Central District Division II
No. 4 Northland 77, No. 18 Teays Valley 36
COLUMBUS — Teays Valley faced as tough an opponent as it has seen this season when it opened Central District tournament play Monday night against No. 4 seed Northland.
The Northland Vikings began to pull away from the TV Vikings in the second quarter on the way to a 77-36 win.
Columbus City League champion Northland had a 16-10 lead after the first quarter.
A three from TV’s Jayden Morrison had the score 26-17 in favor of the hosts midway through the second.
Northland’s Jaden Shoultz answered with a pair of treys to start an 18-3 run to finish out the half with Northland up 44-20.
Northland outscored the Vikings 15-6 in the first five minutes of the third. Following a basket from TV’s Hayden McCray, Nehemiah McMorris hit a three for Northland and, with two minutes left in the quarter, Tejaun Barbour sunk the second of two free throws to put the green and gold up 35 points at 63-28 – the margin needed to begin a running clock.
The third period ended with Northland up 68-31.
Northland finished the night with three players in double-figure scoring.
Shoultz led the way hitting six threes as part of a 23-point effort, McMorris had 20 and Diante James had 10.
Northland’s defense kept TV without a double-digit scorer as Tanner Smith was tops with eight.
Northland held Teays Valley’s leading scorer this season – Brody Fields (20 points a game) – to a single field goal in the first quarter and a fourth quarter free throw. Fields completes his junior season with 1,177 points – third all-time for Teays Valley boys and fifth when taking into consideration pre-consolidation.
Northland ended the night with a 32-15 rebounding led by James with 10, Owan Mburugu with seven and McMorris had six. Smith was TV’s top rebounder with four.
Teays Valley completes the season with a 2-21 record.
Northland (19-3) plays for a district title Sunday at the state fairgrounds against No. 2 New Albany.
Northland 77, Teays Valley 36
Teays Valley — Tanner Smith 3-0-8, Brody Fields 1-1-3, Luke Burgett 2-0-4, Owen Hoffhines 2-0-6, Calvin Wolpert 1-1-3, Hayden McCray 1-0-2, Jayden Morrison 2-0-5, Gideon Dixon 1-2-5. Three-point goals — Smith. Hoffhines (2), Morrison, Dixon. Totals — 13-39 4-9 36.
Northland — Diante James 4-1-10, Owan Mburugu 2-3-7, Ahon Djabo 1-0-2, Jaden Shoultz 8-1-23, Savon Craighead 1-0-2, Tejaun Barbour 3-1-7, Nehemiah McMorris 8-3-20, Vandell Slade 2-0-4, Brian Harris 1-0-2. Three-point goals — James, Shoultz (6), McMorris. Totals — 30-46 9-17 77.
Quarter scores 1 2 3 4 F
Teays Valley 10 10 11 5 36
Northland 16 28 24 9 77
Teays Valley All-time leading scorers
Tom Rathburn (Ashville, 1958-62), 1,632
Bob Hoover (Ashville, 1956-60), 1,625
Dale Lambert (Teays Valley 1967-70), 1,444
Nate Anderson (Teays Valley, 2007-2011), 1,251
Brody Fields (Teays Valley, 2022-present), 1,177
Ryan Wolfe (Teays Valley, 2015-2019), 1,040
Shane Roese (Teays Valley, 1984-88), 1,011
Tyler Primmer (Teays Valley, 2010-14), 1,006
Southeast District Division IV
No. 4 New Lexington 48, No. 5 Circleville 34
CHILLICOTHE — New Lexington got an early lead and held the advantage throughout to advance past Circleville with a 48-34 final score.
“New Lexington was the more physical team tonight. Anytime you make it to the district semi-finals and beyond the more physical team is usually going to win,” Circleville coach evan Callihan said. “They pushed us out offensively and we struggled to get in any kind of offensive flow. That’s a credit to them and the strength of their team.”
Circleville opened the game’s scoring with a basket from Riley Jenkins a minute and fifteen seconds into the game.
A minute later, New Lexington’s Paul Stenson hit a three to put the Panthers on top. New Lexington scored the next 10 points and led 13-4 at the end of the first quarter.
The half ended with New Lexington up 22-13.
A basket from Kole Nungester midway through the third made it a six-point game but the quarter ended with New Lex leading 34-23.
The Panthers were able to extend their lead up to 16 in the fourth and Circleville whittled it back to nine points but couldn’t get any closer.
The Tigers struggled from the field as they went 13-44 from the field (30 percent) and hit only two of 17 three-point attempts.
Jenkins led the Tigers with 16 points. Kole Nungester added eight, Blain Fowler and Ed Kirk each had four and Kiser Cassidy had two.
Isaiah Stephens had 19 for New Lexington and Bentley Hanson had 15.
“I thought their senior guards were a big difference in the game. They have a lot of experience and both are 1,000 point scorers,” Callihan said. “I thought defensively we did well holding them to 48 points but offensively you aren’t going to advance only scoring 34 points.”
Circleville completes the season with a 14-10 record.
“It’s a sour way to end the season as we were hoping to take the next step and get to the convo,” Callihan said. “We have almost the whole team back next year so the work will need to start this offseason to put us in a position to get back here.
“We aren’t satisfied with how we finished but I’m proud of the growth our guys showed this season. It was the first winning season we have had since 2015 and we competed with our county rivals and competed in the MSL. We still have a lot of work to do to take the next steps as a program and that will begin after our 28 day dead period.”
New Lexington moves on to Ohio University Thursday to take on top-seeded Meigs (a 72-56 winner over Hillsboro) for a district title.
Quarter scores 1 2 3 4 F
Circleville 4 9 10 11 34
New Lexington 13 9 12 14 48