With only three seniors on the roster, a common sentiment around the Pickerington High School Central boys basketball team is that it is loading up for several seasons of success.

The Tigers, who won their first 14 games this season, clinched their first OCC-Ohio Division championship in 10 years by defeating Lancaster 74-42 on Feb. 13.

“It’s been a great accomplishment,” said guard Caris LeVert, one of the seniors along with guards Chad Nelson and Zach Beaver. “We’ve talked about the OCC all year and it feels great to get it.”

This is the Tigers’ first league championship since winning the OCC-Ohio in 2001-02, the last of three consecutive league titles. Then-Pickerington High School also won the program’s most recent district championship that season, defeating Reynoldsburg 67-54 in a district final before losing to Brookhaven 68-59 in a regional semifinal.

Central, which is 17-2 overall and 12-1 in the league, is two games ahead of second-place Newark (10-3). Gahanna, Grove City, Pickerington North and Reynoldsburg are tied for fourth at 7-6, followed by Lancaster (2-11) and Groveport (0-13).

Central squandered an earlier chance to clinch the title outright when it lost 51-35 at Newark on Feb. 7, a game in which the Tigers trailed 8-0 and were down as much as 18 points in the second half.

They clinched a share of the league title three nights later with a 74-63 win over Grove City.

“We kind of let things get in the way of greatness,” sophomore guard Jae’Sean Tate said. “Our heads got too big and we thought we’d be unstoppable. But in this conference, we know teams are going to give us a run. We have to respect our opponents. That’s what we did (against Grove City).”

The Greyhounds got within three points in the closing seconds of the third quarter, but the Tigers reeled off a 9-2 run to take control and sealed the win on back-to-back dunks in the final two minutes by Tate and LeVert.

“That was exciting. It got the kids involved but drove me crazy a little bit,” coach Jerry Francis said. “They tried to make the great play instead of making the easy play.”

Central’s previous game against Grove City might have been the toughest of its 14 consecutive wins to open the season. The Tigers recovered from a 10-point deficit late in the fourth quarter to win 93-91 in overtime on Jan. 6, three days after a 56-53 win over Newark at home.

Central finishes the league season Friday, Feb. 17, at Reynoldsburg.

“I’m proud of the boys. This means so much to our program,” Francis said. “I told those guys they’ll be the founding fathers, the Jacques Cousteaus, the Christopher Columbuses of a long line of great Tiger basketball players coming through here. É We still have a long way to go, but I’m very excited with where we’re at right now.”