Undefeated and ranked #4 in the state, Westerville South used a swarming defense and press to force numerous turnovers that led to easy baskets, as they jumped out to a 16-2 lead 4 minutes into the game, and were never challenged in defeating Scioto 74-48. The Irish first basket came with 4:44 to go on a basket by Raneal Ewing assisted by Antonio Bisutti. Gabe McGlone added a basket following an offensive rebound. The Irish trailed 24-6 after the first quarter.
The Irish fared a little better in the 2nd quarter, being outscored 15-11 and trailing 29-17 at the half. Joshua Ashwill contributed 6 points in the quarter, and Ryan Gibson added a three pointer. Ashwill also drew a charge, and Ryan Duncan drew two charges in the first half, one in each quarter.
South extended their lead to 61-29 after three quarters. McGlone buried a long three to end the quarter, and contributed 5 points in the quarter.
The Irish came to life a little offensively in the 4th quarter, outscoring South 19-13.
For the night, Ashwill led the Irish with 15 points, followed by McGlone with 9, Craig with 8, Ewing with 6, Gibson with 5, Bisutti with 3 and Duncan with 2.
The Irish are now 5-8 on the year and 3-6 in the OCC.
Box Score
DS: Ashwill 4-5-15, McGlone 3-2-9, Craig 3-0-8, Ewing 2-2-6, Gibson 1-2-5, Bisutti 1-1-3, Duncan 1-0-2. 3-point goals: Ashwill 2, Craig 2, Gibson, McGlone. Totals: 15-12-48.
WS: Jackson 6-7-19, Ball 6-2-14, Jones 3-5-12, Rogers 4-0-10, O'Daniel 4-0-10, Lyshe 3-0-6, Edwards 1-0-2, Asiedu 0-1-1. 3-point goals: O'Daniel 2, Rogers 2, Jones. Totals: 27-15-74.
The Irish used a strong 4th quarter to pull out a 41-33 victory over Westerville South.
The Irish scored the first basket of the night by Ryan Gibson assisted by Dominic Madison, but still found themselves trailing 8-7 after the first quarter. Aaron Strausbaugh forced two turnovers in the quarter.
Trailing 10-8, the Irish finished the 2nd quarter on a 14-2 run to take a 22-12 halftime lead. The run started with two baskets by Madison to put the Irish up 12-10, followed by a Gibson three pointer assisted by Braxton Wallace to make it 15-10. The run ended on a Gibson steal and layup with 15 seconds left in the half.
The third quarter belonged to South, who outscored the Irish 16-5. The quarter ended on a rebound and putback for South that gave them their first lead since it was 10-8 at 28-27 after three.
The 4th quarter started with a Gibson steal and layup just 8 seconds into the quarter which gave the Irish a 29-28 lead, a lead that they never gave up. That was followed by 3 point baskets from Chase Sult and Darius McDonald, and the Irish coasted to victory from there.
For the night, Gibson led the Irish with 14 points, followed by Madison with 9, Wallace with 7, Strausbaugh, Sult and McDonald with 3 each, and Tyler Zack with 2.
The Irish are now 8-5 for the year and 6-3 in the OCC.
Westerville South never trailed and took control toward the end of the second quarter on the way to a 43-32 win over the Irish freshmen.
Scioto only trailed 12-10 after one quarter, but squandered an opportunity to build a lead by committing five turnovers. The Irish played into the Wildcats aggressive defense by dribbling into traffic and not reversing the ball via the pass.
The Irish hung around and trailed only 21-17 as the clock wound down in the second quarter, but did not guard Darien Miller who sunk a trey from near half court just ahead of the half.
This gave the Wildcats a 24-17 lead and when they opened the second half with 6 points they led 30-17 when the Irish called timeout. The run was fueled by two Irish turnovers off the dribble and defensive breakdowns that left Wildcats players unguarded.
Scioto was able to cut the lead to 10 points at the end of the third quarter and closed to as few as 8 points in the fourth quarter.
The Irish turned the ball over more than 20 times. One highlight was offensive rebounding which led to the Irish scoring opportunities on a poor shooting night.
Wing/Forward Tim Bates led all scorers with 14 points, all coming in the paint. Miller joined him in double figures with 10 points.
Matt Messick led the Irish with 9 points, including two treys. Also scoring for the Irish: Zac Brown (6), Jack Flood (5), Evan Ekis (4), Darius McDonald (3), Brady Blackwell (2), Kalib Wallace (2) and Jacob Schafer (1).
The Irish fall to 5-8 overall and 3-6 in the OCC Cardinal. They host Westerville North at 4:30 p.m. on Friday, January 24. The Warriors won the first match-up in December by a 50-37 score.