<%@LANGUAGE="JAVASCRIPT" CODEPAGE="1252"%> hawkhoops.com | Media Coverage

 
 


Hiland's title picture fades in second half

By ZACH BOLINGER
Daily Record Sports Staff

COLUMBUS -- Hiland couldn't have drawn it out and prepped to frame it any better.

With a 15-point lead and only a quarter-and-a-half remaining, the Div. IV state championship was another work of art in the making for the Hawks Saturday.

Out came the eraser -- aka Columbus Africentric.

Pressure defense and ferocious rebounding swung the momentum to Africentric in an astounding way, with the Nubians closing the game on an 18-0 run to cap a 55-46 comeback win over defending state champion Hiland. The Nubians (23-4) avenged a loss to Hiland (26-2) in the 2008 final and won their second small-school title in three years.

"We felt at halftime we had a game that was picture perfect for us," Hiland coach Dave Schlabach said. "We kept them out of the paint. We made them shoot jump shots. We didn't have costly turnovers. We didn't give up any ground on the glass.

"It was pretty much just the opposite in the second half."

Africentric, in just its sixth season of organized basketball, scored 32 of the game's final 40 points over the last 11 minutes-plus. Hiland led by as much as 17 in the first minute of third quarter and by 15 with 3 1/2 minutes left in that same stanza. The Hawks even maintained a nine-point cushion after Katelyn Stuckey's hoop with 6:54 remaining, but they didn't score thereafter.

Hiland, over the final 11 1/2 minutes, was 2-of-18 from the floor with nine of its 17 turnovers. Africentric extended its 1-2-2 halfcourt defense to full-court man and an occasional diamond press, scoring 14 points off turnovers after registering just two up until that juncture.

"When you play a team over and over, like we've done with Berlin Hiland -- and especially when you get to this level where both teams are capable of making big plays and runs at any time -- it's never a hopeless case," Africentric coach Will McKinney said. "Not a lot of people realize we scored eight points in the last 1:48 of last year's game against them, that we have been capable of scoring points in spurts against them."

Shardai Morrison-Fountain scored all 13 of her points in the second half, including six straight during a 56-second span of the fourth quarter, helping Africentric rally from a 46-37 deficit with 6:54.

Nubian Raven Ferguson had 17 points and six rebounds, while Associated Press Division IV co-Player of the Year Ashar Harris had 14 points, a Div. IV state tournament record 16 rebounds and three steals. Harris had 10 offensive rebounds in helping Africentric to a 44-31 edge in that category, including 27-11 in the second half.

Karli Mast had 11 points for No. 2-ranked Hiland, which failed to repeat last year's 44-37 win over the Nubians (ranked No. 4). Mykeila Mast added 10 points and five rebounds, but the other Div. IV co-Player of the Year, Hilary Weaver, was held scoreless. The Hawk junior did have five assists, all in the first half when Hiland was in control.

Africentric missed its first 11 shots before Brein Babbs scored on a putback with 2:05 left in the first quarter to make it 7-2. Hiland had five different players score during a 12-2 run to end the opening half and led 26-11 at halftime as the Nubians made only 5-of-29 field goals -- the trio of Harris, Ferguson and Morrison-Fountain combining to shoot 2-of-21.

"The first half we played team ball. We just couldn't get any shots to go in," said Ferguson, who was 1-of-8 shooting in the first half and 5-of-10 in the closing 16 minutes. "In the (halftime) locker room it was quiet at first. Then we said, 'Let's go, it ain't over. It's in your heart to win.' We put our hearts in it and we won."

Mykeila Mast made the first basket of the second half for Hiland's biggest advantage at 28-11, but the Nubians cut the deficit to 40-35 after three quarters, thanks in part to a full-court press and Chelsea Chambers' 3-pointer shortly before the buzzer. Africentric had scored no points off turnovers in the first half, but registered eight in the final 3:43 of the third.

Stuckey's four free throws and left-handed layin in the first 66 seconds of the fourth quarter made it 46-37 Hawks.

"I don't think I did a great job stemming the tide ... doing things to get us a better look, a basket, or slowing down what they were able to do," Schlabach said. "There are going to be plenty of regrets regarding what I could have done there at the end."

 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
 
 
hawkhoops.com. All rights reserved.