photo credit: Ava Mejia
The Pioneers of Olentangy Orange High School faced off against the Reynoldsburg Raiders in the boys basketball state championship on March 22 at University of Dayton arena.
Going into the game the Pioneers had a record of 25-2. After falling to Delaware Hayes in the regional finals last year they were looking to come back all the way to claim the first state title in program history.
Reynoldsburg came into the state finals with a record of 26-1. The Raiders were coming back stronger this year after the Pioneers sent them home in the district finals last season.
Tip off was at 8:30 after thousands of supporters from both schools traveled over an hour to cheer on the teams.
The Pioneers started early with senior Ellis Appiah scoring twice, once with a dunk to make the score 4-0. Ellis kept it rolling for the Pioneers and Reynoldsburg got on the board to make it 6-4.
Going into the second quarter Orange had a narrow lead scoring 9 to the Raiders’ 8. The second quarter was as close as the first. Senior Devin Brown scored his first two points for the Pioneers and made the score 13-10.
A three pointer by junior Treyton Schroeder helped the Pioneers keep their lead while Reynoldsburg stayed right on their heels. After another tight quarter the score was 17-14 going into halftime.
The Pioneers came out hot after halftime with two back to back threes. They had eight unanswered points before Reynoldsburg called a timeout.
After the half Orange did not slow down. Appiah put up his fifteenth point to continue their lead to 31-20.
With one minute left in the third quarter the score was 42-26. Appiah put up another three to make it 45-26. The score going into the fourth was 47-26.
Senior Keegan Knupp kept the Pioneers rolling in the fourth quarter. Their lead continued throughout the quarter.
Their large lead gave the Pioneers the chance to let all of the seniors play which was a great moment for their last game with the team.
Later Appiah was named the MVP of the game. He scored a career high of 20 points which led Orange to their blowout win.
The final score was 54-35 which made the 24-25 Pioneers the first basketball state champions in school history.
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