe.
WESTERVILLE NORTH 62, OLENTANGY 39
The host Warriors pulled out to a double-digit lead over the Braves at the half, but a big third quarter sank any Olentangy hopes in a 23-point Ohio Capital Conference Cardinal Division loss Friday in Westerville.
Olentangy (5-15, 4-10 OCC Cardinal) stayed close in the opening period, trailing by just four points, but Westerville North (15-3, 11-3) used a 14-7 second quarter to extend its lead to 11 points, 26-15, at the half. The Warriors’ 22-8 third quarter gave them a 48-23 lead after three quarters and the rest was history.
Justin Gingery led the Braves with 10 points, but was the only Olentangy player to score in double figures. Stephen Walczak added eight points for the Braves and Ben-Michael Welch five points.
Olentangy opens Division II tournament play at 6:15 p.m. Tuesday, facing Columbus South at Centerburg High School.
WESTERVILLE SOUTH 81, LIBERTY 46
The Patriots fell behind by double digits in the opening quarter and finished as the Wildcats’ 20th and final regular-season victim in their 35-point Ohio Capital Conference Cardinal Division loss Friday in Westerville.
Liberty (10-10, 7-7 OCC Cardinal) was overwhelmed from the start by Westerville South (20-0, 14-0), the No. 10-ranked team in the state in Division I. The Wildcats led 21-8 after one quarter, and after the Patriots made a second quarter run to keep the deficit manageable, South outscored Liberty 43-24 in the final two quarters.
Matt Napier did the bulk of the work for Liberty, scoring a team-high 16 points. Jake Bischoff, Andy Yazrombek and Michael Fries followed with six points each, and Zack Michael and Will Cheesman added five points apiece.
The Patriots face off against Orange at 6:15 p.m. Wednesday in a Division I sectional semifinal at Worthington Christian High School’s Grace Family Center.
Dave Dixon’s Golden Eagle bowling teams continue to make history. Big Walnut and Hilliard Bradley closed out the season on February 2 at Ten Pin Alley by sharing the inaugural Ohio Capital Conference Capital Division boys bowling championship.
Earlier, the Golden Eagle girls, on the strength a 290-pin, 1,724-1,434 victory over Hilliard Bradley at Ten Pin Alley, clinched the first-ever OCC Capital Division girls championship as well as Central Ohio White Division title.
In the final OCC Capital boys standings, Hilliard Darby, Hilliard Davidson and Reynoldsburg rounded out the division.
Tyler Fifer led the Golden Eagles with a 181 season average, an average that included 226 high single game and a 407 season average for two games.
Backing Fifer were Brandon Magyari with a 179 average (246-409), Nick Velazquez at 168 (194-352) and Jon McClelland at 167 (214-382). Zach Green completed Big Walnut’s rotation with a 152 average (179-322).
Cody Ashbaugh, who saw action in only two games, posted the Golden Eagles’ high single game, 252, and high series, 421.
In the Central Ohio High School Bowling Conference White Division, Big Walnut placed second behind Bishop Hartley. Fifer led the way with a 191 average (279-489).
Ashbaugh (176; 252-421), Magyari (175; 246-409), McClelland (172; 214-411), Valazquez (167; 234-426) and Green (148; 179-322) rounded out the Golden Eagles’ season scores.
Chris Savage believes teams don't walk toward a league championship, they sprint.
Trailing Hilliard Davidson 19-12 with 4 minutes, 23 seconds left in the second quarter last Friday, the normally-reserved coach of the Upper Arlington High School girls basketball team called a timeout to make sure his team got that message.
After the timeout, junior Sarah Hobbs hit two 3-pointers to spark an 11-4 UA run. That run pushed the Bears to a 53-47 win over the Wildcats and outright possession of the OCC-Central Division championship.
With the win, UA improved to 17-1 overall and secured its first league championship since the 2003-04 season with a 13-1 league record. The Bears still have a game remaining with Westland on Saturday, but hold a two-game lead over Davidson, 10-3 in the OCC after losses to UA and Hilliard Darby (41-35 on Feb. 10).
"This means so much," said Hobbs, who finished with 17 points. "We were not playing as hard as we usually do. We needed something to get us back into the game."
That something was a tirade by Savage, who emphatically told his team they were "jogging on offense and jogging on defense."
UA hadn't played since a 48-31win over Central Crossing on Feb. 2 and then had to sit through a freshman game, a junior varsity game that was delayed by an injury and "Senior Night" ceremonies. Senior Jane Windler, who finished with 12 points and 11 rebounds, said Savage's pep talk was a wake-up call.
"(Savage) doesn't get like that very often, but we needed it," Windler said. "Sitting on the bench, you could see that we were not putting in the effort. (We) were ready to go after that."
Clinching the league championship was the perfect sendoff for the Division I district tournament. The third-seeded Bears play Marion-Franklin in the first round of the tournament at 6:15 p.m. today at Hilliard Davidson.
The winner plays Westland at 6:15 p.m. Wednesday at Hamilton Township. With a first-round win, UA, which beat the Cougars 68-40 on Jan. 5, could face Westland twice in four days. The Feb. 5 showdown between the two teams was canceled because of bad weather.
When Brian Nicola was hired as coach of the Olentangy Orange High School wrestling team prior to its inaugural season in 2008, he hoped to lead the Pioneers to their first league title by the end of their third season.
