Boys Basketball

Dublin Scioto 54, Dublin Jerome 35

Irish clinch OCC-Cardinal title outright

Friday,  February 13, 2009 10:32 PM

By SCOTT GERFEN

ThisWeek Contributor

As the nine seniors on the Dublin Scioto High School basketball team helped cut down the net Friday after a 54-35 victory over Dublin Jerome, they had the satisfaction of knowing they'd never lost an OCC game.

Not only did the host Irish clinch the OCC-Cardinal Division championship outright, they extended their league winning streak to 34 games.

"Three-peats don't grow on trees, obviously," said coach Tony Bisutti, whose team improved to 17-1 overall and 13-0 in the league. "I know our guys are happy, but we have other goals still ahead of us. But this was one of them for sure."

It marked the eighth time this season that Scioto's stingy defense held an opponent to fewer than 40 points. The Celtics were outscored 14-5 in the first quarter and closed the half with a 31-13 deficit.

"It really feels good to go out on top," Scioto senior David McKinley said. "Winning the league was our first goal, but after winning a district championship last year we want to go further than that."

For the third game in a row, Jerome was without leading scorer Steve Harrell, who was averaging 14.8 points before suffering an ankle injury.

"You take 15 points out of your lineup, or anybody's lineup, it's going to be hard to adjust," Jerome coach Chris Carlisle said. "For us, it's doubly difficult because we just don't have the kind of experience that's ready to step up and fill those shoes just yet."

Scioto's Bradley McDougald scored 13 of his 16 points in the first half and Marco St. John finished with 11.

Cam Wilson had 14 for the Celtics, who dropped to 4-14 overall and 3-10 in the league.