They did it! Head coach Shan Trusley lets down his guard and raises his arms in celebration with the Warrior faithful after the team dominated and disposed of the Massillon Perry Panthers in the DII state title game. (Press Pros Feature Photos by Brian Bayless)
Micah Young (24 points, eight rebounds) and Tai Perkins (19 points, four assists, four steals) led the charge as the Warriors ambushed Perry to cap a championship season with a 24th straight win.
Dayton, OH – In the midst of a second-quarter Westerville North feeding frenzy Friday night, a Massillon Perry fan frantically screamed at the top of her lungs, “You’re throwing it right to them!”
For those who hadn’t watched North’s precise, high-octane pressing, trapping, fast-breaking style before the Division II state championship game, it sure must have appeared that way.
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“A saying that we’ve kind of kept in the locker room is called ‘deep water,’ Warriors 13th-year coach Shan Trusley said. “Our goal is to take other teams out to deep water … someplace they’ve never gone before. In layman’s terms, our goal is to speed you up, turn you over and gash you.”
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North did precisely that in taking apart Perry 78-46 for its first state title since 1994, when Trusley was a young assistant under Dave Hoover, and then Kevin Thuman when the Warriors returned to the final four in 1995 and 1996.
Some observers around the state may not have been keen on the Ohio High School Athletic Association’s dramatic expansion from four to seven divisions, but North certainly was a beneficiary and knew it would be from day one. The way the Warriors (25-2) so thoroughly dominated its competition this season, one can’t help but wonder how it would fare against the likes of Olentangy Orange and Reynoldsburg, who square off for the big-school title Saturday night.
Tony Cornett gets two of his 10 points to jump start the Warriors’ assault in the first quarter.
North, which came in outscoring its opponents by an average margin of 77.4 to 52.2, raced out to a 10-0 lead before the Panthers knew what hit them. The Warriors’ turned three backcourt steals into easy layups.
The lead ballooned to 21 midway through the second quarter, and the Warriors never let up until Trusley pulled his starters en masse with 4:44 left.
“Our kids just went out and did what they always do tonight,” Trusley said.
The final statistic sheet offered some eye-popping evidence of why North was able to carve apart Perry.
North scored 37 points directly off 27 Perry turnovers and outscored the Panthers 33-0 in fast break points. The Warriors collected 24 steals.
“Their pressures, rotations, blitzes and traps really sped us up and made us commit too many live-ball turnovers,” Perry coach Matt Voll said. “They obviously fed off our turnovers. Teams that have had the most success against us do it with full man pressure and they know how to trap and when to come and how to exploit us. They didn’t do anything we didn’t expect. We just couldn’t handle it.”
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Some of the Warriors’ fast breaks were pure showtime with behind-the-back passes and pinpoint feeds.
“In practice, sometimes we play with a 10-second shot clock and the kids love it and feed off it,” Trusley said.
Micah Young takes advantage of another Perry turnover. Young contributed a game-high 24 points on the night.
North had a 16-0 run and two separate 10-0 runs in the rout.
Despite playing a rugged Federal League schedule with predominantly Division I schools, Perry obviously hadn’t seen anything quite as overpowering as North’s full-court assault.
“We couldn’t overcome the pressure they brought,” senior guard Drake Jacobsen said. “We couldn’t get in our sets and we didn’t get back fast enough on defense to keep them from scoring.”
Concord signee Micah Young turned in team-high efforts of 24 points and eight rebounds, but he had plenty of help. Stepbrother Tai Perkins, an Akron signee, contributed 19 points and four steals. His younger brother Tyson had five steals and five assists.
“Tony Cornett (10 points) really got us over the hump in the early going and gave us a big lift,” Young said.
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Jacobsen had 13 points and Luke Wolf 11 to pace Perry (14-14), which concluded an amazing season of its own, recovering from a 9-13 regular season to make the title game. But North was in a league of its own.
Perry’s Darnell McLeod tries to hitch a ride on North’s Damion King during the DII state title game in Dayton.
North’s 2024-2025 journey began with an 83-47 rout of three-time defending Division IV champion Richmond Heights. That was followed by competitive defeats to Olentangy Orange (57-55) and defending Division I state champion Cleveland St. Ignatius (85-72). That 1-2 start set the table for a season-closing 24-game win streak.
“I’d like to be humble, but, yes, I did envision this from day one,” Trusley said. “You don’t see how hard these kids work at practice. The kids wanted to be challenged and show people that they are the best. They never backed down from those challenges. I think we’ve shown we’re one of the best basketball teams in the state, period.”
The final fast break of the night for these Warriors was to center court to start the celebration.