Behind The Box Score

As the OCC season finds itself a little more than halfway complete, some races begin to tighten up, while others are almost locked up. Here is a look at the first divisons in alphabetic order:

*all numbers in () are divison records.

Capital-

Leading: Mount Vernon (9-1)

In the Race: Olentangy Orange, New Albany (8-2)

Longshot: Delaware Hayes (6-4)

To begin the year, nearly everybody had picked Olentangy Orange to run away and defend their title from a year ago. All seemed well for the Pioneers, as they opened up the year with an 84-45 crushing win over Mount Vernon. But Mount Vernon and New Albany’s upset of those Pioneers put Orange in trouble with only four games remaining on the schedule. This league will more than likely field 5, if not 6 teams with winning records, the sixth being upstart Hilliard Bradley if they can close out and gain a key win or two. Franklin Heights and Watkins Memorial will more than likely not get another win the rest of the year, with the exception of the meeting between the two on February 12th.

Cardinal-

Leading: Westerville South (10-0)

In the Race: Westerville North (8-2)

Longshot: Westerville Central (7-3)

Success by the Westerville schools this year has certainly been shown this year in the Cardinal, with each team having 12+ wins. Westerville South’s Traevon Jackson has lit up defenses all across the conference, powering the Wildcats to a 16-0 mark overall, the best in the Central District. Other than the Westerville’s however, the league doesn’t have much proof of success this year, including one of last year’s district champion in Dublin Scioto starting off the 09-10 campaign 3-11, a long ways from the 19-1 Irish team last year. Scioto and 3 other teams in the league are already guaranteed losing records, which include Olentangy, Marysville, and  Dublin Jerome. The February 5th matchup between South and Westerville North should clear up the picture in the Cardinal division for good. To stay alive in the league, North would need a win and another loss by South somewhere along the line to just split the title.

Central-

Leading: Upper Arlington (10-0)

In the Race: Dublin Coffman (9-1)

Longshot: Hilliard Davidson (6-3)

The last week of the 1st round of the OCC proved the division leader to be Upper Arlington, as they avenged last year’s losses to Dublin Coffman 64-58. The Bears however, nearly slipped up as they had to survive a major rally from the Panthers of Hilliard Darby, only winning by the slimmest of margins at 53-52. On paper, a league that is annually very solid is down this year drastically. Three teams, Central Crossing, Westland, and Thomas Worthington have already clinched a losing season, and a fourth could potentially be Worthington Kilbourne. Hilliard Davidson started the basketball season late due to their participation in the OHSAA state football playoffs, a game they won in thrilling fashion over Glenville. They have gelled though to make a solid push for third place in the division. The winner of the league will be determined the last weekend of the season when Dublin Coffman and Arlington meet in Dublin on February 19th. The game will more than likely come down to a scoring fest between Rocks center Michael Green and Bears guard Kevin Sullivan, who had 35 in the first meeting between the two schools.

Ohio-

Leading: Gahanna-Lincoln (10-0)

In the Race: None

Longshot: Pickerington North (7-3)

A league that didn’t have its champion determined until the final week of the year last year will more than likely be the first wrap up their title early this year. Tomorrow night if undefeated Gahanna-Lincoln defeats Pickerington North, the league will be sealed up, and Gahanna can begin to focus on a tournament run early, trying to advance farther than they did last year when they were upset by unseeded Westerville North in the district semifinals. This league has a bevy of middle of the road teams, and seem to do their best business outside of the conference, boasting the best non-conference record of any of the 4 divisions. 2009 district champion Grove City is 9-4 while losing their two best players to graduation. Many solid teams make this the best all-around league in the OCC.