by JOHN HOWLEY / sportingpumpkin.com
BEXLEY — Teays Valley ran into a buzzsaw in Wednesday night’s district semifinal as Reynoldsburg ended the Vikings’ season 70-36.
The No. 8 seed Raiders did most of their damage taking the ball to the hoop as they converted their first 11 two-point attempts before finally breaking their streak by failing to convert a dunk attempt a minute into the second quarter.
After getting a 21-7 lead in the first quarter, Reynoldsburg forced turnovers on six of TV’s first seven second-quarter possessions and turned those into eight points for a 29-7 lead.
After TV got a free throw from Owen Hoffhines, Reynoldsburg scored the next 12 points — with eight more coming off turnovers.
By the time the half was completed, Reynoldsburg had turned 17 TV turnovers into a 43-16 advantage.
“We don’t see that very much in our league and we knew it was going to be an up-tempo game, we knew it was going to be physical, we knew it was going to be fast and it was going to be athletic, and that’s what it was,” TV coach Brian Barnett said. “I thought our guys did a great job these last three days preparing for tonight. We did the things we wanted defensively.
“Offensively, we struggled a little bit but that’s because of their length and their athleticism.”
The No. 19 seed Vikings did a better job of controlling the basketball in the second half but couldn’t close the gap on the Raiders. The third quarter ended with the score 60-28. A Reynoldsburg free throw with 5:23 left put the core at 67-32 and the rest of the contest was played with a continuous clock.
Reynoldsburg was 20-27 from inside the arc in the first half and 27-39 for the game while going 30-61 overall from the field. Jordan Fisher led the way hitting nine of those two-pointers as he had 19 on the night. Noah Smith and Xavier McKinney each had 12 for the Raiders.
Brody Fields led TV with 16 points and senior Sam Miller added 11.
Miller also had a team-best seven rebounds.
The Vikings finish the season with a 16-8 record and were co-champions of the Mid-State League’s Buckeye division in their final season.
“These guys have accomplished so much. This is the first time in almost 50 years we won back-to-back. This is the first district appearance in nine years, since 2015,” Barnett said. “Our guys worked really hard, and this scoreboard doesn’t indicate how this season went. We had a really successful season.”
It was the final game for Miller and fellow senior Riley Dick, who had three rebounds Wednesday.
“I could not ask for a better kid to have,” Barnett said of Dick. “Here’s a young man that blew out his knee — we didn’t know when he was going to come back. He played through a lot of things. He didn’t complain, didn’t say anything negative and was always encouraging to everybody.
“Sam – a three-year starter for us. He’s played a lot of minutes and scored a lot of points for us and grabbed a ton of rebounds,” Barnett added. “Losing a young man like that is going to be tough to replace.
“The way those two seniors carried themselves with their pride and the way their character is, you couldn’t ask for anything more.”
Reynoldsburg (19-6) now advances to Saturday’s Division I district championship game against No. 1 seed Olentangy Orange (24-1) at Ohio Dominican.
Reynoldsburg 70, Teays Valley 36
Teays Valley— Brody Fields 5-5-16, Luke Burgett 2-0-4, Owen Hoffhines 1-1-4, Gideon Dixon 0-1-1, Sam Miller 5-1-11. Three-point goals — Fields, Hoffhines. Total — 13-35 8-12 36.
Reynoldsburg — Jarin Mock 0-1-1, Jorden Bowens 3-0-6, William Ragland 2-0-5, Noah Smith 5-1-12, Se’ron Calloway 2-0-4, Xavier McKinney 4-4-12, Tejuan Barbour 3-0-6, Jordan Fisher 9-1-19, Damon Griffin 1-0-2, D Graves 1-0-3. Three-point goals — Ragland, Smith, Graves. Total — 30-61 7-8 70.
Quarter scores 1 2 3 4 F
Teays Valley 7 9 12 8 36
Reynoldsburg 21 22 17 10 70
