COLUMBUS, Ohio -- In a rare Monday night of district semifinal action, let's take a look at which four teams punched their tickets to the district finals on Thursday night.
Harvest Prep used a 16-point advantage in the second half and advances to the district finals to take on No. 2 Worthington Christian on Thursday at 6 p.m at Capital University.
Worthington Christian advances to the district finals to take on No. 5 Harvest Prep on Thursday at 6 p.m at Capital University.
The top-seeded Nubians scored 23 points in each the third and fourth quarter and gained separation to deliver a 75-49 defeat over Fredericktown.
The blow-out victory isn't quite indicative of the competitive nature of the game. The Freddies kept the Nubians within reach and trailed by single digits until halfway through the third when Africentric senior Dailyn Swain recorded his sixth steal and finished with a breakaway dunk to give the Nubians a ten-point lead that would only blossom.
The Freddies were actually the much better shooting team, most notably behind the arc, where they connected on seven triples compared to Africentric's lone one make, from Swain.
Yet the Nubians stellar brand of team defense, powered behind a full-court press in the second half, created a fortune of turnovers that led to easy Africentric scores.
Swain led all players with 30 points. The Xavier commit and district player of the year looked the part of a player much advanced beyond his peers and added eight rebounds, seven steals and six assists. His most impressive basket was an entire full-court throw into the hoop, but was deemed late just after the third quarter buzzer.
He was joined by senior Preston Steele who notched a double-double with 18 points and ten rebounds. Junior Cortez Freeman finished with ten points.
Fredericktown was led by seniors Brady Lester and Kaid Carpenter who scored 12 and ten points, respectively. Carpenter in particular was one of the more impressive athletes on the court and added nine rebounds along with three assists. Senior Luke Bean scored nine points, all from beyond the arc in the second half.
Africentric advances to the district finals to take on No. 3 Columbus Academy on Thursday at 8:30 p.m at Capital University.
Columbus Academy advances to the district finals to take on No. 1 Africentric on Thursday at 8:30 p.m at Capital University.