West Muskingum ends Harrison Central’s season in district semifinal

In days past, last Thursday’s Division V East District semifinal at Dover High School would have been considered a sectional title game. However, with the Ohio High School Athletic Association moving from four to seven divisions in both boys and girls basketball, teams are springboarded into the district championship conversation much sooner in the bracket than in years past.

Some teams are primed for the moment, even if tagged with a low seed. Others, conversely, are thrust into a “David vs. Goliath” situation coming off a first-round victory. The 12th-seeded Harrison Central Huskies found that out the hard way.

After bouncing the 10th-seeded Barnesville Shamrocks from the bracket in the quarterfinal round, the reward for their effort was a date with the second-seeded West Muskingum Tornadoes. The Huskies brought their usual hustle and grit, but it was no match for the heavily favored Tornadoes out of the Muskingum Valley League. West Muskingum, 21-5, handled the Huskies 63-24, advancing to the district championship game while ending Harrison’s season in the process.

The Huskies, who were the lowest-seeded team to reach the semifinals across all divisions of the East District, finished the year with a record of 8-16.

West Muskingum did its best to ensure there was not much suspense in the matchup. The Tornadoes scored early, often and from just about everywhere on the floor. Overmatched in many ways, the Huskies struggled to get clean looks against the West defense, which all but shut down anything inside the 3-point arc. West Muskingum led the Harrison group 22-5 after one quarter, a gap that swelled to 39-11 at halftime.

For evidence of West Muskingum’s firepower, the Tornadoes turned around and beat the fifth-seeded Ridgewood Generals 56-17 two days later. The Ridgewood victory punched their ticket into the Division V Sweet 16, where they will meet the East District’s top-seeded team, the St. Clairsville Red Devils.

The regional semifinal features two East District teams because the regional bracket this year warranted two spots from this area of the state, a fact dictated by the large number of schools of similar size in this region.

Harrison Central’s scoring was led by senior Jacob Quito. He used his speed to create opportunities and finished with eight points. Fellow senior and the team’s leading scorer, Bryson Kamarec, was handcuffed most of the night and held well below his average of 17.3 points per game, finishing with five against the Tornadoes.

Austin Dulkoski and Colson Crothers chipped in four points each. Lance Smith scored two and Brady Hyre added one.

The Huskies will graduate six seniors from the program this spring: Chaz Culbertson, Cooper Thompson, Brady Hyre, Hunter Fulton, Jacob Quito and Bryson Kamarec.