Saturday, March 18, 2023
By Scott Hennen
shennen@cbussports.com

The Harvest Prep boys basketball team was undersized and outmanned when it mattered most.

Despite a rugged schedule to reach a Division III state semifinal, the Warriors could not match the size of 6-foot-7 freshman T.J. Crumble, 6-6 senior Nelson Johnson Jr. and 6-9 junior Jesse McCulloch as third-ranked Cleveland Heights Lutheran East rushed to a 65-44 victory on March 18 at the University of Dayton.

The third-ranked Falcons (21-5) advance to battle top-ranked Ottawa-Glandorf in the final at 5:15 p.m. March 19 at UD. The Titans (25-3) defeated seventh-ranked Africentric 48-47 in two overtimes in their semifinal.

Harvest Prep was playing without their tallest player and leading scorer in Nyelle Shaheed. The 6-5 senior wing was averaging 15.9 points, 6.3 rebounds and 2.0 steals.

“Nyelle is out for personal reasons,” Harvest Prep coach David Dennis said. “I found out Thursday, and that gave us one day to prepare. It was tough for all of us.”

Despite the mismatch on paper, the Warrior started strong, jumping out to a 5-0 lead. They started 7-for-11 from the field and held a 15-12 lead after one quarter on a late 3-pointer by London Foggie off the bench.

“I came in and I kept attacking,” said Roddy, who had 10 of his 12 first-half points in the opening quarter. “My team was behind me and I tried to put them on my back as much as I could. They did their part as well.”

Roddy, a 6-1 point guard, entered the game by averaging 11.8 points, 4.5 assists and 2.6 steals. He scored a team-high 17 points with three assists.

“(Roddy) is a good player and he’s going to get off but can he do it for four quarters,” Lutheran East coach Sam Liggins said “Everyone’s first quarter is going to be their best because they are fresh but we started to position guys on him and chase him off the screen.”

Harvest Prep led 20-18 with 3 minutes, 26 seconds left in the first half on a basket and made free throw by freshman wing Ephraim Campbell. The Falcons finished the half on an 11-0 run to carry a 29-20 lead into halftime.

“We had to settle down,” Liggins said. “They were small and scrappy, and we started to play into their game by taking a lot of jump shots. In the second quarter, we took our time, threw the ball inside to take easy baskets because of our size advantage.”

“If you are playing a team that doesn’t have the size you have, they have speed because they are smaller. Long 3s equals long rebounds and they were getting those long rebounds and getting transition baskets. We thought that if we could limit those transition baskets then we had a good chance of stopping them at the half court.”

The Warriors only scored six points in the third quarter as Lutheran East worked the ball inside scoring 19 points for a 41-26 lead heading into the fourth. Harvest Prep went through a drought of 2-for-21 shooting midway through the second to the beginning of the final period. 

“Because of their size, I thought we had to play flawlessly, and we did that for a quarter and a half,” Dennis said. “But they are a bigger team and they took advantage of their size. They got the ball inside, and they made it tough for us to score and they took advantage of that.

“I thought our effort was there, and we didn’t throw the ball away. They out rebounded us (38-13) and they scored 65 points and 48 of them were in the paint. Without Nyelle, a guy who is 6-5, 225, and nothing makes a difference like that at this level.”

Crumble was 11 of 15 shooting for 23 points and he pulled in eight rebounds. McCulloch scored 11 points with 12 rebounds and two steals, and Johnson Jr. scored six off the bench. Guard Cody Head had 14 points with four assists.

Senior guard Zyuan Hutson added 11 points for the Warriors, and junior guard Adonus Abrams had six points and five rebounds.

“My guys worked hard to get here when no one gave us a chance,” Dennis said. “We were the fifth seed (in the Central District) and we had a tough schedule. We were an underdog every game. We found a way.”