Gahanna Lincoln High School girls basketball coach Rick Hauser is of the belief that each of the top four finishers in the OCC-Ohio Division could have won titles if they’d been in the OCC-Cardinal or OCC-Central this winter.

The Division I district tournament that began Feb. 14 isn’t so much an opportunity to prove that point as it is a chance for a team like the Lions to show just how tough their league was at the top.

According to Hauser, whose team lost 53-50 to the state’s top-ranked team, Reynoldsburg, in its regular-season finale Feb. 10 to drop to 14-6 overall and finish 9-5 in the OCC-Ohio, the pieces are there for another postseason run.

Gahanna was a district champion in 2010 and a district runner-up a year ago.

“The bottom line is we’ve got to do the little things better, like blocking out,” Hauser said. “We’ve got to be able to play pressure defense without fouling and make free throws. Those kinds of little things come back and get you.”

The Lions earned the sixth seed in the district and opened the postseason Feb. 15 against Canal Winchester.

The winner plays Logan or Olentangy Liberty in the second round at 7:45 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 21, at Hilliard Davidson, with the victor likely meeting fifth-seeded Dublin Coffman in a district semifinal March 1 at Davidson.

Coffman, which won the OCC-Central championship, improved to 18-2 with a 47-24 win over Worthington Kilbourne on Feb. 10 and enters the postseason having won 15 consecutive games.

Liberty improved to 9-11 with a 50-32 win over Westerville Central on Feb. 10 and Logan was 10-10 in the regular season. Liberty won just five games last season.

Seniors Jalynn Guice and Maddie Redwine and junior Kennedy Wilke are among the top players for Liberty.

The Chieftains are led by senior Brooke Simons, who had 24 points during a 46-32 victory over Gallipolis Gallia Academy on Feb. 6. Also in Logan’s starting lineup are two freshmen and one sophomore.

“We don’t know a lot about Logan yet, but we know that Liberty runs the Princeton offense and some zone defense,” Hauser said. “The Princeton offense keeps the floor spread, so you’ve got to be able to guard well.”

The Lions followed a 53-43 loss to OCC-Ohio foe Pickerington North — the district’s No. 2 seed behind Reynoldsburg — on Feb. 3 with a 64-55 win over Grove City on Feb. 7.

On what represented Gahanna’s senior night, 12th-graders Te-Asia Smith, Mi’Eshia Parker and Kenya Cortledge all started against the Greyhounds. Smith had 13 points, two shy of her season high, with Parker scoring seven points and Cortledge scoring three.

“We were leading by 23 before (Grove City) got it down to nine,” Hauser said. “I don’t think we guarded them too hard, so I wasn’t disappointed. Smith hit her first outside shot and started attacking the basket, and she also had a couple of assists.”

•The boys team bounced back from a 55-46 loss to Pickerington North on Feb. 3 by beating Grove City 71-62 on Feb. 7. The loss to North marked just the fourth game this season in which the Lions failed to score at least 50 points.

Against Grove City, junior Ronnie Stokes made a pair of 3-pointers and finished with a team-best 19 points for Gahanna, which trailed 40-35 at halftime but outscored the Greyhounds 24-13 during the fourth quarter.

“We beat them down low and outworked them,” said senior Aaron Roberson, who added a season-high 13 points. “We had to make sure we didn’t give them easy buckets inside and didn’t give up any second chances on the boards.”

Gahanna closes the regular season Friday, Feb. 17, at Groveport, marking its sixth road contest in seven games.

The Lions defeated the Cruisers 67-45 on Jan. 13 as Austin Rutherford had 19 points and Stokes scored 15.

Gahanna, which has won back-to-back Division I district titles, is hoping the experience it gained by such a long road stretch will help it during the postseason.

“Coach (Tony Staib) tells us that road games are the hardest,” Roberson said. “If you have the lead, the game’s not over until the clock runs out. We’ve got to keep playing smart.

“It’s been extremely difficult this year because in my other years on the team, we’ve (been stronger) skill-wise. This year we’ve had to work as a team and have actually had to work together.”