Westerville North boys basketball cruises to OHSAA Division II state championship
DAYTON – The number of the night Friday for Westerville North’s boys basketball team was not necessarily one, as in finishing the season alone atop Division II.
Nor was it 2025, to which the code for the team’s ball rack will be changed at the next opportunity to reflect the year of its most recent state championship.
It was 10, given that not only did the Warriors break out to a 10-0 lead on Massillon Perry in the first 1:42 of Friday night’s Division II state final at University of Dayton Arena, but that North coach Shan Trusley revealed after the game that his trademark fast-paced offense finds some of its roots in a 10-second shot clock the team uses each day in practice.
“We just run up and down the floor, that’s what we do, and the kids love it,” Trusley said. “Our saying all year long, and we’ve kept it in the locker room, is ‘deep water.’ Our goal every game is to take the other team out to the deep water … some place they’ve never been before. That’s how we break huddles, that’s what we talk about at timeouts and during quarter breaks.”
North (25-2) finished its season with the same consistency that took it to its first state title since 1994 and second all-time, using game highs of 24 points and eight rebounds from senior Micah Young and a suffocating defense that forced 27 turnovers – 24 of which were steals – in a 78-46 rout of Perry.
Young also had four assists and three steals, and North almost exactly matched its average of 77.1 points per game entering Friday.
Senior guard Tai Perkins, Young’s stepbrother, added 19 points, four assists and four steals, and sophomore guard Tony Cornett finished with 10 points, three assists, three rebounds and three steals.
Half of Cornett’s points came during the fast start that saw North make four of its first six shots and force three Perry turnovers, a sign of what was to come.
“(Cornett) really got us over the hump with some good defense,” Young said. “That intensity really set the tone.”
North had two 10-0 runs in the first half and a 16-0 sprint that started before halftime and made it 57-28 when it ended in the third quarter.
The Warriors’ lead peaked at 78-44 midway through the fourth. They scored 37 points off turnovers and had 33 fast-break points to none for Perry (14-14), shot 54.2% (32 of 59) and finished the tournament with an average margin of victory of 38.3 points per game.
“We came out with a lot of energy and effort,” Perkins said.
Drake Jacobsen’s 13 points and five rebounds and 11 points and five rebounds from Luke Wolf paced Perry, which was in its first final and capped an impressive postseason run with its first regional championship since 1991.
Perry coach Matt Voll conceded that North’s man-to-man pressure was too much to overcome.
“Their pressure, their rotations, their blitzes, their traps really sped us up,” Voll said. “We had too many live-ball turnovers and they fed off it. They took us out of everything. We couldn’t run anything. They anticipated extremely well.”
Trusley particularly gushed over Perkins and Young, who have signed with Akron and Concord, respectively, and maintained that North – the third-largest school in Division II after tournament expansion – stood a chance to win in its former home of Division I as well.
One of its two regular-season losses was to Olentangy Orange, which plays Reynoldsburg for the big-school crown Saturday night. North finished on a 24-game winning streak.
“I am coaching the two best basketball players in the state and I think they proved it this year,” Trusley said. “We are proud of who we are. We love the fact that we are from County Line Road, and after tonight we can say the best basketball in the state is played at 950 County Line Road.”
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Westerville North routs Perry for OHSAA basketball state championship
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