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Thursday, March 25, 2010
Dunbar beats Benedictine 69-62; state final next
COLUMBUS — Dunbar blitzed Cleveland Benedictine in the second half to pull out a stunning 69-62 victory in their boys Division II state high school basketball semifinal at OSU’s Schottenstein Center on Thursday, March 2.
That puts the Wolverines into Saturday’s final against the Port Cliniton/Zanesville winner.
Dunbar outscored Benedictine 46-24 in the decisive final two quarters to earn its sixth state title game in program history. It didn’t hurt that the Wolverines also had a 22-2 advantage in free throws the second half.
Dunbar’s Geron Johnson picked up his fourth personal foul with 6:17 left and retreated to the bench. His two free throws with 2:24 left gave the Wolves their 3-point advantage.
Derek Johnson hammered an alley-oop dunk and Benedictine rallied to lead Dunbar 50-47 after three quarters.
Dunbar needed just 2 minutes for a 12-0 run and overtook the lead at 47-44 in the third on a dunk by Delve Givens.
That was part of a blistering 24-6 run for Dunbar, which was all but roasted in the first half and trailed 38-23 at the break.
Ryan Bass unloaded 8 points on a pair of 3-pointers and two free throws for most of that 12-0 damage.
Benedictine led 20-11 after the first quarter and nearly doubled Dunbar — 38-20 — late in the first half.
Nick Harney, a 6-7 senior, has been a beast for Benedictine, going for 17 points on 7 of 9 mostly point-blank shooting over the much smaller Wolverines. Sophomore guard Desmond Ridenour added eight second-quarter points and all but shut down celebrated Dunbar guard Geron Johnson, who had just six points at the break and no second-quarter field goals.
Deontae Hawkins and sub Derrick Benson each added four points for Dunbar.
At least for the first half, the Wolverines (23-3) were no match for the Bengals (22-4) in intensity, rebounding, offensive effectiveness and everything else that separates championship teams from contenders. Benedictine ran the floor better, finished often and was much quicker than the Wolverines, especially in help defense and positioning for easy put-backs.
The only question left unanswered was how in the world did Benedictine manage to lose four games?
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Orrville, Lima Central Catholic advance to boys state hoop D-III final
COLUMBUS — Sam Miller swished two free throws with 01.8 left to lift Orrville over Columbus Bishop Ready 50-48 in a Division III boys state high school basketball semifinal at OSU’s Schottenstein Center on Thursday, March 25.
That puts Orrville (21-5) into Saturday’s D-II final vs. Lima Central Catholic (22-4), which began the three-day final four tourney with a 59-48 defeat of Chesapeake in the other D-III semi.
Jacob Bolyard and Zach Wasson each scored 13 points and Miller added 12 to lead balanced Orrville attack. Joe Graessle led Ready (19-7) with 16 points.
LCC unloaded a 17-4 second-quarter blitz to defeat Chesapeake 59-48 in the first of 12 games Thursday. Desi Kirman led the Thunderbirds (22-4) with a game-high 22 points.
Nathan Copley led Chesapeake (22-4) with 16 points and Austin McMaster added 15. It was the first final four for the Panthers, located at the farthest point south of Ohio and just across the river from Huntington, W.Va.
Two D-II semi’s will wrap up Thursday’s play, including Dunbar (23-3) vs. Cleveland Benedictine (22-4) at 5:15 p.m. today.
The D-IV and D-I semi’s are Friday. All the winners return for four championships on Saturday.
Once a Red Rider …
Orrville’s most celebrated alum is Bobby Knight, the former Army, Indiana, Texas Tech coach and current ESPN college basketball analyst. Knight was all-world at Orrville, excelling in football, basketball and baseball before landing a scholarship to play hoops at Ohio State and was a sub on the Buckeyes’ national championship 1959-60 team.
“He’s always busy, but he’s always keeping tabs of what’s going on in Orrville,” said red Riders coach Sly Slaughter following the semifinal defeat of Ready.
“He’s donated different monetary amounts for different things and our gym. We just built a brand new multi-purpose facility, and he donated money there. So, even though he’s far away, he’s still watching and wants to know what’s going on in Orrville.”
Orrville, tucked between Wooser and Massillon in Wayne County, won three D-III boys state hoop titles 1996, ’95 and ’92 and was a final four participant in ’08.
What’s the difference?
Look no further than the attendance for the difference between the girls and boys state tournaments.
The best attended girls final last Saturday was Middletown Madison’s 66-44 loss to Findlay Liberty-Benton, which drew 6,098. None of the other three finals drew more than 4,529, and Alter’s 48-35 loss to Shaker Heights Hathaway Brown was the least attended (3,686).
By comparison, Orrville’s D-III boys semifinal defeat of Columbus Bishop Ready drew 10,823. Ready being a home-town team didn’t hurt, but the draw difference between the boys and girls is likely more than that.
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