Boys Game of the Week

Dublin Scioto 62, Westerville South 48=

Irish survive Wildcats' fourth-quarter rally

Friday, December 12, 2008 = 1:08 AM

By SCOTT GERFEN

ThisWeek Contributor =

3D"Dublin

By Andrea Kjerrumgaard/ThisWeek<= o:p>

Dublin Scioto's Deji Olatoye pul= ls in a rebound over Westerville South's Geron Tate during Scioto's 62-48 win = at home Friday, Dec. 12.

At a glance

Star: Bradley McDougald, who led all scorers with 18 points and finished with five assists, three steals and two blocked shots.<= /span>

Key run: Rainer Duzan's 3-pointer capped a 16-2 run for Scioto, which outscored South 20-8 in the second quarter.

Key stat: Scioto shot nearly 59 percent from the field.

For a stretch of nea= rly 20 minutes Friday, the Dublin Scioto High School boys basketball team playe= d to perfection.

But even with a 23-p= oint, fourth-quarter lead at home against a Westerville South team that had knock= ed the Irish out of the Division I tournament with a victory in the regional semifinals, coach Tony Bisutti was wondering if it was going to be enough.<= /span>

"I still had it= in my mind that they're not done," said Bisutti, whose team survived with= a 62-48 victory to improve to 3-0 overall and 2-0 in the OCC-Cardinal Divisio= n. "To their credit, they hit shots and I knew that game wasn't over. We = knew they were going to come back and keep playing hard."

South, which shot 40 percent from the field, rallied with a 16-2 run to cut the lead to 51-46 wi= th a little more than three minutes to play.

During that stretch Scioto missed eight straight free throws.

Traevon Jackson scor= ed seven of his 14 points in the fourth quarter before fouling out with about = four minutes left.

Jason Davis tallied = 8 in the find period to finish with 17 after being held to a field goal in the f= irst half.

"Of course, we = knew were a little lucky with them missing the free throws which gave us some opportunities," said South coach Ed Calo, whose team dropped to 2-1 overall and 1-1 in the Cardinal Division. "But we did show some toughn= ess during that stretch and actually made some plays and that's certainly posit= ive for a young team."

Scioto helped build = its lead by outscoring South 20-8 in the second quarter.

David McKinley hit a 3-pointer to extend the Irish lead to 18-13 with about five minutes left in= the half.

Rainer Duzan, who was one of four Scioto players in double-figures, nailed a 3-pointer that cappe= d a 16-2 run for his team in the quarter.

Scioto's leading sco= rer Bradley McDougald had 18 points, five assists, three steals and two blocked shots.

"We definitely = had the shots falling for us, but they had their time, too," McDougald sai= d. "We had to keep our edge and stay composed and as seniors I thought th= at we were able to do that."

The Irish ended the comeback with a layin by Jamare Mills, who had 10 points. Duzan then got a steal and added two free throws to make it 55-46.

"I think they d= id a very good job of taking some shots away," Calo said. "They're a v= ery good defensive basketball team and they got us out of sync a little bit in = what we wanted to do. On the other side of that, we missed some shots that we normally make."