Harvest Prep, Worthington Christian win OHSAA boys basketball district championships
After leading for most of the game, Harvest Prep overcame a late rally by Africentric and hung on for a 62-61 win in a Division III boys basketball district final Thursday at Ohio Dominican.
Khalil Daniels’ layup with 10 seconds remaining lifted third-seeded Harvest Prep (21-4) to its third consecutive district title and 10th overall.
The winning basket was set up by an Africentric turnover in the backcourt.
“It didn’t matter who scored, it didn’t matter who shot it, I just wanted the win,” Daniels said. “At the end of the day that’s all that mattered to me. Being here and being with my brothers, I love this game and I’m just happy that we won.”
Africentric (14-10) had three tries to pull out the win in the closing seconds but couldn’t convert inside.
“This is a resilient group,” Africentric coach Michael Bates said. “The way we fought back, I couldn’t be any prouder of my kids. I love them to death. They did everything I asked them to do at the end of the game. We gave ourselves an opportunity.”
Harvest Prep will play Minford or Seaman North Adams in a regional semifinal Wednesday at Ohio University.
Africentric, the No. 12 seed, trailed 48-38 early in the fourth quarter before rallying to take a 61-59 lead with 49.6 seconds remaining on Rohaun Harris-Hardy’s two free throws.
After Brandon Roddy split two free throws to pull Harvest Prep within 61-60, Daniels pulled off his heroics.
Adonus Abrams led Harvest Prep with 15 points. Ephraim Campbell had 12, Roddy scored 11 and Daniels and Antwon Pollard added 10 apiece.
Cortez Freeman led Africentric with 19 points, followed by Derron Gray Jr. with 17 and Chris Cooper-Patton with 13.
Worthington Christian 60, Columbus Academy 47
Led by Division III Central District Player of the Year Sam Johnson, Worthington Christian took control early and defeated its Central Buckeye League rival in Thursday's first district final at Ohio Dominican.
Johnson scored 28 points and hit 16 of 18 free-throw attempts, leading the fifth-seeded Warriors to their first district title since 2021 and 13th overall.
The teams split two CBL games during the regular season, with Worthington Christian winning the league title at 11-1, two games ahead of the Vikings. But in the postseason, Academy received the No. 1 seed.
“I knew right out of the gate there was going to be a lot of attention on me,” Johnson said. “As a basketball player, you have to play through that and that’s what happened. When I got three guys on me, I found my guys who were open.”
Worthington Christian (22-4) will play Genoa Area or Castalia Margaretta in a regional semifinal Wednesday at Bowling Green.
“We knew they were going to be tough,” first-year Warriors coach Quintin Aden said. “We just had to make sure we finished around the bucket and made some shots and be the tougher team. That was our goal.”
Jason Singleton led Academy (21-5) with 20 points and M.J. Jackson scored 14.
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The Vikings led just once, at 2-0. Worthington Christian had a 13-6 lead after one quarter and led by as many as 15 points in the fourth.
Jonah Lewis added 14 points for Worthington Christian, which was 22 of 29 from the free throw line to 11 of 14 for Academy.
“They have a good team,” Vikings coach Jeff Warstler said. “We have one senior, so we wanted to make sure Scott Rogers knew that we care about him. Hopefully we did some stuff that helps some of these guys moving down the line be better men, better husbands, better fathers. We’ll just go back to work.”
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Harvest Prep, Worthington Christian win district in boys basketball
