A hot shooting Westerville Central jumped out to a 19-7 lead and went on to defeat the Irish freshmen by a final score of 64-31.

The Warhawks established their early lead by moving the ball well against the 2-3 zone. They nailed their first four three point attempts in the game. They also used a solid transition game to score layups.

The Irish hung around and cut the lead to 19-11 at the end of the first quarter after consecutive short jumpers by David McKinley and Jason Tiemeier.

The Warhawks hit three straight buckets to start the second quarter, but on the strength of 3-3 shooting by Brandon Brown and a pair of assists by Rainer Duzan to Dylan Coscia and Tiemeier, the Irish trailed 31-21 at the half.

The second half opened with an Irish bucket to cut the lead to 31-23,. but a 13-0 run fueled by an aggressive pressing defense and a solid fast break gave the Warhawks a 56-25 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

The Irish showed their resolve by a playing a solid fourth quarter. They held the Warhawks to 8 points and scored six of their own for the final margin.

Brown led the Irish with 8 points. He was followed by Jerod Nawrocki with 6 points and McKinley with 5.

The Irish bench played hard in this game as evidenced by Nate Innis' three rebounds, a Rahim Wasim blocked shot and aggressive defense by Ryan Adams. Both Adams and Nawrocki took charges.

Upcoming freshman games: 6 p.m. Tuesday, December 13 at Dublin Coffman; 6 p.m. Thursday, December 15 versus Grove City.