Pick Central’s Faith King battles for possession with Watterson’s Sophie Ziel during a D1 Regional Final game at the Rike Center in Westerville. (Press Pros Feature Photos by Brian Bayless)
Leading by just two points at halftime, Pickerington Central turned up its defensive pressure to break down Watterson and reach the state final four for the 15th time. The Tigers will be shooting for a record-equaling eighth championship.
Westerville, OH – In reality, the groundwork for Pickerington Central’s 15th big-school regional girls basketball championship Friday night was laid in the mid-1980s by Dave Butcher, who built a program that set the standard rivaled by none across Ohio.
While the current Tigers players surely have seen, and admired, the many purple and white banners on the gym’s walls, they are driven more by recent memory.
Last March, Central squandered an eight-point lead in the final nine minutes in stunning a 58-53 state semifinal defeat to Olmsted Falls.
“We want to win the state even more now than we did last year,” Central 6-foot-1 senior standout Berry Wallace said. “That left a bad taste in our mouths, and we’ve been determined ever since then to get back there and make things right.”
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Veteran central Ohio columnist Steve Blackledge writes the OCC and sports at large for Press Pros.
The latest step in that quest was accomplished with a hard-fought 43-30 victory over Watterson before a near-sellout crowd at Otterbein University’s Rike Center.
Second-ranked in the final Associated Press poll, Central (25-3) will face the winner of Saturday’s regional final between Cincinnati Mount Notre Dame and Springboro in the final four. The semifinal will tip off at 8 p.m. March 15 at University of Dayton Arena.
“We lost seven seniors and three starters from that team last year, but the returning kids felt like they had a lot to prove and they came into this season with a chip on their shoulder,” said coach Chris Wallace, the father of sisters Berry and Blossom. “We definitely learned a lot from that loss and worked in the offseason to become both mentally and physically tough enough to win games like we won tonight.”
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Pick Central’s Berry Wallace gets tied up on a drive by Watterson’s Alexandria Mosholder but still manages to score and convert the free throw for a 3-point play.
Wallace devised a non-league schedule that best could be described as a meat-grinder.
They played powerhouses from Cleveland, Cincinnati, North Carolina, Michigan, New Jersey and Canada. The Tigers’ defeats came to Morris Catholic of Danville, N.J. (the No. 10 team in the US by MaxPreps), Kentucky power Cooper and undefeated Crestwood Prep out of Toronto. Central beat the likes of two-time defending Division II state champion and No. 1-ranked Cincinnati Purcell Marian, 10th-ranked Rocky River Magnificat and state-ranked teams from Charlotte and Chapel Hill, N.C.
Six of their opponents — with a combined record of 122-19 – were still playing heading into Friday’s action.
“We’ve played so many tough teams, we’re prepared for anything teams throw at us,” Berry Wallace said.
And Watterson (20-7) – coming off big upsets of fourth-ranked Marysville in the district final and top-ranked Olentangy in a regional semifinal – was an opponent that relies on throwing off-speed pitches, so to speak. Veteran coach Sam Davis wins with defense, toughness, discipline and a controlled tempo.
Lilly Mulligan attempts a 3 point shot during the first half of play.
This approach gave Central fits for a while, but the Tigers’ size and athleticism – particularly on the defensive end – frazzled and ultimately wore down the Eagles.
“Our goal is to play fast and score in transition,” Berry Wallace said. “Even though they wanted to keep the tempo slower, we know exactly what we want to do on defense. At halftime, coach told us it was time to get our transition defense going and that’s when we turned the game around.”
Central led just 20-18 at halftime, but an inbounds steal and three-point play by Berry Wallace in the final minute of the third quarter pushed the lead to seven.
Three-point shots by Zoe Coleman and Rylee Bess early in the fourth quarter solidified the lead, then the Tigers played keep away to salt away the win.
Berry Wallace, the Central District Player of the Year and a Ms. Basketball finalist who has signed with Illinois, finished with game-highs of 14 points, 11 rebounds and two blocked shots. Blossom Wallace, a 6-1 sophomore, added 11 points and four steals. She also was most responsible for covering Watterson standout guard Sophie Ziel.
“That was a very hard, challenging matchup because Ziel is such a dangerous player, but it was fun and I enjoyed the challenge,” Blossom Wallace said.
Blossom Wallace adds 2 points late in the contest to pad the Tigers’ advantage.
Ziel, who possesses NBA three-point range, had 13 points and Lilly Mulligan added 10 points and seven rebounds.
The most revealing stat, however was this: Watterson committed 21 turnovers and Pickerington Central made 12 steals. Much of the Tigers’ offensive success was generated by the defense.
“Turning it over so much really did us in,” Davis said. “Their pressure hurt us, and we didn’t run our full-court press offense as well as we typically do. We tried to do things we’re not used to doing. But, listen. Pickerington Central is really, really good. This is a team that could very well go win the state title next week.”
Watterson hadn’t advanced this far since 1987, and Davis half-jokingly called it a moral victory to hold Central nearly 20 points below its season average.
“We felt like we did belong and I think we showed people that over the past few weeks,” he said.
As for Pickerington Central, its goal is nothing short of returning from Dayton with an eighth state championship trophy. Columbus Africentric holds the all-divisions mark with eight, all of them coming since 2007. Only Berlin Hiland has more final four appearances with 19.
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