Division III Boys Central District basketball tournament: ’Riders upended 55-41

By Jeff Gates

For The Madison Press

WESTERVILLE — A win just wasn’t in the stars.

In the age-old concept of Leap Year, a full day is added every four years to the calendar to coincide with the astronomical year.

Against Worthington Christian Wednesday, the planets were not aligned for the West Jefferson High School boys basketball team as they dropped a 55-41 decision to the Warriors in the second round of the Division III Central District postseason tournament, held at Westerville North High School.

It was a combination of uncharacteristic turnovers by West Jeff and swarming defense by Worthington Christian that ultimately sunk the Roughriders.

“We had 12 rebounds in the first half and that put us behind,” said West Jeff coach Bob Hunter. “They are just so darn disciplined, we couldn’t run.”

Both teams had a difficult time getting out of the gate early, with the Warriors scoring the first six points, but the Roughriders tied it up on a pair of Ryan Love buckets and a shot by Cody Williams underneath.

Worthington Christian went on a 7-0 run, but a Williams three with 10 seconds in the quarter kept West Jeff within four after one.

After a Logan Stepp offensive rebound pulled West Jeff within two to start the second quarter, the wheels started to fall off for the Roughriders. The Warriors would outscore their opponent 14-4 the rest of the stanza to open up a 29-17 lead at the intermission.

The Roughriders were having a tough time in the first half on the boards as Worthington Christian big man Kyle Wade did the job in the paint. That kept West Jeff from its strength — running.

“If we can’t rebound, we can’t transition,” Hunter said. “Doing that takes a team like us out of what we do best.”

The second half started with a good sign for the Roughriders as sophomore Nick Mendenhall began to make his presence felt more underneath, converting a three-point play right out of the gate.

Especially as the second half went on, the evening turned into a coming-out party of sorts for Mendenhall who held his own against some taller Warriors underneath. The extra effort did not go unnoticed by the West Jeff coach.

“He really grew up tonight,” Hunter said of Mendenhall, who led the Roughriders in scoring with 10 points.

Trailing by 16 early in the fourth, the Roughriders made one last attempt to get back into the contest. Finally the passes were just a little crisper and the points started coming.

West Jeff’s Kyle Rollins, Love and Mendenhall all scored underneath, and Rollins added a long-range three to pull the Roughriders’ deficit under double digits.

Unfortunately for West Jeff, Warrior Brooks Weygardt (the game-high scorer with 19 points) put the exclamation point on his squad’s victory from the line as the Roughriders couldn’t inch any closer.

In addition to Mendenhall, scoring leaders for West Jeff included Love with nine and Rollins with eight.