Westerville North 67, Cincinnati Aiken 60
Warriors outlast a competitive, feisty Falcons team in the the fourth quarter
Written by 270 Hoops staff writer Greg Glasser
COLUMBUS, OH - If you date back to last season, winning has become a familiar outcome for the Warriors of County Line Road, after all they did win the Division II state championship. And not only has victory been the common outcome, but it has been by sizable margins, as the Warriors capped their final 12 games of their title run by double-digits, including a 32-point victory in the championship game.
So far into this season, that success has carried over. Excluding a two-point loss to Lutheran East (the defending Division V state champion), the Warriors have won all of their previous nine games by double digits, with a 17-point win over Worthington Kilbourne as their smallest margin of victory.
That’s perhaps why their 67-60 win on Sunday night against a competitive Cincinnati Aiken at Ohio Dominican as part of the Battle in the 614 series was not only a valuable test, but perhaps the most satisfying victory so far on the year.
Blowout wins are of course preferred, but a win where the Warriors had to overcome an 11-point hole in the first quarter and then came back from a four-point deficit late in the third is where character and talent ultimately prevailed.
"[A win like that] will help us a lot, we always talk about the fourth quarter being ‘winning time’ and certain things were going, like getting stops — we did that, important possessions, some timely free throw shooting, we made shots and executed offensively,” Westerville North head coach Shan Trusley said after the game. “Our ‘winning time’, that’s something we talk about in between the third and fourth quarter and we got really focused and locked in.”
