FAIRFIELD — Lakota West boys basketball coach Kelven Moss knows what kind of grit his players have during crunch time.
“The one thing that I can say is that our team is extremely young, but they don’t flinch,” Moss said. “I’ve looked at their eyes. Nobody had the big old eyes — panicking.
“They were like, ‘Let’s go. Whatchu got for us? We’re going to bounce back.’”
Joshua Tyson scored a team-high 17 points, LJ Green added 10 and the Firebirds shook off a four-point deficit in the fourth quarter to beat the Oak Hills Highlanders 54-47 in a Division I district final on Friday night at Fairfield Arena.
Lakota West won just its second district title in school history (2006). The Firebirds (19-5) move on to face St. Xavier in a regional semifinal at 8 p.m. on Wednesday at Xavier University’s Cintas Center.
Lakota West and Oak Hills split their two meetings during the regular season.
“I’m just so proud of my guys,” Moss said. “They came in, played hard, stuck to the gameplan. I was disappointed in a few possessions in the third quarter. We got kind of lost there. I think that was because of fatigue. But overall, I’m proud of these guys.”
Oak Hills (16-8) won eight straight heading into Friday night’s district final. Henry Maginn scored 17 points to lead the Highlanders, who took a 37-36 lead into the fourth quarter.
Maginn hit a 3-pointer to give Oak Hills a 40-36 advantage with 7:20 left to play, but Lakota West knotted it up at 40-40 less than two minutes later.
“We’re not panicking,” Moss said. “All the things we’ve done in the fall, the summer, the teams we’ve competed against have prepared us for that moment.”
Green scored seven of his points in the second half, and the senior center played a significant role down the stretch for the Firebirds.
“I think our effort was huge,” Green said. “On defense, we clamped up. We got into foul trouble early, but I think we only got one foul when we were in the bonus. So I thought that was huge.
“They were trapping up top, and I would finally cut,” Green added. “I think Bryce (Curry) and Tyson (Davis) both found me. Then I got an and-one.
“It started on defense, and we got moving fast on offense. We got a couple fastbreaks.”
Lakota West shot 16 of 19 (84%) from the free throw line and outscored Oak Hills in the paint 18-8.
Joshua Tyson had to be helped off the floor with a leg injury in the third quarter after driving to the basket. The sophomore guard went back in once he was looked at by trainers.
“Josh Tyson went out there at the end of the third, and we knew Coach Moss — we got in the huddle — he calmed us down,” Green said. “We knew there was one more quarter, and we knew we were the better team. We just went out there and played.”
Curry and Davis each finished with nine points apiece.
Play of the game
Isaiah Meade-Moss caught a tip-pass from Curry in front of the Lakota West bench and drained a 3-pointer to put the Firebirds up 43-40 with under four minutes left to play.
Lakota West never trailed from that point on. Oak Hills pulled it to within a point with about a minute remaining before the Firebirds closed it out.
“Game changer — and especially when not having a lot of shot attempts,” said Moss, Isaiah Meade-Moss’s father. “Being able to make that shot at a big moment, I was so proud.
“I almost for a split second wanted to turn dad and go grab him. But I thought that was a huge, big-time shot. I thought he played well tonight. He does some other things that may not show up on the stat sheet. He just stepped up.”
ST. XAVIER 45, LEBANON 25
FAIRFIELD — Donavan Waleskowski scored 14 points, Brayden Reilly had 10 and St. Xavier beat Lebanon 45-25 in a Division I district final on Friday night at Fairfield Arena.
St. Xavier (19-5) moves on to play Lakota West in a regional semifinal at 8 p.m. on Wednesday at Xavier University’s Cintas Center.
Logan Schmenk had eight points to lead Lebanon (13-11, which graduates Regan Bonny, Matthew Weber, Tyson Schmenk, Troy Richmond and Nikolai Lagandaon.
St. Xavier led 12-4 after one quarter and took a 20-11 advantage into the locker room. The Bombers outscored the Warriors 25-14 in the second half to pull away.
The Bombers shot 15 of 35 (42%) from the floor, while the Warriors fired just 9 of 32 (28%). St. Xavier was aided by a 16-3 run in the second half.
