'A normal night' for Gahanna Lincoln's Sean Jones proves too much for previously unbeaten Westerville South
By Aaron Blankenship | Photos and video by Gabe Haferman
Central District Player of the Year Sean Jones showed a raucous sold-out crowd Wednesday night why he's a prime candidate to be named Mr. Basketball during Gahanna Lincoln's win over Westerville South at Ohio Dominican University.
The senior point guard dazzled fans and confounded opponents with his ball-handling wizardry, using speedy crossover moves to zoom past defenders and making no-look passes to set up teammates in a Division I regional semifinal.
Jones also was deadly accurate shooting, making 8 of 10 field-goal attempts, including going 3-for-3 from behind the arc and making all six of his free throws.
But after the Marquette signee scored 25 points to fuel Gahanna to a 64-48 victory over the Wildcats on Wednesday, he was nonchalant in assessing his performance.
“I’d say this was a normal night for me,” Jones said with a shrug.
Jones scored two baskets within the first 90 seconds to help Gahanna to a quick 4-0 advantage, and the Wildcats never cut their deficit to fewer than three points the rest of the game.
The Lions made their first eight field-goal attempts, as Jones scored nine points within the first eight minutes to help Gahanna pull ahead 20-15 by the end of the first quarter.
Jones scored four more in the second, and his pair of free throws gave Gahanna a 30-17 lead with 2 minutes, 40 seconds remaining in the half.
After South rallied to pull within 30-23 by halftime, Jones made a 3-pointer to put his squad up 35-26 early in the third.
And even when Jones finally missed a field goal, teammate Javan Simmons grabbed the rebound and slammed down a dunk to electrify the crowd and help Gahanna expand its lead to 46-33 by the end of the third quarter.
“We came ready to play tonight, and we led the whole game,” said Jones, whose squad improved to 25-2 overall. “We really wanted it.”
While playing limited minutes because of foul trouble, Simmons still scored nine points, including two dunks. Cam Johnson also scored eight points, and Eljae Deas and Josh Whiteside each had six to help pace the Lions.
“I love making emphatic plays, because it can spark the crowd and hype up my teammates,” Simmons said. “I’ve been playing with Sean since we were in third grade, so I’m used to seeing what he does and he’s used to me. But when he makes a crazy move with the ball or when I have a big dunk, we’re still able to hype each other up, and that’s what we did tonight.”
Gahanna coach Tony Staib was pleased with how well his team’s suffocating half-court defense contained the Wildcats’ normally potent offensive attack.
Drey Carter, a Wright State recruit, scored nine of his team-high 13 points in the first quarter to keep South in the game early.
But after getting in foul trouble early in the second half, and with Deas guarding him on the perimeter and Simmons defending him in the paint, Carter went just 2-for-6 from the field and scored only four more points over the final three quarters.
Jalen Wheeler also scored 11 points and Majadi Cunningham had 10 points to help lead the Wildcats, who finished 25-1 overall and third in the final state poll, one spot behind Gahanna.
“Westerville South has so many shooters, and that was our main focus on the defensive end,” Staib said. “They shoot a lot of 3s and get a lot of offensive rebounds off those shots, so we had to box them out.
“Our guys did a great job defensively. We did a good job of stopping their runs to keep our cushion.”
Jones showed he was human by turning the ball over on unforced ball-handling errors twice in the first half, drawing a huge cheer from South’s student section each time.
However, Jones more than made up for those mistakes while scoring 12 more points in the second half to help blow the game open.
After Jones made his third 3-pointer of the contest, midway through the fourth quarter to put Gahanna up by 16, he raced down the sideline and hollered “GO HOME” at South’s fans, who were already starting to make their way out of the building.
“I’m not usually one to talk like that,” Jones said. “But their fans were talking and our fans were loud, and the emotions in this game were so high that it just happened to come out.”
The Lions will face Pickerington Central (23-2 overall) in a regional final at 7 p.m. Saturday at Ohio Dominican.
Gahanna will attempt to exorcise two demons from its recent past, as it lost to Central 58-53 on Jan. 8 and finished last season with a 45-44 setback at the hands of Westerville Central in a regional final.
The regional final loss was particularly painful, as Westerville Central’s Tasos Cook made the game-winning shot from near half court at the buzzer.
“We’re not celebrating yet, because we made it this far last year,” said Simmons, who is a Toledo recruit. “We’re staying focused on winning our next game.”
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