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Orange boys basketball outlasts St. Ignatius in OT, advances to first OHSAA state final
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- Orange boys basketball outlasts St. Ignatius in OT, advances to first OHSAA state final
CANTON – A standout on the basketball court and football field at Olentangy Orange, junior point guard Levi Davis came up with arguably the biggest sequence of his high school career Sunday in a Division I state semifinal at Memorial Field House.
With his team trailing defending state champion Cleveland St. Ignatius 50-48 in overtime, Davis hit a corner 3-pointer with 2:00 remaining. Seconds later, he assisted on a Keegan Knupp dunk.
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The Pioneers (25-2) went on to win 58-54, advancing to their first state championship game at 8:30 p.m. Saturday against Reynoldsburg at University of Dayton Arena . It will be a game of firsts, because it also will be the first state final for the Raiders, who beat West Chester Lakota West 64-63 on Sunday , and the first to match up two Columbus-area teams.
Coach Anthony Calo has guided Olentangy Orange to its first state final with Sunday's 58-54 overtime win over Cleveland St. Ignatius in Canton.
"It's definitely up there," Davis said of where his late-game contributions rank in his career. "I'm starstruck. To pull out a big win like that says everything about our resilience, about our team. We've been in situations like this before, so we're always confident in these situations. We're never startled for one minute."
Davis has committed to play football at Ohio University. He's the starting quarterback for Orange, earning second-team all-state and first-team all-district honors last fall.
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On the court, Saturday's game was nearly a reversal of when the teams met Jan. 5 in the Scholastic Play-by-Play Classic at John Carroll University in suburban Cleveland. In that game, Orange erased a double-digit deficit for a 63-54 overtime win.
Olentangy Orange's Levi Davis looks to drive past Cleveland St. Ignatius' Quinn Woidke during the Pioneers' 58-54 overtime win Sunday in a Division I state semifinal at Memorial Field House in Canton.
Orange enjoyed the double-digit lead in the rematch, only to see the Wildcats (22-5) come back in the second half to force overtime.
The Pioneers led 29-18 early in the third quarter before the Wildcats rallied, capped by Damon Friery's half-court buzzer-beater to pull his team to within 37-35 heading to the final period.
After St. Ignatius took its first lead at 46-44, Orange forced overtime on Ohio Mr. Basketball finalist Devin Brown's backdoor cut to the basket for a layup with 47 seconds remaining in regulation.
Olentangy Orange's Devin Brown looks to drive around a defender during the Pioneers' 58-54 overtime win over Cleveland St. Ignatius in a Division I state semifinal Sunday at Memorial Field House in Canton.
The Wildcats took their final lead at 50-48 in overtime on a Quinn Woidke basket.
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Ellis Appiah hit four free throws in the final 37 seconds to secure the win.
"Our resilience has been big all year," Orange coach Anthony Calo said. "That's part of our identity, which I instilled in our kids two years ago in November because you need that for life, but you also need that in the course of a basketball game when things are getting crazy."
Davis led Orange with 16 points. Brown, a Davidson signee, and Appiah had 11 apiece and Knupp added 10.
Friery, a Dayton commit, led St. Ignatius with 23 points and Woidke, a Kent State commit, had 12.
"Sometimes that's the game of basketball," St. Ignatius coach Cam Joyce said. "Sometimes it's a guy making a tough shot from in the corner, heavily contested. ... We were right there – a couple of possessions, two really good teams, overtime both games. We just came up on the wrong side."
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Olentangy Orange boys basketball to play for first OHSAA state title
