The Watterson High School boys basketball team continued its late-season surge last week as it won two CCL games to extend its winning streak to eight games and clinch at least a share of its first league championship since 2004.

The Eagles beat visiting Hartley 36-34 on Jan. 31, as Bryan Jackson scored 10 points, including the winning points on two free throws with 12 seconds left.

Andy Grieser also had 10 points for Watterson, which led 32-19 after the third quarter before being outscored 15-4 in the fourth quarter.

The Eagles then defeated visiting Ready 59-28 on Feb. 3 to improve to 13-4 overall and 6-0 in the CCL. Jake Brobst had 17 points, Tyler Schafer scored 11 and Matt Lehmann scored 10.

“We feel good about the way we’ve been playing the second half of this season and we feel very good about winning a share of our first CCL title in eight years, because it’s the first time for this group and they’ve worked very hard for it,” said coach Vince Lombardo, who also led Watterson to CCL titles in 1996, 2000, 2003 and 2004. “But we’re going to try to keep this momentum going, because at this point we’ve only won half of the title and we don’t want to share it.”

The Eagles will have the opportunity to win the CCL title outright on Friday, Feb. 10, when they play at St. Charles.

Watterson beat St. Charles 42-31 on Jan. 13 at home, outscoring the Cardinals 16-3 in the fourth quarter. Brobst had 14 points and Jackson scored nine to lead the Eagles, while 6-foot-2 senior guard Jimmy Ryan had 15 points and 5-10 junior guard Steve Lutter scored seven to pace the Cardinals.

“Both teams played excellent defense in the first meeting, and we were able to open it up at the end,” Lombardo said. “We definitely want to wrap up (the outright CCL title) on Friday, but it’s tough to win at St. Charles and they’re having a good year, so we’ll need to be focused on this game.”

St. Charles lost to Olentangy Orange 54-39 on Feb. 4 to drop to 10-5 overall, as 6-6 senior post player Dan Hennessey scored 12 points. The Cardinals are 3-3 in the CCL.

“St. Charles has a very good team,” Lombardo said. “Jimmy Ryan is an excellent ball-handler and shooter, and Steve Lutter shoots the ball well, too. Their big guy (Hennessey) is strong inside and gives them a strong presence in the middle. We primarily played man-to-man defense in the first game, but we did mix in (some zones) as well.

“We’re deeper than we’ve been in the past and our guys have played some excellent man-to-man defense. That’s enabled us to extend our defensive pressure out more to wear down our opponents, and we’ve gotten a little better at creating more offense out of our defense.”

Lombardo said the Eagles need to handle St. Charles’ defensive pressure so that they can set up and execute their offense.

Brobst is averaging a team-high 8.9 points, followed by Mike Vlahakis (8.5), Jackson (7.4), Grieser (7.2), Schafer (5.0) and Lehmann (4.6).

“We’ve been taking care of the basketball for the most part, and we’ve had a good offensive balance,” Lombardo said. “We spread it around enough that opponents can’t key on one or two of our guys because we have a number of guys who are capable of double figures. If teams take away our post guys, we have a number of guys who can make outside shots.”

Lombardo is hoping to have two key players back at full strength within the next two weeks.

Senior wing player Jake Lombardo, the coach’s son, played a couple of minutes against Ready but didn’t score. He missed 12 games after breaking a bone in his left foot during a 36-35 win at Hartley on Dec. 16.

Senior wing player Erik Oman missed the first seven games with arm and turf toe injuries. He then scored a total of 12 points during a five-game span before aggravating his turf toe injury.

Oman is expected to return to the lineup by the start of the Division II district tournament.

“Erik and Jake have both missed a number of games, Mike Vlahakis has been a little banged up and Andy Grieser was under the weather (on Feb. 3),” coach Lombardo said. “Fortunately, we’ve had a number of guys step up and fill in well in a variety of roles. Hopefully, we can get everyone healthy soon so we can be at our best for the district tournament.”

•The girls basketball team will open the Division I district tournament against Grove City on Tuesday, Feb. 14, at Olentangy Orange. Watterson is seeded ninth.

The winner will play Dublin Scioto or Hilliard Darby in the second round Feb. 22 at Orange.

Grove City was 5-13 before playing Gahanna on Feb. 7. The Greyhounds conclude the regular season Feb. 10 against Pickerington Central.

In Grove City’s 69-29 loss to Newark on Feb. 3, junior guard Miranda Frase scored 10 points and sophomore guard Jen Draper scored nine. The Greyhounds also feature 6-5 junior center Kristen Mesler.