DAYTON – Pickerington Central girls basketball coach Johnathan Hedgepeth admitted the smothering full-court pressure that helped the Tigers claw back into a Division I state semifinal March 12 was unsustainable for 32 minutes.
In the same breath, Hedgepeth stopped short of saying that was why the Tigers might have run out of gas down the stretch in a 45-41 loss to unbeaten Kettering Fairmont at University of Dayton Arena.
“Our goal was to try to save as much as we could for the second half,” Hedgepeth said. “It’s a big court and [Fairmont] likes to run a lot as well, but that might have tired us out a little bit finishing those layups at the end.”
Central, which trailed by as much as 14 points in the second quarter, outscored Fairmont 24-16 in the second half and came within four points in the final minute but got no closer in falling two wins short of a championship repeat.
Senior forward and Dayton signee London Johnson had 13 points and nine rebounds, and junior forward Zoe Coleman added 11 points and eight rebounds to pace the Tigers, who missed 13 of their first 15 shots from the floor and were held to 13-of-57 shooting (22.8%) for the game.
Central (23-4) was 2 of 19 from 3-point range.
“We run two different defenses usually at timeouts or the end of a quarter. Our 1-3-1 and even our 1-2-2 have been really good all year,” Fairmont coach Jeremey Finn said. “If we can do some full-court pressure … for us, switching it up gives us opportunities to do different things.”
Both teams had 14 turnovers, and Fairmont (27-0) got 30 points in the paint to Central’s 22.
“We had to get up and down the court,” said Central senior forward Blossom Wallace, an Ohio University signee who chipped in nine points and eight rebounds. “Our transition defense was the hardest we had to play all year.”
Ms. Basketball finalist Nico Cornett’s 15 points, Kaylah Thornton’s 12 points and seven rebounds and 12 points from Janiyah Hargrave led Fairmont into an all-Southwest District final against Cincinnati Princeton at 8:30 p.m. March 14 at UD.
Central defeated Princeton in last year’s final.
The end of the first half was symbolic of each team’s fortunes to that point.
Off a Central miss, Fairmont’s Maliyah Bailey missed a layup at the other end, but Hargrave was there to put back the shot and make it 29-17 at halftime.
Still, Hedgepeth felt that Central was within striking distance.
“A lot of little things change momentum, but we wanted to stay close enough to make a run in the second half,” he said. “They put on so much ball pressure and took us out of what we wanted to do early. The shots, for the most part, were open looks, especially in the second half. We just didn’t hit them.”
A three-point play from senior guard Ameera Jenkins got Central within 36-33 after three.
Fairmont’s lead swelled to 45-35 on a Cornett steal and layup with 2 minutes left. Wallace’s putback of a Deyon Smith made it 45-40 with 1:26 to go, and Coleman’s free throw with 14.5 seconds left accounted for the final margin.
“[This season] was a lot of ‘next man up’ mentality and we got to this point that way as a team,” Hedgepeth said. “We couldn’t just do it individually. Our pressure in the second half showed what we could do as a team, but we couldn’t do that for 32 minutes.”
(This story has been updated to add new photos and a gallery.)
High school sports reporter Dave Purpura can be reached at dpurpura@dispatch.com and at @dp_dispatch on X.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Pickerington Central girls basketball falls in OHSAA state semifinal
Reporting by Dave Purpura, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
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