Marysville cruises to 63-33 win over Gahanna Lincoln in Division I district semifinals

PLAIN CITY, Ohio – Sometimes it happens even earlier, but the formula the Marysville girls basketball team has used time and again this winter took hold in the second quarter and wound up true to form Wednesday in a Division I district semifinal at Jonathan Alder.

The Monarchs trailed by eight midway through the first quarter before using a barrage of 3-pointers, backdoor layups and strong rebounding to build a double-digit halftime lead over defending Division I district champion and eighth-seeded Gahanna Lincoln.

With a 63-33 victory, second-seeded Marysville is headed to a district championship for the third consecutive season.

“Usually we come out pretty strong,” Ava Wilkerson said. “Today was a little different, but I think the nerves got to us and we were really hyped up for this game. Once we got rolling and kept on believing in each other, we stayed connected and that just led to open shots.”

The Monarchs are 23-2 and will play defending state champion and sixth-seeded Reynoldsburg at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, February 25th  in a district final at Ohio Dominican.

They’ve never won a district title, but with a six-member senior class that includes veterans like Wilkerson and Leah Brown to go along with junior JoJo Eberhart, they believe they’ve got the pieces to do so for the first time this winter.

“It’s very exciting,” Eberhart said. “Marysville has never won a district championship, so we want to do something that no one from our school has ever done. We go at each other every day in practice. We’re all very competitive, so we’re going to do whatever we can.“We kind of just got into (Gahanna’s heads). We wanted to try to shut them down on defense, and I think we did that.”

Gahanna, which has won two district titles in five seasons under head coach Ron Bailey, opened in a zone defense and got eight points from senior guard Laila Marshall during the game’s first four minutes to build an 11-3 lead.

Marysville senior Ava Krutowskis then hit a 3-pointer, and her team used that momentum to come back to within 16-15 after one quarter.

Krutowskis scored the first basket of the second period to give the Monarchs a 17-16 lead and they never trailed again.

Also in the second period, Wilkerson hit three 3-pointers, Eberhart added a 3-pointer and junior Addy Tweed completed a three-point play as Marysville opened up a 38-21 lead.

“With our team, you can’t scout us,” Wilkerson said. “You can’t guard all five of us. Every single one of us can go out for 20 points. That makes us a strong offensive team.

“The last two years helped us learn what we needed to work on in the practices leading up to this winter. We knew we wanted to do something different because we haven’t (won a district title) the last two years. We have to just be really intense on defense, know our matchups and keep it rolling.”

Wilkerson hit a 3-pointer 15 seconds into the third quarter and the Monarchs held Gahanna to four points in the period as they increased their lead to 53-25.

Eberhart finished with 20 points, Wilkerson had 12 and Tweed added 10 to lead Marysville.

“At the beginning I think we were a little nervous with a big crowd, so it took a little while to settle in, but we’re old, a veteran group, we’ve been here before and I knew we’d settle down,” Marysville head coach Klarke Ransome said. “Obviously making a couple shots helps, and we were able to knock a couple in. We just feed off of one another. We love each other, compete for each other and don’t really care who puts the ball in the basket. They’re extremely connected. They’ve created a very special culture and they don’t want this thing to end.” 

Marshall and senior guard Clarke Jackson both finished with 16 points for the Lions.

Gahanna, which won the OCC-Ohio Division, finished 16-9 overall despite losing a pair of potential starters in juniors Kya Jordan and Aaliyah Younger to early-season injuries.

“We wanted to come out and play a zone against them,” Bailey said. “We knew they could hit shots but that they also move the ball extremely well, and it’s not just that they can hit outside shots but that they can score in the paint, too. We tried to keep everything in front of us, and it worked for us in that first quarter, but in the second quarter, we had some bad rotations, they hit some 3s and from there it went downhill. Marysville is extremely good.

“The last three years, (Marshall, Jackson and senior starting forward Emily Marzetz) have been putting in work. All three had great careers here at Gahanna.”