Harvest Prep overcomes second half deficit to beat Worthington Christian 43-42 and claim district title

SUNBURY, OH – As an eighth-grader cheering on her older brother as he won a state championship four years ago, Christyn Anthony always believed she might someday end up involved in some big celebrations of her own.

Anthony remains a few steps away from the same finish that C.J. Anthony enjoyed when he led the Harvest Prep boys program to the 2019 Division III state title, but the district title she and her teammates earned Thursday felt good to the Harvest Prep senior guard nonetheless.

In a matchup of two programs nicknamed Warriors, sixth-seeded Harvest Prep needed all of Christyn Anthony’s 12 second-half points as it rallied from a seven-point third-quarter deficit to win 43-42 over top-seeded Worthington Christian at Big Walnut.

Harvest Prep is 21-5 and in a regional tournament for the first time since it won back-to-back Division IV state championships in 2010 and ’11.

“This means the world to me,” Christyn Anthony said. “It’s been my dream since seventh grade to get my first banner, and to be able to do it with this group of girls that works extremely hard every day is an incredible thing.

“Everything I saw (my brother) do, I knew I wanted to do for myself. I’m glad this year I had the chance to finally accomplish those goals.”

Worthington Christian, which was the Division III state runner-up last season and finishes 24-2, seemed on the verge of seizing control of what had been a tight game up to that point late in the third quarter.

A 3-pointer by Natalie Woodfin, a pair of free throws by Meghan Mayotte and a basket by Faith King gave Worthington Christian a 32-25 lead with 1:39 left in the third quarter.

Harvest Prep then answered with a 6-0 run to close the period, including getting a basket by freshman guard Israelle Smith with one second left in the quarter.

Worthington Christian stretched its lead back to 37-33 with 5:59 remaining, but Harvest Prep again answered as freshman guard Monae Gamble made a pair of free throws and then turned a steal into a layup to tie it.

Harvest Prep took a 43-39 lead on a basket by Anthony with 1:44 to go, but Woodfin responded with another 3-pointer.

Worthington Christian got the ball with 1:09 remaining and held for a final shot, but a pass to Mayotte was knocked away by junior guard Carmyn Woods and into the hands of Anthony as the clock expired.

“I’m just glad my girls worked hard and prepared for this and that they were ready,” head coach Lee Sims Jr. said. “We’ve been preparing for situations of being down and playing until the clock says zero. That’s all the seniors said in the huddle is that we’re not going to give up until it’s over.

“This feels good. It’s been since 2011, so that’s 12 years and we’ve been talking about putting a banner up since I got here.”

Sims is in his third season heading the program and said the program began what it called a “five-year plan” to become one of the district’s best when he took over.

“We’re ahead of schedule,” Sims said.

One of the biggest reasons for that has been Anthony, who finished with 15 points.

Harvest Prep will face Upper Sandusky or Castalia Margaretta on March 1 in a regional semifinal at Elida.

Freshman Janiyah Wilson finished with 11 points and Lofton had seven points for Harvest Prep, which has five freshmen among its key players.

“It was a really good experience,” Lofton said. “It was a really nerve-wracking game because we had a lot on our backs, but I feel like we did well. We just didn’t give up no matter what the score was.”

It was the final  high school game for Mayotte, the program’s only senior and an Ohio Dominican signee who finished with more than 1,400 points to finish among the top five on Worthington Christian’s all-time scoring list.

It was the first season for the program under Aaron Davis.

“Obviously you want a different result, but I just told them that I appreciated them,” Davis said. “We had back-to-back turnovers at one point that led to buckets and we had two missed layups, so that’s two points that we didn’t get that turned into two points for them on the other end. Those are killers.

“(Mayotte) was a leader. Just really her aura (influenced) the girls and gave them confidence. She was great all year.”