Taft advances to D-III State Championship

Adolphus Washington put Taft on his back in the 2nd half.

The Senators are now one win away from accomplishing their goal of a State Title. Up and down play this morning from Taft but the key to the tourney is to survive and advance. Pictures

Taft 63 Columbus Africentric 50: After a terrible third quarter in which they let their 12 point halftime lead get cut to 4 the Senators dug deep in the fourth and only allowed the Africentric Nubians to score one basket in the quarter. Taft raced out early to a 21-6 lead but it slowly shrunk as the Senators could not find a way to hold on the ball, they committed 21 turnovers for the game. Fortunately for Taft they dominated two stat areas: points off turnovers Taft won 26-10 (Africentric had 23 turnovers of their own) and bench points were 28-6. Taft's big spark off the bench was junior wing Jalean Lowe who scored 16 points including three long balls. Lowe's early energy, along with the ball pressure of Kadeem Palmer, was what had Taft rolling early. Adolphus Washington was the point leader today as he scored 22 points on 7-8 FG's. When they had to have buckets the Senators were able to find Washington and he delivered in a big way using his major strength advantage to impose his will. Senior wing Marquez Johnson chipped in 8 points for Taft for the game. The Nubians were led by All-District senior point guard Maurquice Taylor who scored 21 in the loss.  

The Senators will play in the State Championship game tomorrow at 4:30 against the winner of this afternoon's matchup between Cleveland Central Catholic and Portsmouth.