COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Coming out of yesterday’s tournament draw, both Wellington (11-8) and Columbus Academy (15-4) realized they had an interesting situation in front of them. With the potential to meet up if both teams take care of business in the first round, the two squared off tonight in a promising non-league game.

Despite a big fourth quarter run from Wellington, the Vikings controlled the first 26 minutes of the game, enough to help them to a 62-50 win in front of the home crowd.

With Wellington opening up the game in a 2-3 zone, Columbus Academy found many gaps in it when shots were in the air, allowing them to dominate the offensive glass. After a putback from senior Hayden Compton gave them an early 4-0 lead, a three-pointer from junior Carter Warstler extended it to 7-2 with 3:22 left in the first.

Wellington missed some easy looks around the rim early on and allowed the Vikings to set the tone in the first. Ending the frame on a 14-1 run, Columbus Academy cruised into the second with a healthy 18-3 lead. Immediately running the floor after a missed shot from the Jaguars, they used great transition offense, defense and rebounding to jump out to this lead.

Senior Dallas Patrick scored all three of Wellington’s points in the quarter. Even with Patrick struggling to do much early on, nobody else on the roster stepped up to hit shots.

Changing this narrative immediately to start the second, Wellington scored the first four points of the quarter and trailed just 18-7 with 6:44 left in the half. Despite having an answer to the first several Viking baskets of the quarter, the Jaguars could not keep up with them for the rest of the frame.

Behind a big quarter from Warstler, Columbus Academy headed into the locker room feeling good about themselves as they led 32-16 at the break. Scoring 10 of his team-high 17 points in the quarter, he showed off his nice perimeter stroke by hitting two triples in the frame. He also had a very emphatic block off of a three-pointer and went coast to coast for the and-one after.

Warstler translated this excellent play over to the second half as well, scoring the first four points of the third to help the Vikings take their largest lead of the night to that point. Leading 36-16 with 6:03 left in the frame, they looked to be doing everything right in this game. Staying true to this for the rest of the quarter, they rolled into the fourth leading 47-26.

However, Wellington would not go down without a fight. Patrick started off the final quarter scorching, as he knocked down a triple followed up by a tough lay-in and then hit three shots at the stripe. After he knocked down another three-pointer with 3:12 to go, Columbus Academy took a timeout ahead 57-42.

Refusing to give up, junior Connor Herrick hit back-to-back three’s after this and cut the lead to just 60-50. Unfortunately for the Jags, this was simply too little too late as Columbus Academy hit two at the line to seal it.

Scoring 14 points in the fourth, Patrick led all scorers with 31 points to go along with seven rebounds. Herrick also chipped in with 12 points on two three-pointers. Their next highest player in the scoring category finished with just three points on a night where they had no options for the first three quarters.

Playing a great team game on both sides for the majority of the night, Academy had three players in double figured. Warstler led them with 17 in another impressive showing. Compton also scored 14 to go along with six rebounds and three steals. Dominating the glass, senior Chris Boyle scored just four points but grabbed 14 boards.

Feeling one another out in tonight’s game, it should be really interesting to see how these teams game plan for one another if they meet again in the tournament.

Dallas Patrick (6’1 CG / Wellington / 2019): The Wellington guard built on a wildly productive senior season by tallying a game-high 31 points. At 6-foot-1, Patrick will not blow you away with outstanding speed or tremendous leaping explosion. He’s a crafty guard that knows exactly where he needs to be in order to succeed in scoring the ball on the court. His high school role is a high usage creator with a ton of high ball screens ran for the guard, however that will not be his collegiate calling card. Patrick is best utilized as a secondary creator. With a tight but far from shifty handle, the senior has a set of very deliberate moves that he utilizes in order to get to his pull up jump shot. Those two elements of his game are going to be absolutely tremendous in transition drag screens, as he converted most of his pull up shots both in transition and out of high ball screens tonight along with working him off secondary spread pick and rolls and dribble handoffs. The senior’s shooting looks like it could effortlessly transition to the collegiate level with a sky high release that allows him to shoot over the top of larger defenders even when struggling to create seperation. He only attempted one shot off movement, but was fairly balanced on top of his fantastic balance in the air on his pull up jumper. When he becomes comfortable shooting off movement, Patrick will be a killer working off pin downs, screen the screener actions, and other actions where he can take advantage of his shooting stroke. He could also attack off the dribble on these actions where he can utilize his ambidextrous finishing and solid body control.

Defensively, Patrick was not overly active in the first half. This is typical of a player who has to carry as much of the load that the senior does offensively. Wellington cannot afford for him to get into foul trouble, in fact they may have not had him out of the game for more than twenty seconds. He did make a nice effort block after a loose ball in the first half, but was far more engaged in the Jaguars’ zone in the second. He executed some simple rotations and anticipated a steal that lead to an and-one for him.

Overall, Patrick played a solid game even though it took him awhile to get going. I would like to see him continue to develop as a passer, executing on some simple strong side drive and kicks, but will have to improve as a decision maker along with his overall passing vision in order to fully thrive in a secondary creation/off ball scoring role. He likely will not be a point of attack defender, so ideally you would like him to excel off the ball as a team defender as well. It’s easy to come away impressed when you contextualize Patrick’s situation, and he should be a Division III priority right now.

Chris Boyle (6’4 WF / Columbus Academy / 2019): Once again, I came away very impressed with the future Brown football player’s game on the court. At 6-foot-4, Boyle has a fantastic frame and is exceptionally nimble on his feet for his size. Even though the senior only scored four points in the game, he was an integral component of Columbus Academy’s first half dominance. The wing consistently showcased his ability to read the weak side of the floor in order to create open shots and give guards like Dorrian Moultrie and Carter Warstler open driving lanes, jumpshots, or easy passes to make once Boyle shifted Wellington’s zone and provided his teammates with opportunities to break down the zone. He was also tremendous on the boards where he crashed the defensive glass hard. The senior ended up engineering some of his teams transition offense, where he has the handling, decision making, and passing vision to be a phenomenal grab and go threat in the open court.

He also spent a majority of the game guarding star senior Dallas Patrick, where Boyle showed good lateral speed and engagement off the ball, never losing sight of one of the leading scorers in the area. He held Patrick to just seven points on some pretty inefficient shooting numbers in the first half.

Boyle’s passing ability combined with his size, speed, and handling trio make it simply mesmerizing to think about all the ways they can be applied on the basketball court. Unfortunately, he will be playing football in the Ivy League next season. We wish him all the best in the future.

Dorrian Moultrie (6’0 G / Columbus Academy / 2019): Academy has yet another FCS football commit with an impressive game. At six feet tall, Moultrie is a lightning quick lead guard that excels in a fast paced transition game where he can take advantage of his phenomenal north/speed speed, finish at the rim, or make decisive reads to spot up shooters or teammates running the lane. The senior also flashed the ability to run the proper lanes with his aggressive motor and finish at the rim in transition as well.  In the halfourt, Moultrie can get into the lane changing speeds and directions where he has fantastic burst coming out of each. Once in the lane, the senior can make lightning quick dump offs or drive and kicks. He can also knock down a mid range pull up, but is not relied upon as a consistent three point shooting option.

Defensively, Moultrie is one of the better guards I have seen all year. With a strong frame, lightning quick lateral speed and hips, he would have a ton of equity as a point of attack defender in a pressing system that would bother an opposing teams ball handler for 94 feet and 40 minutes every single game. He can create his own offense with his defensive prowess. Similarly to Boyle, we wish Moultrie the best in his collegiate football career at Georgetown.