Westland Roundup
Boys team ready to face Grove City
Deshone Davis of Westland looks to maneuver past Central Crossing’s Maurice Reed during a game earlier this season. The Cougars will play Grove City in the first round of the Division I district tournament Saturday, Feb. 25, at Marysville. Buy This Photo
Westland High School boys basketball coach Todd Parker was impressed with the enthusiasm generated by last season’s South-Western City Schools Winter Classic.
The event wasn’t held this season because of a scheduling conflict, but Westland and Grove City will get a chance to renew their rivalry when the teams meet in the first round of the Division I district tournament at 7:45 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 25, at Marysville.
Parker hopes the tournament game is the first of many contests against SWCS schools.
“They’ve already talked about the South-Western classic for next year, so hopefully we do that and continue it for years to come,” he said.
Grove City is seeded 10th in the district tournament and Westland is seeded 27th.
The winner will play 17th-seeded Hilliard Davidson or 23rd-seeded Thomas Worthington in the second round March 1 at Marysville.
The Greyhounds were 13-6 overall before playing Pickerington North on Feb. 17.
Westland was 9-10 before playing Central Crossing on Feb. 17.
“Hopefully, we can show how much we’ve improved and have a good, strong showing here at the end of the season and finish on a good note,” Parker said.
Last season in the classic, Grove City defeated Westland 64-47 before losing to Central Crossing 66-59.
Westland defeated Franklin Heights 56-46 in its second game.
Grove City and Westland also met in the 2009-10 season, with the Greyhounds winning 83-59.
Grove City coach Greg Waits is downplaying the local-rivalry aspect of the game.
“We aren’t going to make a big deal out of this game,” Waits said. “As far as we’re concerned it’s just another game, and we are looking forward to the challenge of playing a very well-coached, hard-working team.”
Westland was tied for fifth with Davidson in the OCC-Central Division at 7-6 before playing Central Crossing.
The Cougars had lost four of five games before beating Hilliard Darby 57-48 on Feb. 10 behind 18 points from Kersey Long and 11 from Devan Williamson.
Through 19 games, Kris Carius led Westland by averaging 12.1 points, followed by Long (11.8) and J.J. Smith (10.5). Smith led in rebounding at 7.7 per game.
Before Feb. 17, Brad Saxton led Grove City in scoring at 15.7 points per game, followed by Brandon Bapst (11.5) and Mitch Stephens (10.8).
“I know that Grove City is a good, competitive team and they like to push it and play hard, too,” Greyhounds junior KyJuan Grace said. “It’s going to be a good challenge for us.”
Parker expects the Greyhounds to try to play an up-tempo style, as they were averaging 72.4 points through 19 games.
“We have to play well,” Parker said. “We have to have a good start, which will definitely build our confidence, and then we have to challenge their 3-point shooters.
“And I know that coach Waits likes their kids to go up and down, so we’ll have to be able to transition both ways, offensively and defensively.”
Should the Cougars advance, they’ll face a familiar opponent in the second round.
Westland swept the regular-season series with Davidson, winning 61-56 on Dec. 22 and 63-55 on Jan. 20. The Cougars split with Thomas, with the Cardinals winning 53-41 on Dec. 20 and Westland winning 63-61 on Feb. 3.
•The girls basketball team challenged seventh-seeded Olentangy before losing 52-42 in the first round of the Division I district tournament Feb. 15 at Olentangy Orange.
The Cougars finished 6-15.
“This was a good experience for our kids,” coach Hugo Quint said. “Olentangy is a good basketball team. We respected them.”
Olentangy improved to 19-2 and advanced to play Delaware in the second round Tuesday, Feb. 21.
The game was competitive throughout, with the Braves leading 12-11 after one quarter, 27-21 at halftime and 39-33 after three quarters.
Christina Simpson led Westland with 16 points.
Morgan Horvath scored 11 points for Olentangy.
“Our defense has been pretty good,” Quint said. “We had one or two breakdowns in the area of defense and they capitalized on it. A good team like that is going to do that. You have to respect them for that.”
