Dublin Scioto 61 Brookhaven 44
Irish turn tables on Bearcats
Sunday, March 2, 2008 3:32 AM
By Steve Blackledge
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Tony Bisutti has 311 victories a= s a boys basketball coach at three schools, but none felt sweeter than yesterday's.

When Dublin Scioto defeated Brookhaven 61-= 44 in a Division I district final in the Ohio Expo Center Coliseum, it marked = not only the school's first district title but Bisutti's as well.

"It's sort of been a running joke that I've had with myself that I'm the Marv Levy of high school basketball," said Bisutti, who took home silver medals three= times at Scioto and once each at DeSales and New Philadelphia.

Levy lost four straight Super Bowls as the Buffalo Bills coach.

Hoisting the championship trophy also was satisfying for the Irish (22-1), who avenged a 67-59 loss at home to Brookh= aven on Feb. 5.

"It feels good to be the first team at your school to achieve something like this," junior center Marco St. J= ohn said. "Just to know we could beat them after what happened at our place feels good, too."

In the regular season, Brookhaven's Chris Johnson single-handledly beat Scioto with 25 po= ints and 16 rebounds. The Irish were determined not to let it happen again.=

Johnson, the district player of the year, = was limited to eight points on 1-of-10 shooting from the field. Bradley McDougald, Blair Gorniak = and St. John took turns shadowing Johnson.

"We wanted to jam it in on him and ke= ep up some ball pressure as well," Bisutti sa= id. "We tried to trade off duties to keep everybody fresh. We really limit= ed Johnson's touches and got him frustrated."

St. John scored 15 points, Kyle Duncan 11 = and David McKinley and Ben Ashwill 10 apiece for second-seeded Scioto, which gr= adually stretched a 23-22 halftime lead.

"We learned a lot in the first meeting about what it took to beat Brookhaven," Ashwill said. "Most of it centered around Johnson and not letting him domi= nate us on the boards. Limiting their second-chance opportunities was the key to everything we did."

Brookhaven coach Hali= Robinson said it was a tale of two entirely different games.

"They were deserving of a district championship in every significant category, the most important being in rebounding, foul shooting, their execution in the half-court offense,"= he said. "They played incredibly hard.

"As for Chris, they made it very difficult on him and he became very, very frustrated. He has been such a bedrock for us, you hate to see it end on that kind = of note for him. But getting him open was contingent upon the perimeter players making shots, and that didn't happen."

Terrance Watkins had 13 points and Brandon= Hoke 12 for the fifth-seeded Bearcats (19-4), whose nine-game winning streak was snapped.

sblackledg= e@dispatch.com