The Irish used a fast start to complete a sweep of the season series from Olentangy with a 57-39 victory. The first points of the night came on a Raneal Ewing basket off an assist by Ryan Duncan, the first of his 5 assists for the night. The Irish took the lead for good at 7-5 on a Ewing dunk. A Justin Craig steal and assist later in the quarter led to another Ewing basket. It was the first of 4 steals on the night for Craig. The Irish led 15-6 after the first quarter.
The offense for both teams was sluggish to start the 2nd quarter with the Irish leading 17-8 with 4 minutes remaining. The Irish then went on an 11-2 run to take a 28-10 lead. The run included two three pointers by Joshua Ashwill (off of assists from Ewing and Antonio Bisutti), a three pointer by Craig (off an assist by Ewing) and a coast to coast layup by Ewing. The Irish led 28-12 at the half.
Duncan contributed the first 5 Irish points of the third quarter, and drew the only Irish charge of the night, giving the Irish a 33-16 lead. The third quarter ended with the Irish leading 39-22.
Olentangy was forced to commit fouls in the fourth quarter to try and catch up. The Irish made enough foul shots to maintain their advantage hitting 6 of 12 for the quarter. Olentangy did cut the lead to 10 at 49-39 with 2:12 to go, however the Irish scored the final 8 points for the 57-39 final. Gabe McGlone made major contributions off the bench scoring 9 points and pulling down a team high 7 rebounds.
A balanced scoring attack was led by Ewing with 16, Ashwill 11, McGlone 9, Duncan 7, Travis Yates 5, Craig 4, Ryan Gibson and Jalen Johnson 2 each and Bisutti with 1.
The Irish are now 5-7 on the year and 3-5 in the OCC.
Box Score
OLEN: Clark 5-0-13, Walczak 3-2-8, Perry 2-2-6, Shaffer 2-0-4, Nugen 1-1-3, MacKay 1-0-3, Gingery 0-2-2. 3-point goals: Clark 3, MacKay. Totals: 14-7-39.
DS: Ewing 6-4-16, Ashwill 3-2-11, McGlone 3-3-9, Duncan 2-2-7, Yates 2-1-5, Craig 1-1-4, Johnson 1-0-2, Gibson 1-0-2, Bisutti 0-1-1. 3-point goals: Ashwill 3, Craig, Duncan. Totals: 19-14-57.
Shaking off a sluggish second half start, the Irish JVs outscored Olentangy 23-6 in the fourth quarter and won going away 48-36.
Entering the final stanza, the Irish trailed 30-25, but took the lead for good when Ryan Gibson made his third consecutive trey of the fourth quarter. He was fouled on the shot and canned the "and one" free throw for a rare 4 point play.
This gave Scioto a 37-34 lead and helped fuel a 14-0 run. During this stretch Gibson made four treys. He ended up scoring 17 fourth quarter points. Scoring two points apiece in the fourth quarter were Abdull Abdullahi, Dominic Madison and Chase Sult.
Gibson scored 20 points on the night to lead all scorers. Sult had 13 points, including all 8 for the Irish in the second quarter. Madison had 11. Abdullahi and Braxton Wallace rounded out the scoring with 2 points apiece. Gibson also drew the only Irish charge of the night.
The Irish had decent ball pressure on defense most of the night and earned several points thanks to offensive rebounds. Scoring lulls came when they relied on the dribble too much instead of moving the ball with passes.
The victory improves the JV team?s overall record to 7-5. They are 5-3 in the OCC Cardinal Division. The Irish join the varsity and freshmen in another league match-up at Westerville South on Tuesday. The JVs beat the Wildcats 48-43 on December 10.
The Irish freshman team led for only 1.5 seconds, but it was the only 1.5 seconds that mattered. Trailing all night, the Irish completed an amazing comeback in the final 1:50 of the game when Brady Blackwell buried the second of two free throws with 1.5 seconds remaining, scoring his only point of the night and giving the Irish their only lead of the night and their third victory in their last four games, 47-46.
The defense was lacking in the first quarter, and it allowed Olentangy to jump out to a 13-2 lead before Matthew Messick buried a 3. The Irish trailed 15-6 after the first quarter with Messick leading the way with 5 points. Great effort by Spencer Talentino did result in a steal and a forced travel.
The defense picked up in the second quarter as a steal by Kalib Wallace led to a Wallace layup, and then a steal by Jacob Shafer led to an Evan Ekis 3 pointer. Zac Brown followed that with two baskets on two strong moves, and the Irish cut the lead to 25-21 at the half.
Another slow start to the third quarter allowed Olentangy to rebuild their lead to 32-21 before an old fashioned three point play by Brown cut the lead to 32-24. The Irish cut the lead to 35-32 after three after Jack Flood saved the ball from going out of bounds and managed to get it Brown under the basket who converted the two pointer.
The Irish trailed 38-34 with 4:50 to go before Olentangy went on a 6-0 run to extend their lead to 44-34. All night long, I had confidence the Irish were going to win this game, however when Olentangy took the 44-34 with 1:50 remaining, I admit I thought it was too much to overcome. I am happy to report I was proven wrong, as the gutsy Irish found a way to win. The comeback started on a Messick 3 pointer following a McKinley steal. McKinley then buried a long 3 with 1:15 remaining and the Irish were only down 4 at 44-40. After a steal by McKinley and Brown, Brown buried a 3 with 36 seconds remaining. Olentangy then made two free throws to take a 46-43 lead with 29 seconds to go. McKinley then buried an even longer 3 to tie the game with 18 seconds remaining. Blackwell was then fouled in the act of shooting with 1.5 seconds remaining. After missing the first, he sank the 2d and victory belonged to the Irish!
The Irish were led by Brown with 18 points. McKinley and Messick added 8 each, followed by Flood with 5, Ekis with 3, Darius McDonald and Kalib Wallace 2 each, and Blackwell with 1.
The Irish are now 5-7 on the season and 3-5 in the conference.