Malvern boys basketball moves to 25-0, J'Allen Barrino scores 1,000th point in district win

RICHMOND − The Shamrocks needed more than luck.

Everything about Malvern was intimidating Tuesday night in a 66-50 Division III district semifinal boys basketball win over Barnesville, nicknamed Shamrocks.

Barnesville brought a nice crowd. Malvern's was much bigger.

Malvern's size advantage rolled through the layup drill like dark clouds.When the pregame clock hit 1:00, Hornet Village began clapping it up, making racket enough to carry the 10 miles to Steubenville.

The clapping lasted a full minute. Then the real intimidation began.

Inter-Valley Conference player of the year J'Allen Barrino led the way, scoring 21 point to leave him with 1,003 for his Malvern career. The Hornets' other All-IVC first-teamer, Mitchell Minor, scored 17 points.

The Hornets, 25-0, left the impression they could have won had their two scoring leaders stayed in Malvern.

"Across the board, they don't have a weak spot," Barnesville head coach Shane Stephens said. "Their starters are very good. They bring guys in who can play. They're athletic and long and very well coached."

The Hornets advanced to the district championship game at 7 p.m. Friday at Claymont High School. Their opponent will be Martins Ferry, which edged Union Local 60-58 Tuesday night in Hannibal.

A win Friday would send Malvern to the Sweet 16 in a regional semifinal against Wheelersburg or McDermott Northwest. Teams still alive for a spot in a potential regional championship game against Malvern are Minford, North Adams, Harvest Prep and Columbus Africentric.

"We've been knocking on the door," Barrino said. "We want to make regionals."

Malvern has had many good teams in the Dennis Tucci era. The best may have been the 2008 team that was 25-0 before falling in regional finals, but there are lots of longtime Malvern fans, and lots of opinions.

"We've got to be humble about it," Barrino said. "We need to get a little farther before we can say much."

High-scoring Harvest Prep is regarded as the toughest draw in Malvern's region. The Hornets need three wins to make a state final four for the first time in school history.

Malvern has lost in the district finals four straight years, last year to Garaway, the previous three years to Hiland.

"Our main goal is winning the district finals," Minor said. "We want to get to regionals and see what we can do from there."

Barnesville was coming off a 51-42 win over No. 2 seed Harrison Central.

Harrison Central took away Barnesville's top scorer, bearded senior Asa Geilinger, who, in a recent game against Union Local, nailed four 3s in the third quarter. Geilinger didn't have a field goal against Harrison Central, but guard Casey Carpenter scored 19 points.

"They won their last two tournament games on the road," Tucci said. "They took the early lead, and they did it again tonight.

"They were up 5-0, but then our seniors took over. It was Senior Night 2.0. They had 32 of our 36 points in the first half.

"We rebounded, played good defense and hounded the ball."

Facing Malvern and Tucci, who reached the 600-career-wins milestone in January, was a "moment" for the first-year Barnesville head coach, Stephens.

Barnesville is 60 miles south of Malvern as the crow flies. The game was played at Edison High School, a 50-mile bus ride for Malvern, an hour for Barnesville.

Edison Fieldhouse was a stark contrast to the drive down Route 43, with its little old towns and aging houses. The new, 2,000-seat gym includes a wall of glass behind one of the baskets from which spectators can eat popcorn and watch the action.

Barnesville's current crop of athletes helped produce a 23-2 record across the last two football seasons. Many of those athletes spend their winters wrestling for a program that has dominated its district tournament in recent years.

"Four of our five starters play football," Stephens said, "and they kind of play basketball that way."

The basketball Shamrocks came out full of fight, but the Hornets were taller, quicker and more capable of doing … you name it.

Despite going 0-for-3 on alley oops in the first half, the Hornets ran Barnesville to exhaustion.

In one lightning flurry, Dylan Phillips hit a 3, Barrino made a steal and layup, and, after another steal, Minor dropped in a teardrop on a quick pass from Barrino. It was 23-13, and you could tell it was going to get worse.

The surprise was Barnesville clawing to within 14 points in the third quarter.

"Give them credit," Tucci said. "That was more about what they did than what we didn't do."

Barrino showed a strong sense for playing team ball while taking over in some key spots.

On one sequence, he blocked a shot, caught the ball, and wheeled to start a fast break, ending in a Rodney Smityh layuup.

Moments later, he caught an entry pass at the foul line, made a lightning move for an open layup, and got hacked. His 3-point play made it 44-27.

"J'Allen took matters into his own hands," Tucci said.

Next up is Martins Ferry, a team Malvern scrimmaged before the season. The Purple Riders will arrive with a 16-8 record, having won their last three games by a combined seven points.

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Unbeaten Malvern boys basketball beats Barnesville in OHSAA districts