Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend is arguably the biggest of the high school basketball regular season, given the number of showcases and featured matchups.
Central Ohio boys and girls teams participated in no fewer than five such events from Flyin' to the Hoop in suburban Dayton to the Classic in the City at Pickerington Central . The Classic in the Country at Berlin Hiland and MLK Showdown at Central Crossing featured a handful of local girls teams, and the Battle in the 614 at Ohio Dominican grew to 19 boys games spanning three days.
Here are six things we learned in recent action:
The Pioneers (12-0, 4-0 OCC-Central) remained the lone unbeaten Division I boys team in the Central District, rallying from nine points down in the second half to edge Grove City 45-43 in the Battle in the 614 on Saturday.
Orange coach Anthony Calo expects no easy games the rest of the way. His team is No. 2 in this week's state poll .
"If we're fortunate enough and play well enough, we can maintain a high seed (for the district tournament), but you have to think moving forward there's going to be people that go after you," he said.
For the second time in less than a week, Devin Brown scored the decisive points at the free-throw line.
On Jan. 9, he hit two with 2.5 seconds left for a 52-50 league win over Hilliard Bradley . Against Grove City, he made two with 8.9 seconds remaining to snap a 43-all tie.
"It was like deja vu," Brown said. "I didn't think about it. I just stayed calm."
Brown led Orange with 17 points and Keegan Knupp added 10.
"If you're going to win a championship, you're going to have to steal some games," Calo said. "You have to figure out how to win games you probably don't deserve to win."
OCC-Central wins over visiting Dublin Coffman on Friday provided further proof the UA boys and girls are moving in the right direction.
The girls (11-2, 4-1) beat Coffman 53-43. In the league race, they have a rematch at first-place Olentangy Liberty (10-4, 5-0) on Jan. 26. The Golden Bears lost the first matchup 46-42 in overtime Dec. 22.
Through 11 games, sophomore center Elizabeth Hunt was averaging a team-best 16.6 points. Senior point guard Quinn Buttermore, the daughter of UA football coach Justin Buttermore, was averaging 6.8 points.
"Quinn is a three-year starter for us," coach John Wanke said. "We had won (13) games in two years before I took over and this is now my third year and I tell her all the time, 'The other players will drink the water, but remember who dug the well.' "
The Bears finished 15-9 in Wanke's first season and 17-7 a year ago.
The boys (7-3, 2-2) edged Coffman 52-50 in two overtimes. They trailed by eight points in the fourth quarter and won on Alex Smith's 3-point buzzer beater.
"Once I let it go, I thought, 'That one is going in,' " Smith said.
Nate Schoeny led UA with 25 points and Smith scored 18.
The Division III Nubians (5-6, 3-3 City League-South) defeated Division I South 64-53 in the Battle in the 614.
"That was a very big win for us," coach Michael Bates said. "We're a very young team. I lost one of my returning seniors (in Laron Fuller, a point guard who opted not to play this season). We just have one returning starter (in Cortez Freeman)."
Senior Mekhi Johnson and junior Chris Cooper-Patton are other key returnees from last year's team, which lost in a state semifinal .
"There's a lot more teaching this season," Bates said. "It's a whole different dynamic as far as coaching is concerned. Last year, it was like cruise control. It was more game preparation. ... This year, we're trying to set habits and create routines so that they understand how we're trying to play every single game."
Freeman scored 26 points against South and averages a team-best 22.8. Cooper-Patton shares point guard duties with Freeman and averages 10 points.
With 90% of the Tigers' roster consisting of freshmen and sophomores, junior Kaliyah Barron finds herself doing everything – scoring, rebounding, assisting, teaching and leading – for East (5-7, 1-4 City-North).
Coach Michael Fleming does not even list a position for the 5-7 Barron, who scored her 1,000th career point during a 61-57 win over Mifflin on Jan. 9 and finished with a career-high 42.
A first-team all-district and special mention all-state selection last winter in Division II, Barron averages 25.5 points, 21.4 rebounds and 8.0 assists.
"She is just a basketball player," Fleming said. "She scores, she rebounds, she makes assists. She's an awesome girl to have.
"She is respected by her peers, respected by her teammates, by everybody around here. She is one of the few people everyone in the school knows. She does it all."
A 62-51 win over Watterson in their CCL opener Friday showcased the strengths the Hawks (11-1) rode to a No. 5 ranking in this week's Division II state poll, up a spot from last week.
Speed from Hartley's guards led to several baskets off turnovers, and five 3-pointers from Carson Svetek helped stave off a rally that saw Watterson close to within six points late in the third quarter.
"We try to put a lot of pressure on teams on both sides of the ball, then once you start making shots, it's kind of contagious," Hartley coach Andreas James said. "We have moved the ball well, for the most part, all year."
Juniors Jaden Calloway (guard) and Pharez Nicholas (forward) and sophomore Jakhi Calloway (guard) are returning starters from last year's team, which started 8-0 but finished 4-8. Svetek, a junior, and senior forward Ethan Godfrey round out the lineup.
"We've been able to get off to fast starts," James said. "Now, it's a different emphasis because we've been through this."
Vikings coach Jeff Warstler wrote "culture game" on the whiteboard in the locker room at halftime Saturday, when Academy trailed Olentangy Berlin 26-24 in the Battle in the 614.
That referred to defense and overall toughness, and although the Vikings ultimately lost 52-46, Warstler thought his team's second-half surge against Division I Berlin was representative of Academy's play during its 10-2 start.
Academy, which is in Division III, tied the game at 39 and 41 in the fourth quarter but never led in the second half.
Still, a lineup with three returning starters in senior Theo Falkenhain (guard), junior M.J. Jackson (forward) and sophomore Jason Singleton (guard) leads a group allowing 39.3 points entering Tuesday's key Central Buckeye League clash at Worthington Christian.
"If you would have told me we'd be 10-2 at the beginning of the season, I'd be really happy," Warstler said. "Just with what we lost, the length we lost, I didn't think we'd be able to guard like this. … We have a gauntlet coming up. We'll find out even more about ourselves. It won't be easy."
Two games remain against Worthington Christian, as does one against 2023 Division II state semifinalist Ready and a non-league tilt with current City-South leader South.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Central Ohio high school basketball: 6 things we learned Jan. 9-15
