Kaleb Russ defends against Brody Hatfield during D2 regional tournament play at the Taft Coliseum. Russ was called for a foul, despite no apparent contact. (Press Pros Feature Photos by Brian Bayless)
Big Walnut, Westerville North will play Saturday for the regional championship.
Columbus, OH – It’s been 28 years since Big Walnut last experienced regional competition, but being in position to battle for a spot at the state tournament isn’t a completely unknown concept for most of their players.
“I’ve been around these kids since a lot of them were in second and third grade at the youth level, and people won’t believe this, but we talked when they were 8, 9, 10 years old that we want to play for a Final Four,” second-year head coach Aaron Stumpf said. “We would break out of our huddles and say, ‘Final Four on three.’ They buy into that. They’re not the greatest basketball players, but they’re competitors and they want to compete.”
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Veteran central Ohio columnist Jarrod Ulrey writes the OCC and sports at large for Press Pros
The OHSAA’s expansion to seven divisions has opened up opportunities across the state for stories such as the one that belongs to the Golden Eagles, who are 16-10 overall but find themselves one win away from making it to state for the first time.
On Wednesday in the Taft Coliseum at the Ohio Expo Center, Big Walnut had four players score in double figures and beat Licking Heights 65-55 in a Division II regional semifinal.
The win sets up a regional title game meeting at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at the same site against Westerville North, which beat the Golden Eagles 65-30 on Jan. 9 but won the rematch by a much closer 72-64 margin during Ohio Capital Conference Capital Division action.
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Licking Heights, which was competing in its first regional tournament after having advanced to district finals just two previous times, finished 20-5.
Owen Pollock gets some big air and drops in two points for Big Walnut.
“We’ve got to be happy about making it here, but we’ve got to realize that we also need to (keep winning),” Big Walnut junior point guard Brody Hatfield said. “We have to treat (the regional final) like it’s a normal game, but we also realize this is a little tougher and there are higher stakes to go to the final four for the first time as a school.”
Neither team led by more than six during the first half as Big Walnut took a 26-24 lead into the break.
In the third quarter, however, the Golden Eagles found their outside shooting stroke and leveraged their size advantage.
Senior Braden McCruter, who is 6-foot-9, produced a rousing putback dunk that gave Big Walnut its biggest lead at 31-24 with 6 minutes, 25 seconds left in the third period.
McCruter also completed a three-point play midway through the third that made it 39-30.
Big Walnut’s defense was simply too much for Licking Heights.
Carson Scholl, a 6-6 sophomore who Stumpf called “the best shooter in the state of Ohio,” hit a three early in the fourth to give Big Walnut a 48-39 advantage.
Hatfield scored 13 of his game-high 19 during the second half, including making a three-pointer and going 4-for-4 from the foul line during the final period to help the Golden Eagles close it out.
“On defense, we just tried to box out on every shot, and on offense, we were just trying to get the best shot we could and take it one play at a time,” Scholl said. “We’re peaking at the right time.”
Amadou Ceesay finished with 18 points, Kaleb Russ 13, and Bryce Cahill 10 to lead the Hornets. All three players were part of a six-member senior class.
“There were some opportunities there,” Licking Heights coach Shaun Fountain said. “We missed a couple free throws, we had some opportunities to rebound and didn’t come up with it, and our offense was stagnant a little bit. They guarded us pretty well today.
“We know we’ve still got work to do, and it takes time to grow a program the right way. We’re planning to get back on this stage next year.”
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Scholl finished with 14 and McCruter added 13 for Big Walnut.
“It’s an impressive win against a really good team that I was concerned about from the start,” Stumpf said. “They have unbelievable length, athleticism, and size which I was scared of, but our boys executed the game plan. We have length, too, but we don’t have a lot of physicality. We just told the guys to keep taking shots.”
Westerville North 66, Westerville Central 38
North’s win advances it to its first regional final since 1996 when it went on to lose in a Division I state semifinal.
The Warriors won their only state title in 1994 and also lost in a state semifinal in 1995.
Micah Young and his Warrior teammates upended Westerville Central to advance to the D2 regional title game.
In its regional semifinal against the Warhawks, North settled in during the final three minutes of the first quarter and never looked back.
“I really just liked our defensive effort,” said Warriors senior guard Micah Young, a Concord signee. “We really got after it on the defensive end and pushing it in transition. I feel good about the way we’re jelling. We have high chemistry and high energy in practice and it’s carrying over into the games.”
North, which also beat Central 82-52 in a non-conference game Jan. 4, improved to 22-2.
The Warriors closed the opening quarter on a 9-0 run to take a 17-8 lead and increased the advantage to 31-16 by halftime. Young scored half of his 22 points during the first half when North’s transition attack took over.
Young finished with 22 points and senior guard Tai Perkins — the district’s player of the year and an Akron signee — scored 13.
“Central’s a really good team and it’s a friendly rivalry between two high schools in the same district,” North coach Shan Trusley said. “Our defense created a lot of offense for us. We’ve got 12 kids that contribute, and that makes a difference.”
Senior Amare Spiva scored 14 points and senior Josh Henderson – who also will play for Akron – added 13 for Central, which finished 11-14.
“For our young guys, it was a good experience in this type of environment,” Central first-year Max Shawver said. “The seniors got to leave a legacy being the third team in program history to win a district final.”
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