Saturday, March 4, 2006
by Steve Blackledge
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

After a sluggish start, secondseeded DeSales (16-6) stepped on the gas and crushed outmanned and outsized Jonathan Alder (14-8).

The Stallions used an 8-0 run at the end of the second quarter for a 29-16 halftime lead and coasted from there.

"At the beginning of the game, we weren’t getting any transition opportunities," DeSales coach Blair Albright said. "Once we were able to pick up our defensive intensity we created some steals, got guys released and got the pace of the game more to our liking."

Elijah Allen and Andrew Thomas scored 13 points each and Alex Kellogg 11 for DeSales, which has won 14 of 16.

"We knew we had some mismatches, so we kept pressure on the ball, stepped it up on defense and got our offense going that way," Kellogg said. The Stallions outrebounded the Pioneers 35-15. Austin Dunlap had 11 points for Alder, which was without standout Kent Price, who suffered a broken right thumb this week lifting weights.

The boys team started a bit slowly against seventh-seeded Jonathan Alder in a Division II district semifinal last Friday in the Fairgrounds Coliseum, but once the second-seeded Stallions got going, they never looked back.

DeSales won 60-31 to improve to 16-6 and advance to a district final at 9 p.m. Friday at the Fairgrounds against eighth-seeded Centennial, which beat top-seeded Beechcroft 64-60 in another semifinal last Friday to improve to 11-11.

The winner Friday will advance to a regional semifinal at 6:15 p.m. March 16 at Ohio University against Dresden Tri-Valley or Cadiz Harrison Central.

Centennial, which had lost to Beechcroft 70-57 on Jan. 17 and 63-51 on Feb. 10 in City League-North Division games, hasn't won a district title since 1981. DeSales' last championship came six years later on its march to the Class AA state championship.

Last Friday against Beechcroft, Clayton Clever scored 19 points, Greg Borojevich had 14 and LaVan Williams and Ronrico Crosby added 11 apiece for the Stars, who led 48-41 after outscoring the Cougars 21-11 in the third quarter.

Andrew Thomas provided the spark for DeSales in the first quarter last Friday, scoring nine of his 13 points. His 3-pointer capped a 9-0 run and left DeSales with a 12-7 lead. Elijah Allen led the way in the second quarter as he scored seven of his 13 points.

The real damage, however, was done in the third. After Austin Dunlap of the Pioneers made a pair of 3-pointers to pull his team within 31-22, DeSales embarked on a 17-0 run that was punctuated by a three-point play by David Knapke to make it 48-22 with 7:24 left in the game. Knapke finished with nine points.

"We really stepped it up from the second quarter to the end of the third," said Alex Kellogg, who finished with 11 points. He contributed four during the run, with two coming on a dunk after a miss by Brandon Garrick to make it 41-22 with 2:44 left in the third quarter. One minute later, point guard Dane Johnson connected with Allen on an alley-oop to push the lead to 21 points.

"We were impatient in the first quarter, but we got more patient as the game went along," Kellogg said.

Jonathan Alder, which finished 14-8, was playing without Kent Price, who suffered a broken right thumb lifting weights the week before the game. Price had scored 31 points in a 51-50 win over London in the second round Feb. 25.

Coach Blair Albright learned of the injury before the contest, but didn't tell his players.

"Basically, we tried to keep the exact same game plan," he said. "We felt we were prepared to play them with or without Price."

Dunlap led the Pioneers with 11 points. No one else had more than six.