For the third straight game, the Irish lost a conference game to a Westerville school, falling to Central by the score of 56-43.
If you enjoy watching referees blow their whistles in rapid fire fashion, this was the game for you, as 50 fouls where called on the night. Unfortunately 28 of them were on the Irish and Central capitalized by hitting 22 out of 35 foul shots. Central committed 22 fouls on the night, however the Irish were not nearly as proficient at the foul line, hitting just 10 out of 21.
The Irish did draw four charging fouls on the night, as Antonio Bisutti, Justin Craig, Joshua Ashwill and Jamare Mills each drew one.
Central led throughout the game, holding leads of 14-7 after the first quarter, 29-17 at the half and 40-30 after the third quarter.
Raneal Ewing was high scorer with 13 points, followed by Mills with 8. Also scoring for the Irish were Bisutti with 7, Ashwill with 6, Craig and Gabe McGlone with 3 each, Ryan Duncan with 2 and Travis Yates with 1.
Box Score
DS: Ewing 6-0-13, Mills 2-4-8, Bisutti 2-3-7, Ashwill 2-0-6, Craig 1-0-3, McGlone 1-0-3, Duncan 0-2-2, Yates 0-1-1. 3-point goals: Ashwill 2, Craig, Ewing, McGlone. Totals: 14-10-43.
WC: Harris 4-5-13, Vannett 4-4-12, Henderson 4-4-12, Stennett 1-7-9, Graves 1-2-5, Shawver 1-0-3, Shaw 1-0-2. 3-point goals: Graves, Shawver. Totals: 16-22-56.
Westerville Central lead 13-6 after one quarter and never looked back in defeating the Irish by the score of 55-25
Central extended the lead each quarter, leadeing 23-8 at half and 42-20 after the 3rd quarter.
Scoring for the Irish were Dominic Madison with 13 points, Aaron Strausbaugh with 7 points, Chase Sult with 3 and Matthew Messick with 2.
The Irish stand at 2-3 for the season, including 2-2 in the OCC Cardinal. The JV next game is Wednesday, December 29th at 1100 AM at Olentangy Liberty against Buckeye Valley.
A 9-0 run to start the second quarter propelled the Westerville Central freshman team to a 57-31 victory over the Irish.
The Warhawks led 6-4 after one quarter as both teams had trouble getting untracked from the field.
Westerville Central turned up the pressure in the middle quarters and outscored the Irish 39-10. The Irish attempted to dribble through the press and in transition, leading to turnovers and numerous easy buckets for the Warhawks.
The Irish more than doubled their point production in the first three quarters by outscoring the Warhawks 17-12 in the fourth quarter.
Leading the way with 12 points was Matt Messick, with 9 coming in the fourth quarter. Evan Ekis tallied 8 points, including two treys and a perfect 2-2 at the free throw line.
Brian Chu chipped in four points and made two great hustle plays ? diving for a loose ball after deflecting a pass and taking a charge ? in the third quarter. Also scoring for the Irish were Darius McDonald (4) and Zac Brown (3).
Warhawks center Eric James led all scorers with 13 points. Forward Jalen Malone and guard Josh Wilson joined him in double figures with 10 points each.
The Irish lost their third straight OCC Cardinal game and fell to 1-3 in the league and 1-4 overall. They are next in action at 5 p.m. on December 30 at Athens.