OHSAA boys basketball: Westerville South, Pickerington Central among district champions

Westerville South 71, Dublin Jerome 64 (2OT)

In the last of four Division I district finals March 5 at Ohio Dominican, South held off Jerome to capture its sixth district title.

The third-seeded Wildcats outscored the sixth-seeded Celtics 14-7 in the second overtime to improve to 25-0.

“The game was always back and forth, so many calls were back and forth,” South coach Ed Calo said. “It was a tough game. It was a tough game to get up big. They took us out of a lot of what we wanted to do and we took them out of a lot of things they wanted to do. It was a hard-fought game.”

Jerome finished 21-5, while South advanced to play Gahanna Lincoln in a regional semifinal at 8 p.m. March 9 at Ohio Dominican.

Drey Carter scored a game-high 25 points to lead South. Isaiah Johnson had 17 points and Jalen Wheeler and Reign Winston each added 10.

Sasha Stavroff led Jerome with 17 points, followed by Ryan Nutter with 14 and Jack Pinney with 10.

“We just got tired, our legs were kind of shot, (and) C.C. (Ezirim) fouled out,” Jerome coach Richie Beard said. “We couldn’t match their size inside down the stretch. We got stops, our kids battled. That’s been us all season.”

—Frank DiRenna

Division II: Linden-McKinley tops Bloom-Carroll, Heath edges Beechcroft in district finals

Division III: Africentric, Harvest Prep earn district championships

Pickerington Central 54, Olentangy Liberty 49

Juwan Turner looked as comfortable draining what turned out to be the game-winning 3-pointer as he did scoring 11 of the top-seeded Tigers’ 14 first-quarter points.

The sophomore guard benefited from the 10th-seeded Patriots’ focus on stopping Devin Royal and Sonny Styles, scoring a game-high 17 points as Central finished on a 7-0 run and fended off an upset bid for its eighth district title in 11 seasons.

“Sonny and Devin were in foul trouble, too, so I felt like I had to step up. I felt very confident and they were going to sink in and let me shoot,” Turner said. “I figured they would crash in on Sonny and Devin (on the game-winning 3) so I knew I would be open and I was ready to shoot. It felt great. The moment didn’t feel too big.”

The Tigers, who trailed by as many as nine points at 44-35 in the final minute of the third quarter, improved to 22-2 and will face Upper Arlington in a regional semifinal at 6 p.m. March 9 at Ohio Dominican.

After Liberty managed to slow the game throughout the final minutes, Central’s game-clinching run began with Turner’s 3 from low on the right with 50 seconds left. Styles took a charge from Cooper Davis with 13.6 seconds left as Davis drove toward the paint, then Styles ran down the lane almost untouched for a layup on the other end to make it 52-49 with 7.3 seconds left.

Royal, who like Styles finished with 10 points, sealed the win with two free throws.

“I kind of just played it the best I could. (Davis) was just playing basketball, I guess. I just tried to play good defense and not foul at the end of the game,” said Styles, an Ohio State football recruit who guarded Davis for much of the game. “We got good stops. That’s where it started and we were attacking and cutting down low.”

Davis, a Toledo recruit, scored a game-high 19 points to lead the Patriots, who finished 14-11 and were seeking their third district championship in four seasons.

Central led only once through the first three quarters, 16-14 after one, before going ahead 47-46 on a Markell Johnson-Nichols layup with 4:48 to go.

“You’re going to pick your poison with a really athletic team like that,” Liberty coach Greg Nossaman said. “We played 25 games this year and 22 of them were just like this. (There were) some calls down the stretch but that’s basketball. But we battled.”

—Dave Purpura

Upper Arlington 48, Reynoldsburg 43

An 8-0 run to start the fourth quarter erased the seventh-seeded Golden Bears’ last deficit of the day and powered them to their first district championship since 2017.

Denison recruit Nick Heath scored a game-high 23 points, including back-to-back layups in the game-deciding run as UA improved to 21-4.

“I was able to get to the rim more than usual and I got some rebounds, which helped create some things,” Heath said. “Basketball is a game of runs. We knew they would go on maybe an 8-0 run or something like that, but we just had to come back and maintain that lead.”

Stingy defense created several lengthy possessions for both teams in the first half and led to only two double-digit scorers in the game. Freshman Jordan Fisher led the 13th-seeded Raiders with 11 points, six of which came on 3-pointers at the end of the first half that got Reynoldsburg within 22-20.

A 6-2 run gave the Raiders a 36-35 lead after three, but consecutive baskets for Quinn Corna and Drew Graves to start the fourth put the Bears back ahead to stay.

Owen Gawel and Graves each finished with eight points.

“We defended pretty well and rebounded pretty well in the second half. That was the key,” UA coach Tim Casey said. “We made some big shots and handled their pressure for the most part. We had three turnovers in the first half and I’m not sure how many we finished with, but I would say it was under 10 and against their length and athleticism, that was pretty good.”