Thus, Nicola was pleasantly surprised to see his squad clinch the OCC-Capital Division title in a dominating fashion on Feb. 11, beating Watkins Memorial 51-17 and crushing Franklin Heights 80-0, to finish 7-0 in league dual matches.
"We wanted to win the OCC by our third year, so it's exciting to see that we're kind of a year ahead of where we thought we'd be," Nicola said. "Once we beat Mount Vernon (43-17 on Jan. 14), we felt really good about our chances, because they killed us (71-0) last year. This championship says a lot about how hard our athletes have worked and how much they've improved in one year."
Senior heavyweight Josh Winn said ending the regular season by winning the OCC-Capital should give the Pioneers a boost of confidence heading into the Division I sectional tournament on Saturday at Westland.
The top four placers in each weight class from each sectional qualify for the district tournament on Feb. 26-27 at Hilliard Darby.
Last season, Orange finished eighth (82 points) in the 12-team Division II sectional at Amanda-Clearcreek, behind champion Canal Winchester (191.5). The Pioneers had four district qualifiers in Jonathan Edwards (103 pounds), J.J. Jurcisek (112), Josh Toprani (135) and Winn (heavyweight).
"Winning the OCC was a big accomplishment and it definitely gives us a boost going into sectional," Winn said. "We're confident that we can handle the move up from Division II to Division I, because we wrestled in the North Canton Hoover Invitational (Dec. 18-19) and the Brecksville Holiday Tournament (Dec. 29-30), and the caliber of competition we faced in those tournaments was better than most central Ohio wrestlers. Coach told us we could get nine or more guys through to district if we wrestle well as a team."
Ten of the Pioneers' starters enter the sectional with a winning record: Edwards (29-4 at 103), Jurcisek (20-11 at 119), Toprani (23-7 at 140), Winn (23-7 at heavyweight), Dan Dawson (18-13 at 130), Frank Hu (13-10 at 125), Dakota Taylor (14-12 at 189), Artem Timchenko (29-6 at 112), Dan Waldron (24-9 at 145) and Jarrod Winn (16-10 at 160).
Mike Moore (10-19 at 152), Jake Selbe (12-12 at 171), Dante Ventresca (12-15 at 135) and Yun Yang (11-19 at 215) also will represent Orange at sectional.
Nicola believes the Pioneers, seeded 10th, will be competing in the toughest of the three sectionals, given that the site includes five other teams seeded in the top 10 in Pickerington North (first), Dublin Coffman (fourth), Hilliard Davidson (fifth), Hilliard Darby (sixth) and Grove City (seventh).
"In wrestling, the seeded teams pick where they want to go in reverse order from last to first, and our sectional was pretty friendly-looking when we chose to go there," Nicola said. "But just like you see when you place a bet in Las Vegas, all of the sudden the tables turned and all hell broke loose. We'll have the best competition at our site, but we know we can compete with these teams. Our better kids should get through and the kids who are on the bubble can still get through if they wrestle well."
At a glance
Below are the recent results and coming schedules for the Liberty, Olentangy and Orange wrestling teams:
LIBERTY
Saturday -- At Division I sectional at Pickerington Central
OLENTANGY
*Feb. 11 -- Defeated Westerville Central 49-30; Def. Westerville South 52-16
Saturday -- At Division II sectional at Amanda-Clearcreek
*OCC-Cardinal match
ORANGE
*Feb. 11 -- Def. Franklin Heights 80-0; Def. Watkins Memorial 51-17
Saturday -- At Division I sectional at Westland
*OCC-Capital match
On a seemingly inconsequential free throw, Ralph Hill took his place atop the Westerville North High School boys basketball program.
The 6-foot-6 senior post player sank his foul shot on Feb. 11 against Westerville South to become the top scorer in program history. Hill has 1,354 points and passed 1995 graduate Shaun Stonerook (1,327).
"It was pretty amazing to be able to do that," Hill said following a 71-55 loss to South. "(Stonerook) found out last summer when he was in town that I had a chance to break his record and he called me up and we had lunch. He's pretty cool and a very down-to-earth person and I couldn't be happier to be mentioned along with him."
Stonerook and the Warriors won a Division I state title in his junior season and North returned to a state semifinal in his senior season. He played college basketball at Ohio State and Ohio University and currently plays professional basketball for Montepaschi Siena in the Euroleague.
Hill entered the season second with 464 rebounds to Stonerook, who finished with 869.
"For Ralph to pass Shaun (in scoring) was amazing and he's worked hard for that," coach Kevin Thuman said. "He's pretty well behind Shaun in rebounds, though. Shaun averaged about 13 rebounds per game as a (junior) and was just unbelievable."
The Warriors were seeded sixth in the Division I district draw last Sunday at Olentangy Liberty, behind Northland, Gahanna, South, Upper Arlington and Dublin Coffman and ahead of seventh-seeded Mount Vernon.
"All things considered, I was happy with the draw," said Thuman, whose team was 14-3 overall as of last Sunday. "I thought we were about a six seed and I really like having a first-round bye. We play three games this week and it will be nice to get some time off and practice."
North plays Friday at home against Olentangy and Saturday at New Albany. Its game against Hilliard Davidson last Tuesday was postponed.
The Warriors will play Grove City or Dublin Scioto in a second-round district game at 6:15 p.m. Feb. 26 at Worthington Christian. The winner will play at 2:30 p.m. March 6 in a district semifinal in the Fairgrounds Coliseum against Lancaster, 11th-seeded Brookhaven, Newark or Mount Vernon.
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