OHSAA girls basketball: Africentric, Harvest Prep win Division III district titles
Harvest Prep girls basketball coach Lee Sims admitted his players entered Thursday’s Division III district final against top-seeded Mechanicsburg with “a chip on their shoulders.”
The eighth-seeded Warriors led for most of the game and then held off Mechanicsburg 63-59 at Capital for their second consecutive district title and fifth overall.
“We thought we got a lower seed than we deserved,” Sims said. “They came in with a chip on their shoulders. Everybody counted us out. They don’t think we’re a good team. They’re overlooking us.”
Harvest Prep (17-9) will play Castalia Margaretta or North Robinson Colonel Crawford in a regional semifinal next Thursday at Elida.
The Warriors led the entire first half, taking their largest lead of 29-21 into halftime.
Trailing 31-21, Mechanicsburg (23-3) rallied to take its first lead at 42-41 before Carmyn Woods answered to give Harvest Prep a 43-42 lead after three quarters.
Mechanicsburg took its final lead at 44-43 before the Warriors responded with a 7-0 run.
Maliyah Lofton led Harvest Prep with 22 points and Woods scored 13.
“A lot of people were saying that we’re not supposed to be here, so we just keep that in mind every time we step out on the court and show them we’re supposed to be here,” Lofton said.
Addie DeLong scored 26 points for Mechanicsburg.
Africentric 52, Centerburg 29
The second-seeded Nubians used a suffocating defense to set the tone in Thursday’s first Division III district final at Capital, forcing 16 turnovers in the first half while allowing 13 points, then pulled away for their 18th district championship in 21 years.
Africentric (24-2) took leads of 10-0 and 15-1 but had to fend off a surge from No. 5 Centerburg (19-6), which did not make a field goal until midway through the second quarter. The Trojans got within 10 points late in the first half but never closer.
“We always want to start the game getting three stops with defensive intensity and defensive pressure,” Africentric coach Janicia Anderson said. “I’m very proud of how they came out and executed the defensive game plan. The defense was awesome. When you play defense like that, you can live with not being as good on offense because you’re not giving up buckets.”
Natiah Nelson’s game-high 18 points and Kamryn Grant’s 12 points, 11 rebounds, three assists, three steals and two blocks led Africentric, the defending Division III state champion. The Nubians will face Cincinnati Country Day or West Liberty-Salem in a regional final Wednesday at Springfield.
Samairah Thompson added 10 points and eight rebounds.
Africentric held Centerburg to one field-goal attempt in the first quarter and benefited from 10 turnovers.
Kayla Larimore made Centerburg’s first field goal with 4:17 left in the second. The Trojans outscored the Nubians 8-6 the rest of the half but never got closer than 23-13.
Africentric, which led by as much as 23 in the fourth, blocked six shots and forced 26 turnovers for the game.
“We were beating ourselves for a while, missing more than we should have,” Nelson said. “The defensive intensity was there. We just needed it on the other end.”
Seven points from Ciara Johnson and Larimore and six each from Kenlee Fairall and Evie Stowe led Centerburg, which was seeking its first district championship since 2012.
Larimore had 10 rebounds and Johnson had nine.
“We were a little nervous and intimidated in the first quarter,” Trojans coach Bill Abner said. “We were trying to run some pressure releases to get us into stuff, then we went back to what we’ve been doing all year. Once we settled down, we looked a lot better.”
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Africentric, Harvest Prep win girls basketball district titles
