by The St. Ignatius Wildcats took on the Olentangy Orange Pioneers in the OHSAA Division 1 basketball state semifinals where four quarters was not enough to determine an outcome. The Pioneers would defeat the reigning state champions in an overtime thriller 58-54.
The Wildcats started things off by winning the tip. However, the contest started fairly slow, seeing the first point of the game being scored by senior guard Ellis Appiah off of a singular free throw just a minute and a half into the first quarter. Senior guard Keegan Knupp for the Pioneers would come right back down to score a layup putting Olentangy Orange up 3-0.
The Pioneers were playing super aggressively on defense to start, however, junior Roy Jones was able to get the Wildcats on the board with a layup. It was all Olentangy Orange to start, seeing Davidson commit and Mr. Basketball finalist Devin Brown get on the board with a layup and Appiah slamming one in off of a breakaway.
The first quarter was super energetic to start finding both Brown and Jones exchanging buckets. The Pioneers were on a run and found themselves up 13-4 with just 2:22 to go in the first quarter forcing St. Ignatius to call a timeout. Jones came right out of the timeout to knock down a triple for the Wildcats. Star forward for the Wildcats and Dayton commit Damon Friery was able to finally get in the scoring column with a three-pointer after a slow start. A super high energy and physical first quarter concluded finding the Pioneers on top, 15-10.
Olentangy Orange started the second quarter with the ball. Junior guard Levi Davis for the Pioneers started the quarter off with his second basket of the game followed up by another layup from senior forward Terryn Thomas. Friery was doing everything he could to help his Wildcats team get back into the game, getting to the line and knocking down one of two free throws.
Friery’s free throw made the score 19-11 with 5:46 remaining in the second quarter. St. Ignatius was being heavily disrupted by the physicality of the Pioneers’ defense. Thomas would continue his aggressiveness and come down to score another layup bringing his total to 4. Davis was able to drive to rack and draw a foul where he went one for two from the line making the score 22-11 with just 4:30 to go in the half.
Friery was trying to do it all for the Wildcats, ultimately getting back to the line and knocking both of his free throws down. The Pioneers started slowing down the pace of the game late into the second quarter. Thomas was doing it all, grabbing a huge offensive rebound and converting an and-one. This made the score 25-13 at the 3:30 mark.
Senior guard Jimmy Thomas for the Wildcats was able to get in the scoring column knocking down a pair of free throws. However, Olentangy Orange was dominating the second quarter, and it started with Knupp on the defensive end, getting two back-to-back blocks that got the momentum for the Pioneers going. Knupp’s defense was able to set up yet another fast-break dunk for Appiah. This made the score 27-15 with just 1:50 remaining in the half. Jones was able to get back to the free throw line for the Wildcats where he converted one of two. This ended the quarter with the Pioneers up 27-16 going into the break.
St. Ignatius started the third quarter off with the ball. The third quarter started off with a handful of baskets being exchanged by both sides. Kent State commit Quinn Woidke was able to finally get into the scoring column after a slow start with a layup. Brown would answer back with a layup of his own followed by yet another bucket from Woidke and a three-pointer from junior guard Alex Mack.
Both teams started the third quarter off super aggressively offensively. Knupp was able to get another layup for the Pioneers and senior guard Kalli Johnson was able to get into the scoring column with a nice mid-range jump shot. Davis was doing it all for the Pioneers, scoring yet another basket to make the score 33-25 at the five-minute mark and then coming right back down to knock down a pair of free throws to put Olentangy Orange up 10 in the third.
St. Ignatius started to press in hopes of cutting the lead down to single digits going into the fourth quarter. Friery was able to get back to the line where he was able to knock down both of his free throws. This made the score 35-27 with just three minutes left in the third quarter.
Friery came right back down to score a layup. The Wildcats would then get three offensive rebounds in a row but were unable to convert. Knupp’s presence in the paint was prominent as he picked up yet another block bringing his total to 3 on the game. However, the momentum was shifting in favor of the Wildcats late into the third quarter.
Davis was able to get back to the line after being fouled on a layup attempt where he knocked both of his free throws down. This made the score 37-29 with just 17 seconds remaining in the third quarter. Friery would come right back down to shoot a three with just 1.3 seconds left in which he was fouled. Friery was able to knock down all three of his free throws to make the score 37-32.
Olentangy Orange threw the ball down the court in hopes of getting one last shot off before the third quarter expired, however, Friery intercepted the ball and shot a three from half-court and banked it in as time expired. The third quarter ended 37-35 with the Pioneers on top and the atmosphere was insane going into the fourth quarter.
Olentangy Orange started the fourth quarter with the ball, however, both sides were having a sloppy start. The first point scored in the fourth quarter was a three-pointer from Eddie Brown of the Pioneers. This made the score 40-35 at the six-minute mark in the fourth quarter.
Friery was able to come right back down to convert an and-one to make it just a two-point game. The Wildcats started to press heavily late into the fourth quarter, ultimately forcing a ten-second violation and getting the ball back. Friery took advantage of the ten-second violation against the Pioneers and converted on yet another layup. Davis then answered back for the Pioneers, scoring a layup of his own. Olentangy Orange was able to get a nice defensive stop which resulted in a huge slam by Knupp. This made the score 44-40 with 4:18 remaining in the quarter.
The Pioneers were trying to slow the game down late into the quarter as they were up. However, the Wildcats got a defensive stop and Woidke went back to the line as the Wildcats were in the bonus where he was able to knock down both of his free throws. Woidke was able to make the score 44-42 with just two and a half minutes to go.
The Wildcats came right back down, and Appiah was able to get yet another layup to go in to tie the game. St. Ignatius was on a run seeing Friery score yet another layup forcing the Pioneers to call a time-out. This made the score 46-44 with just a minute and a half remaining. Brown was able to come through for the Pioneers to hit a tough layup that tied the game 46-46 with just 35 seconds remaining. The Wildcats were holding the ball for the final shot as Friery isolated his defender to take one final shot before time expired, but he missed, and the game went to overtime.
Olentangy Orange was able to win the tip to start overtime. Woidke and Knupp were able to exchange baskets to start making the score 48-48 with just 2:50 to go in overtime. Woidke was doing it all in overtime, connecting on yet another layup to put the Wildcats up 50-48. Davis came right back and answered with a huge three-pointer to put the Pioneers up by one.
Knupp was able to shift the momentum in favor of the Pioneers with yet another huge dunk. This put the Pioneers up 53-50 with just one minute remaining. The Pioneers had complete control and were trying to slow the pace down. However, St. Ignatius started to foul to stop the time in hopes of making a comeback to get back to the state championship.
Appiah was fouled and was able to knock down both of his free throws late into overtime. This put the Pioneers up 55-50 with just 30 seconds remaining. Jones came right back down to score a quick layup for the Wildcats to make the score 55-52 with 12 seconds to go. Appiah was fouled again and was able to knock both of his free throws.
The Wildcats got yet another quick layup by senior guard Kyle Niehaus to make the score 57-54 with one second left. The Wildcats committed yet another quick foul and Brown knocked down one of two free throws ultimately ending the game.
The Olentangy Orange Pioneers will advance to the state championship where they will take on the Reynoldsburg Raiders at the University of Dayton.
The player of the game for the St. Ignatius Wildcats is Damon Friery who scored 23 points and the player of the game for the Olentangy Orange Pioneers was Levi Davis with 21 points.
