WEST CHESTER TWP. — L.J. Green is happy to be practicing with his Lakota West High School boys basketball teammates in the middle of March.
But the senior forward said the Firebirds aren’t settled with just practice.
They’ve got bigger things on their minds.
“From the offseason, we’ve been talking, ‘Road to Dayton. Road to Dayton,’” Green said. “We kind of saw it coming, but it’s good to get here.”
Lakota West takes on Reynoldsburg in a Division I state semifinal at noon Sunday at Wright State University’s Nutter Center.
This is the first trip to state in school history for the Firebirds, who have won nine in a row and 14 of their last 16.
Before splitting into Lakota East and Lakota West in 1997, Lakota reached the Division I state championship game in 1992 and beat Lima Senior 88-86 in overtime.
“It’s really about going out and winning it,” Green said. “We really don’t want our season to end. Our motto has been ‘Let’s practice one more day.’ We just want to keep on practicing and get to state — the championship game.”
Lakota West (21-5) has an explosive starting five. Sophomore guard Joshua Tyson leads the team with 15.4 points and 2.2 assists a game.
Sophomore guard Bryce Curry scores 12 points, grabs 3.2 rebounds, dishes out 1.8 assists and collects 1.6 steals an outing. Green buckets 10.1 points and pulls down a team-high 4.0 rebounds.
“This is great,” Lakota West junior Tyson Davis said. “Beginning of the year, we wanted to make it to state. We just kept pushing it and working in the offseason. It just happened. It’s inspirational.”
Firebirds second-year coach Kelven Moss has been able to share a special bond with his son, Isaiah Meade-Moss, who transferred from Talawanda last year.
Meade-Moss has propelled the Firebirds in crucial moments during the program’s state tournament run. The senior guard is averaging 9.4 points per game.
“I’m super proud of him,” Moss said. “A lot of people don’t know that he’s been dealing with an injury all summer, all fall. You wouldn’t know. But you can tell he’s feeling a lot better now, and he’s playing like it.
“Early in the summer, he had a great summer and the fall you could start seeing it — the injury,” Moss added. “We got him checked out. He had a partial tear. I said, ‘We’re going to have surgery after the season.’
“But this dude is playing at a high level. And what I love about the way he’s playing is that it’s extremely selfless — whatever it takes to win the game. If it’s me defending somebody, me making free throws, me going to get a rebound, two games in a row making big 3-point shots for us to get over the hump. Super, duper proud of him.”
Moss said Lakota West’s strength of schedule has prepared his program for this situation.
Lakota West took a trip to Florida during Christmas break and played against top-tier talent and competed in scrimmages against Orchard Lake (MI.), Centerville and Wyoming. That’s not taking into consideration the Greater Miami Conference slate.
“I’m super proud of this group just because of how mature they are acting with this moment,” Moss said. “Our goal this week is trying to embrace it — kind of balance our emotions to make sure we’re locked in and focused and prepping for Reynoldsburg but also enjoying this journey and this ride that we’ve had to the Final Four.”
About Reynoldsburg
Reynoldsburg (25-1) has won 10 in a row following its 98-91 double-overtime win over Olentangy Liberty in the regional finals.
The Raiders, who won the Ohio Capital Conference Buckeye Division with a 14-0 record, are competing in their first-ever state tournament.
“We’ve got a pretty veteran team with three seniors that start and two juniors,” said Reynoldsburg fifth-year coach Andy Moore, the OCC Buckeye Coach of the Year. “The guys have played a lot of minutes in our program.
“We started talking about this a couple years ago. Looking down the line, this might be a possibility. You’ve always got to have a little luck — stay healthy and all those things to get to this point. But we’ve been able to do it, and I think because the work of our guys and the commitment that they’ve put in is why we get a chance to play on Sunday.”
Reynoldsburg senior Jordan Fisher is the OCC Buckeye Player of the Year. Juniors Xavier McKinney and Jorden Bowens are all-conference first team selections.
“Our guys are pretty mature,” Moore said. “They haven’t been through anything like this before, but over the last couple years, we’ve had some really good moments in this program. Our guys have always handled themselves really well.
“The only thing we try to do is just stay focused on what we’re doing at that moment — whether it’s in the weight room or watching film or pre-practice — whatever it is. I think that’s what the best teams do so that they’re not thinking about what just happened five minutes ago. They’re not worried about what’s going to happen an hour from now. We’re just worried about what’s in the moment — kind of be where your feet are.”
The Raiders have four players either signed or committed to Mid-American Conference schools — senior Toby Nwokolo (Toledo), Fisher (Ohio), Bowens (Ohio) and McKinney (Ohio).
Fisher averages 19.5 per contest. Reynoldsburg averages 75 points per game on offense and holds opponents to just 58 a game. Nwokolo is coming off a 33-point performance that led the Raiders to their regional final win over Olentangy Liberty.
“One of the things I’ve been really impressed with on watching tape is they just compete at a high level,” Moore said of Lakota West. “They play hard. Their guys look like they’re willing to do whatever it takes to win, and you’ve got to have guys like that.
“They’ve got five guys that could possibly score 15-plus points a night. So, you’ve got to have guys who will be able to accept their role some night when maybe that’s not your turn to do it. They seem really unselfish that way.”
Up next
The Lakota West-Reynoldsburg winner will play the winner of Cleveland St. Ignatius (22-4) and Lewis Center Olentangy Orange (24-2) in the state championship at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 22, at University of Dayton Arena.
