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.