skip navigation

Westerville Central delivers convincing win led by their four senior starters and overpower Hilliard Bradley

By Greg Glasser, 03/11/21, 11:30PM EST

Share

Warhawks advance to play in school's first ever regional final

Westerville, Ohio --  For any tournament run, few factors are as valuable as team experience.

For Westerville Central, the experience of their four starting seniors led to a thorough performance as they combined for all but four points of the Warhawks 56-44 victory over Hilliard Bradley in Thursday's regional semifinals.

A highly anticipated contest that pitted the region's #2 and #3 seeds against another, Westerville Central was in mostly firm control after the Warhawks ended the first half on a 7-0 run to take a 23-16 lead into halftime.

At both conclusions of the first and second quarter, Warhawks senior Quincy Clark stalled the clock to the final few seconds to then connect on two made jumpers right before the buzzer.  

It was that type of a determined night for Clark and the Warhawks, as they controlled most of the second half with their own dictated pace.  Westerville Central would see their lead hover in the double digits and entered the final period with a 10-point advantage.

Bradley had trouble with offensive production and couldn't cut the Warhawks lead to single digits until below the four minute mark.  The Jaguars seemed to make a final rally with just under two and a half minutes to play when freshman Cade Norris scored on a strong and-one to cut Central's lead to six.

But Norris would miss the ensuing free throw and Bradley would never get closer.  The Jaguars had a hard time with made shot attempts in the final stretch and it often led to a Warhawks rebound and quick score in transition, most notably to senior Tasos Cook who had two breakaway dunks in the final moments en route to a somewhat comfortable 12-point victory.

While Westerville Central had an impressive all-around team contribution, it was Clark that earns recognition as the game's MVP.  One rebound away from a double-double, Clark had a decorated box score.  One of the area's best unsigned seniors, Clark finished with 13 points, nine rebounds, five steals, four assists and two blocks.

Not included in the box score was the tremendous defensive performance he applied to Bradley's senior and Wright State commit Keaton Norris.

Clark perhaps gave Norris the most difficult defensive challenge he's faced all season.  While Norris finished with a game-high 19 points, Clark altered many of Norris' shot attempts in the lane and limited the sharp shooter to no made three-point attempts in the second half. 

After a heroic game-winning performance on Saturday, Warhawks senior Landon Tillman continued his heroic play with another excellent performance, as he led his team with 17 points that included three triples.

Fellow senior MJ Davis had three triples of his own, all in the third quarter, and finished with 12 points.

After being named Central District player of the year earlier in the week, Cook did a good job of letting his teammates assume most of the scoring roles and made an all-around impact with 10 points, seven rebounds and three assists.

For Hilliard Bradley, the loss wasn't without an honorable effort.  The Jaguars played their recognizable brand of hard-nosed physical play, but simply lacked the offensive firepower when needed.

Keaton Norris left everything on the floor in his 19 points and nine rebound effort.   The senior had to take much of the offensive burden, which proved to be too tall of a task against a physical, aggressive and disciplined Warhawks defense.

Keaton did receive some offensive help through younger brother Cade, most notably in the second half, as he scored nine of his game's 12 points in the final two periods.  The freshman also displayed impressive patience and vision with his three assists. 

Junior Peyton Murphy added seven points, along with two assists and upheld his reputation as one of Central Ohio's toughest players.

The loss for Bradley ends an overall successful season which brought another district championship, but again falls short of reaching the state tournament. 

Westerville Central moves on to the regional finals and play top-seeded Gahanna on Saturday, March 13 at 1pm at Westerville South.

The #1 vs #2  showdown marks the third time since 2011 that the top seeds play each other in the regional final.   The last occurrence took place in 2016 when #2 Westerville South beat #1 Gahanna, which then led to a Wildcats state championship. 

Recent News


Order the 270 Hoops 2021 Preview Magazine today!

Subscribe to 270 Hoops Mailing List!

Email Address:
Favorite High School:
First Name:
Last Name:
Subscribe