Mlk prep shootout day 1 by Adrian curry
Today my travels took me to pickerington central for day 1 of the mlk prep shootout. A great chance to see some great talent and some great matchups. This didn’t disappoint as there were great individual performances and statements made by the winning teams. The first game was Gahanna vs new Lexington. The pace of the game was to Gahanna’s liking as they were able to get up and down the floor and played great defense to set the tone early on. They were able to hit easy baskets and wide open three point shots. They led by 8 at 36-28 at the half. New Lexington hung around thanks to the exploits of aubri spicer. The 2nd half saw Gahanna offense stagnate and new Lexington crawl back in it but a key 3-point play by Bella ward push the lead to double digits and they never looked back. Gahanna won 65-50. Aubri spicer led all scorers with 22 points while Bella ward paced Gahanna with 20 points. The 2nd game was pick central vs north central out of Indiana. This game was never in doubt as the panthers scored the first 11 points of the game. Pick central was able to play better late in the 2nd quarter and early into the 3rd quarter but never got as close as 3 and then the panthers poured it on and won going away 67-40. Khaliah turner from north central led all scorers with 19 points. The 3rd game was Westerville south vs pick north in an late switch due to COVID concerns. This game was a dominating performance from the start as the wildcats were able to get contributions from everyone including a monster 30-point performance from Aja Austin. I was also very impressed with the depth of Westerville south and the guard play including Leila Jones and zoey Guice. The wildcats won going away 60-27 over pick north. The final game of the day pitted Dublin Coffman vs Vinton county. This game had momentum swings as the Vikings came out red hot from the perimeter to grab a 17-7 lead at the end of the first quarter. The 2nd quarter was all Coffman as they were led by 13 points off the bench from cassidy lafler that fueled their run as they went on a 31-9 run to seize control of the game. The 3rd quarter was more of the same as Coffman hit outside shots and got out and run as they like to do. They were able to get Tessa Grady and Jenna Kopyar going in the 2nd half. They were able to hold off a first Vikings team and win 69-56. Morgan Bentley led all scorers with 22 points and set the all-time school record for scoring at vinton county while Cassidy lafler scored 17 for Coffman.