Basketball

Irish boys set to face Raiders in district semifinal

Wednesday,  March 4, 2009 2:29 PM

By SCOTT GERFEN

ThisWeek Contributor

Judging by the scores of the Dublin Scioto High School boys basketball team's first two games in the Division I district tournament, the second-seeded Irish didn't get much of a tuneup for what's to come.

Scioto, which is 21-1, shot better than 60 percent from the field last Saturday in an 88-40 victory over West in the second round after eliminating Briggs 71-43 on Feb. 25.

As the Irish pursue their second consecutive district championship, they must get past battle-tested and 10th-seeded Reynoldsburg at 4:15 p.m. Saturday in a district semifinal at the Fairgrounds Coliseum.

"We're in for a very different look with Reynoldsburg and some of the other teams in the bracket if we win Saturday," coach Tony Bisutti said. "They are all very physical teams and we're going to have to fight for every inch in the floor. But I think we're a hungry basketball team and that makes me sleep a little easier at night."

Scioto, which was sixth in the final state poll, earned its first district championship a year ago with a 61-44 victory over Brookhaven.

Reynoldsburg improved to 14-8 with last Saturday's 61-52 victory over Walnut Ridge. Kevin Gray scored 19 points in the first half and finished with 30 for the Raiders, who have won three in a row.

Reynoldsburg finished 8-6 in the OCC-Ohio Division, in which fourth-seeded Newark and third-seeded Grove City shared the title at 12-2.

"We've been working real hard in practice," senior Deji Olatoye said. "The coaches have brought in alumni to challenge us. We scrimmaged Reynoldsburg before the season started to we know them a little bit. We know we're going to have to play strong in the post."

The two teams last met in 2002 as members of the OCC-Cardinal, with Reynoldsburg earning a share of the championship with Scioto with a 47-44 victory. They've never met in the postseason.

Saturday's winner will play Newark or seventh-seeded Upper Arlington in a district final at 12:30 p.m. March 14. Newark is 19-3 and UA is 16-5.

•The third-seeded girls team wanted nothing more than a rematch with fifth-seeded Pickerington Central in a district final Saturday, but it produced the worst offensive performance of the season in the 40-37 loss to seventh-seeded Reynoldsburg in a semifinal last Monday.

Scioto was 7-for-26 (26.9 percent) from 2-point range and 4-for-15 (26.7 percent) on 3-point attempts. The Irish entered the game averaging 65 points.

"They play very hard and they get up in you, but I really felt for most of the night we were out of sync with no rhythm," said coach Todd Hardesty, whose team finished 21-2. "We never settled into the game. When we finally got that little bit of a run and went up seven who's to say Scioto's not going to score in the last four minutes of the game."

Kesi Hess made two free throws to give the Irish a 37-30 lead with about 4 minutes, 30 seconds to play. But Reynoldsburg, which improved to 19-4, turned up the defensive pressure and scored the last 10 points of the game.

Junior T'Shera Lucas, who sat out all but four minutes of the first half and six minutes of the third quarter with foul trouble, scored the last five points. She scored off an offensive rebound with 2:12 remaining to tie the game at 37 and added three free throws in four attempts in the last 80 seconds. The game featured four lead changes and was tied just as many times.

"We just couldn't pull through and I don't know why that was," said Brandi Gorniak, who led Scioto with 13 points. "I think they're pressure got to some of our younger players. Kesi (Hess) and I told them how they were going to bring it."