Monday, February 1, 2010

Hughes Leads Monroe to Victory


Although the OCC middle schools will begin the second round of tournament play tomorrow, Columbus City League teams are still fighting for their post season lives for at least another week. This afternoon, the Monroe Eagles punched their ticket to the City League playoffs with a convincing 65-40 win over the AIMS Panthers. Thou this game was highly contested early (it was tied 11-11 at the end of the 1st quarter), after returning from the locker room with a 28-22 lead, the Eagles began the third quarter with a 25-7 run, to begin the 4th period with 53-29 lead. A combination of Panther turnovers and hot shooting from Monroe, led to a blowout loss by AIMS. You have to credit 8th grader Jamal Hughes for blowing open the game, as his team-high 21 points propelled the Eagles to the victory. Seventh grader Xavier Holston-Simms contributed solid guard play and 5 points, while 8th grader Laquan Hendrick finished with 12 points. The only real bright spot for AIMS was the outstanding play of 8th grader Nate Jamison who dropped a team-high 21 points.

With their second win over the Panthers this season (won by 2 points the last time they met), the undefeated Eagles locked up the #1 seed in the Central Division and will face the winner of the Dominion/Ridgeview game in the first round of the playoffs. The 10-3 Panthers still have a chance at a spot in the playoffs depending on the results of their final game. The three other #1 seeds are undefeated Woodward Park of the North Division, Franklin in the East Division and Beery of the West Division. The following teams are either in the playoffs or still have work to do to extend their seasons: AIMS, Mifflin,
Hilltonia, Johnson Park, Dominion and Ridgeville. I'm going to do my best to cover at least a portion of the City League playoffs.

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