Jonye Madison added nine points for Reynoldsburg, which finished 15-10 and was coming off a 68-59 upset of fourth-seeded Pickerington North in a district semifinal March 2. The Raiders also defeated Pickerington Central 63-60 in their regular-season finale Feb. 17.

“You always want to be playing your best this time of year,” Reynoldsburg coach Andy Moore said. “We were inconsistent coming into the month of February but we got some great wins.”

—Dave Purpura

Gahanna Lincoln 66, St. Charles 39

The second-seeded Lions rode the hot shooting of senior point guard Sean Jones to a double-digit first-half lead and won their second consecutive district championship and sixth overall.

Jones made his first eight shots, including three from 3-point range, and had 19 points in the first half as Gahanna built a 32-19 lead.

“(Jones) had such a great start, and that’s what a four-year starter and a Mr. Basketball candidate should do,” said Lions coach Tony Staib, whose team improved to 24-2. “I thought we really prepared well. These guys were very focused and I thought our preparation and focus right off the bat showed.”

St. Charles, which was the 15th seed and finished 14-9, has one of the area’s top inside players in 6-8 junior center Chase Walker, and he scored his team’s first three baskets.

He had 11 points in the first half but was held to 16 for the game, which is two under his average.

“We had a couple different plans (on how to guard Walker) and it seemed like none of them worked,” Staib said. “He’s a really good player, but we thought if we could battle him and keep everybody else in check, we knew he’d score points but not enough to beat us.”

Gahanna got 11 points in the third quarter from senior forward Javan Simmons and led 55-28 heading into the final period.

“I feel like I was just ready to play and was prepared for this moment when I woke up this morning,” Jones said. “Their two bigs are on the slower side on the defensive end, so our game plan was to put their bigs into space and move them around, and that’s what we did.”

Jones finished with 29 points and Simmons added 18 for the Lions, who lost in a regional final last season.

Zach Auletta added 11 points for St. Charles.

“Sean Jones is a special player,” Cardinals coach Mike Ryan said. “He was hitting from 2 and 3 and we were contesting every shot and he hit them. Those are the type of games where they’re just a little bit better, but I’d take Chase Walker against any post in the state.”

—Jarrod Ulrey

DIVISION IV

Newark Catholic 54, Grandview Heights 33

Cole Canter scored 17 points and Brandon Buchanan added 15 with three 3-pointers at Capital to lead the second-seeded Green Wave to its second consecutive district title.

Newark Catholic improved to 14-11 and will play Berlin Hiland in a regional semifinal at 6 p.m. March 8 at Ohio University.

The top-seeded Bobcats had a miserable shooting effort, going 6-for-22 in the first half, including 2-for-11 in the second quarter. They trailed 25-17 at halftime then were outscored 19-2 in the third while shooting 1-for-9 in the quarter.

“At halftime, I told the kids to go out and act like the score was 0-0,” Newark Catholic coach Nate Adams said. “We needed to go out, take over the game and just keep stepping on the gas.”

Aiden Leslie and Tre Holliman had nine points apiece to lead the Bobcats, who finished 15-9 and had a string of three consecutive district championships snapped.

“Give (Newark Catholic) credit, we didn’t get the job done,” Grandview coach Ray Corbett said. “I was not happy with our poise, and I was not happy with our execution. When you get here in a district final, you have to have poise and you have to execute.”

—Scott Hennen

East Knox 51, Grove City Christian 36

East Knox pulled away in the second half at Capital, outscoring the Eagles 34-19 to win its first district title.

The Bulldogs hadn’t played in a district final since 1970, while Grove City Christian was seeking its first district title since 2017.

“It was a pleasant surprise to have an opportunity to play in this basketball game and have this experience,” said Eagles coach Chris Timlin, whose team has no seniors. “Unfortunately, because of our lack of depth, that caught up to us this evening.”

Fifth-seeded Grove City Christian finished 14-10, while third-seeded East Knox improved to 20-6 and will play New Madison Tri-Village in a regional semifinal at 5:30 p.m. March 8 at Kettering Fairmont.

Seth Vaughn led the Eagles with 15 points and Caleb Ransom had 12.

Shane Knepp, the district Player of the Year, scored 26 for East Knox, with 21 coming in the second half. Dillon Moreland added 14 points.

“We really struggled defensively ... trying to keep Knepp in front of us,” Timlin said. “Knepp is a great player. Trenton (Timlin) had a really nice first half on him, took a couple of offensive fouls, but we knew that he was going to come out in the second half and play high-level basketball and he did.”

—Frank DiRenna

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This article originally appeared on ThisWeek: Central Ohio boys basketball: Divisions I, IV district finals results