Thursday, February 25, 2010

Olentanay Freshmen Advance to Championship Game


While most central Ohio basketball fans are hoping to get a good seat at the Fairgrounds Coliseum next weekend to watch their favorite high school team; unknown to most fans, for about a week, 17 freshmen teams have been competing for a championship of their own at the 2010 Raider 9th Grade Basketball Tournament at Reynoldsburg High School. Tonight, with a 61-59 semi-final win over the Gahanna Lincoln Lions (13-3), the Olentangy Liberty Patriots (12-2) punched their ticket to the tournament championship game on Saturday, where they will face off against the Reynoldsburg Raiders (14-2).

In the contest tonight, the Patriots jumped out to an early lead and entered the locker room at half time with a 32-33 lead. However, after the Lions scored on 3 consecutive possessions to start the second half, the lead shrunk to 32-30. Gahanna took lead (40-39) with 2:15 left in the 3rd quarter, and began the 4th period with a 45-43 lead. The Lions appeared to have the game wrapped up with 21 seconds left in the contest when Troy Mundy stepped to the free three line with a 1 point lead (59-58) and a chance to put his team up by 3 points. However, although Mundy converted the front end of a one-and-one, his foot was over the line, and his made shot was waived off. As you would expect, Liberty pushed the ball up courtt and drained a treyr with 4 seconds remaining to go up by two points. Although Gahanna got off a shot with 2 seconds left, a runner off the mark. The leading scorers for Olentangy was Zach VanGundy who scored a team-high 12 points. For Gahanna, Troy Mundy dropped a game-high 17 points and Aaron Jackson, the leading scorer in the tournament with 54 points in 3 games, added 15 points.

The championship game between Olentangy and Reynoldsburg is scheduled for Saturday at 6:00pm, while Gahanna will face Grove City in the 3rd place game at 4:30pm. In the first game of the night, the Reynoldsburg Raiders defeated Grove City 53-45. Leading scorers in the game were Reynoldsburg's Nathanael Wallace (15 points) and Jaylen Givens (14 points). Grove City's Dominic Marion scored a team-high 12 points. At the conclusion of the tournament an all-tournament team will be selected. From what I hear, Gahanna's Aaron Jackson; Reynoldsburg's Grant Coleman and Jaylen Givens are believed to be favorites. Check out the pictures on the Buckeye Prep Fan page. For the final results of the tournament including the All-Tournament Team and other standout performers, see the final report submitted by Gary West in the comment section below!

1 comment:

  1. Reynoldsburg won their freshman tournament Saturday evening with an
    exciting 45-42 win over Olentangy Liberty. The Raiders led at one point
    27-5, but had to withstand numerous second half tournovers and the
    outside shooting of Patriot guard Sam DeRoy, who had five second half
    three pointers, including four in the 4th quarter. The Patriots cut the
    lead to one, but lost the ball on a drive to the basket with ten
    seconds remaining, and the Raiders' Jaylen Givens hit two free throws
    for the final margin. Givens had 17 for Reynoldsburg while Michael
    Smith added 13 and controlled the boards against the smaller Patriots.
    DeRoy's 15 led Liberty.

    In the consolation game, Gahanna-Lincoln outscored Grove City 26-12 in
    the fourth quarter to capture 3rd place in a wild 76-69 slugfest.
    Ronnie Stokes saved his best for last in the tourney, scoring 23 and
    flying all over the floor on defense, while Aaron Jackson added 19 and
    was the leading scorer in the tourney with 73 in the Lions' four games.

    Named to the all-tournament team were:

    Jaylen Givens-Reynoldsburg
    Michael Smith-Reynoldsburg
    Sam DeRoy-Olentangy Liberty
    Aaron Jackson-Gahanna Lincoln
    Ronnie Stokes- Gahanna Lincoln
    Tyler Hale-Grove City
    Kyle Christman-Dublin Jerome
    Seth Badger-Mt. Vernon
    Austen Rankin-Dublin Coffman
    David Brown-Groveport Madison

    Special mention should also be given to Troy Mundy of Gahanna Lincoln
    and Grant Coleman of Reynoldsburg who would have made the
    all-tournament team if not for the last game heroics of Stokes and
    Smith.

    Others making significant contributions for their teams in the
    tournament included (in alphabetical order of the teams):

    Kyjuan Grace-Central Crossing
    Jason Hall-Dublin Coffman
    John Laufensweiler-Dublin Jerome
    Tim Shadoan-Dublin Scioto
    Anthony Toler-Franklin Heghts
    Aaron Page-Franklin Heights
    Drew Artrip-Grove City
    Jalen Bell-Groveport Madison
    Mike Yoder-Jonathan Alder
    Eric Ashbrook-Mt. Vernon
    Ryan Seibert-Olentangy Liberty
    Nate Buccilla-Pickerington Central
    Chris Huhn-Pickerington North
    Jesse Greene-Thomas Worthington
    Kevin Crawford-Watkins Memorial

    Al in all, it was a very exciting tournament that featured the first ever victory by a #16 seed over a #1 seed (Jerome over Coffman) and
    consecutive usets by the #7 seed (Liberty) over the #2 and #3 seeds (Mt. Vernon and Gahanna Lincoln).Congratulations to all the coaches and
    players.

    Gary West
    Tournament Scorekeeper

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