SMITHVILLE — Back and forth the pendulum swung as defending state champions Maysville and Cleveland Heights Lutheran East traded haymakers.
A jam-packed crowd on Feb. 2 at Smithville’s Berkey Fieldhouse were left with their jaws hanging as Jordyn Watson and the Panthers earned another landmark victory for the Muskingum Valley League.
The 6-foot-2-inch Watson, a senior, scored 13 of his career-high 45 points in break-neck fourth quarter, as the Panthers’ hot shooting propelled them to an 82-76 comeback win at The Battle at The Berkey.
It was Maysville’s 15th straight win.
Yet another comeback
The “Cardiac Cats” moniker has been well earned, dating to the Division II regional tournament at Athens when Maysville needed two double-digit comebacks to make the state. They needed two more in the 2025 Division IV state tournament.
That made this scenario all too familiar.
Maysville trailed 70-65 after Dylan Ziegler scored off a steal, then closed on a 17-6 run over the final 3:30 as it made 12 of 14 at the line — Watson was 9-of-9.
It was the first loss for Lutheran East, which has won three straight state titles and four of the last five in Division III under coach Sam Liggins.
Panthers coach Dave Brown said the game reminded him of the 2025 state semifinal win against Cincinnati Wyoming, when the Panthers won on Gator Nichols’ buzzer-beating 3 in double overtime at Wittenberg.
It was a late comeback in the fourth quarter that extended the game.
“A lot of people said that was one of the best games they’ve ever seen,” Brown said. “(This) probably rivals it with how many lead changes there were, how many big shots were hit. (Lutheran East) hit some big shots, too. It felt like they threw some knockout punches but we just never stopped fighting.”
How tight was this game? Neither team led by more than six points. Lutheran East led 22-20 after a quarter, Maysville pulled into a 35-all tie at half and led 54-53 entering the fourth.
“A lot of polls out there had (Lutheran East) ranked No. 2 to (West Chester) Lakota West, who has five or six Division I (college) players,” Brown said. “We got what we wanted out of this game. It was a highly competitive, tournament-like atmosphere with two state champions.
“They’ve won three in a row and I know they were looking at an undefeated season,” Brown added. “And they were really well coached. Sam Liggins does a heck of a job.”
It was Maysville’s third win against a former state champ this season — it defeated Kettering Alter and Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary in December.
Same song, new verse for Watson, Nichols
Clutch play in pressure cooker-type scenarios has been a hallmark since Maysville began its three-year run of state tournaments in 2023. It began with All-Ohioan Alex Bobb and continued with Nichols and Bobb a year later.
Their imprints were all over this win.
Watson was 16-of-16 at the free-throw line and erupted for 30 second-half points. He and Nichols, who had 17 of his 26 markers in the first half and was 9-of-9 at the stripe, had all but 11 of the team’s points and combined for 10-of-12 three-point shooting.
Yet, it was 6-5 senior Kane Roehrig, held scoreless for 31 minutes battling against 6-7 Devontey Perkins and 6-5 Ocho Davis inside, whose go-ahead 3 sent Maysville ahead to stay with just less than a minute left.
Four free throws from Watson and Nichols in the final 10 seconds put it out of reach. But it was three straight defensive stops, after Chris Hill’s 3 gave Lutheran East a 76-75 lead with 1:00 left, that gave Maysville the edge at winning time.
Ziegler, the state’s top-ranked sophomore guard by multiple publications, who already owns an offer from Ohio State, was held without a point in the final 3:30.
He finished with 21 points and Hill 18.
“I thought Gator really guarded him well in the fourth quarter,” Brown said. “He made some shots, but he made some tough shots, Every time I’ve seen Gator Nichols lace it up, I have never seen him outperformed.”
As for Watson, no stranger to big-game scoring outbursts, this may have been his Rembrandt. He finished 12-of-16 from the field, pulled down seven of the team’s 24 rebounds and had only one turnover.
He had 12 second-half points in last year’s state finals, a game Nichols had 36.
“JW was obviously elite-level tournament JW right there,” Brown said.
That Roehrig, with a 40-point game to his credit against Kettering Alter on his 2025-26 resumé, didn’t hesitate to take the big shot in a game he didn’t score typifies the team’s confidence in each other, Brown said.
“Our guys do a great job of not caring (who scores),” Brown said. “Obviously, Gator, he’s going to be probably our all-time leading scorer. But he is so happy for JW. JW scores 45, and Gator , three of his last four games have been at 40. Our guys, they don’t care. They just play. And they find a way.”
sblackbu@gannett.com; X: @SamBlackburnTR
This article originally appeared on Zanesville Times Recorder: ‘Elite level’ Jordyn Watson shines as Maysville slays another giant
Reporting by Sam Blackburn, Zanesville Times Recorder / Zanesville Times Recorder
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