Lancaster Eagle-Gazette from Lancaster, Ohio • 35

TP Lancaster Eagle-Gazette, Sunday, February 13, 20053D 0)VliS Postseason honors Etaeig with Blu Saturday even with his team entering with a 3-17 record to Danville's 12-8 mark. "We have been sticking around in games over the last couple weeks," said Shoemaker, a first-year coach. "We were there today, but we just have to get used to playing in big games. Miller echoed DEVILS 57 On Thursday, a central Ohio media panel will decide the all-District teams for both boys and girls basketball for all divisions. Fairfield County coaches are encouraged to nominate players by calling the Eagle-Gazette at (740) 681-4358 or e-mailing to dpurpuranncogannett.com.

Nominations may also be taken at this time for the Eagle-Gazette's all-Fairfield County teams, scheduled for release in late March. Coaches are reminded to submit nominations as soon as possible after the conclusion of their team's season. Rockets a 54 lead. She scored six of the Rockets' seven points in the first quarter as Berne Union led 7-6 after one. The Blue Devils felt Miller's presence in the second quarter, too.

She hit a jumper from the top of the key to give the Rockets a 12-9 lead. Danville used a 6-0 spurt to get back in front at 15-14. Miller answered as she had another steal and lay-in plus one to put the Rockets back out front at 18-17. The Blue Devils had the last shot as Natalie Dalton knocked down a three to end the half and give Danville a 20-18 lead. The early part of the second half saw Danville try to pull away.

Miller had another steal and lay-up to put the Rockets within two at 24-22, Blue By BRANDON HANNAHS Staff Writer WESTERVUJLE Sophomore Jennifer Miller had one of the best games of her young career Saturday afternoon. Miller scored 20 points for the Rockets, who hung with Danville for much of the afternoon but ultimately lost 57-36 in a Division IV sectional tournament game at Westerville North. Miller's shot halfway through the third period closed Danville's lead to four at 30-26, but the Blue Devils outscored the Rockets 27-10 the rest of the way. Berne Union coach Paul Shoemaker, who has seen improvement from his team over the last several games, felt good about the chance for an upset The Rockets never got closer as Whitney Balcom used her muscle to hit the short jumper and the foul shot to put Danville up 33-26 and led to a 7-0 run to close out the quarter. Jenna Koch opened up the final stanza with a three to close the Devils' lead to 37-29, but the Rockets only scored seven points the rest of the fourth.

Beth Azbell added seven points, all from the foul line, for Berne Union. Balcom led Danville with 17 points. "We finished strong. We have to learn to play at our level and not try to play at our competition's level," Shoemaker said. "I know some people may not agree with me, but I really think this team was as good as Danville was today.

We will just work on stuff over the summer and we have good, young talent coming back for next year." her coach's senti- ments. ROCKETS 36 "Coach tells us to start strong and finish strong. We wanted this game," she said. "We knew we had to keep working, but some things didn't work." The game was back and forth for the most of the first half. The Blue Devils took an early 4-1 lead.

Then Miller stepped up as she stole the ball and had an easy lay-up to give the wag1 rish can't i 717 I -'t'r' I li Fuchs Mizrachi School basketball coach Walt Killian (far right) decided to come out of retirement by taking over at the Jewish school in suburban Cleveland. Killian, 67, was known as a run and gun coach but had never coached a mostly white team in his career much of which was spent in inner-city Cleveland. (AP photo) Mmlm get over the hump Late threes fall short against Academy By BRANDON HANNAHS Staff Writer DUBLIN In a game where neither team led by more then seven points, Fisher Catholic's girls basketball team had two chances to push its Division IV sectional game with Columbus Academy into overtime Saturday. With eight seconds left, Ally Tobin shot a 3-pointer, but it came up short. Columbus Academy (4-18) was fouled but VIKINGS 47 missed the foul shot to give Fisher Catholic (6- IRISH 44 14) one more opportunity.

The Irish pushed the ball up the court, but Kelcie Davis' last-second three also was no good as the Vikings held on for a 47-44 win at Dublin Jerome. Irish coach Jayme Johnson knew her team had chances to win the game but came up empty. "Our girls kept their heads in the game," Johnson said. "The man defense we used created steals for us and gave us opportunities to get back in the game. We just needed to convert those chances into shots." The teams swapped the lead for most of the first half.

Academy led 14-12 after the first quarter, but the Irish scored eight of the next 12 points to take a 20-18 lead with three minutes left in the first half. The teams would exchange baskets then Tobin hit a three to put the Irish ahead 25-24, but the Vikings scored right before half to take a 26-25 lead. Academy started fast in the second half. They scored six of the first eight points to jump out to a 32-27 lead. Elizabeth Haigh, who finished with 14, used some defense to help the Irish.

Her steal and lay-in made it 32-29. After Anna Taylor's jumper put the Vikings up seven at 36-29, Fisher Catholic used a 9-2 spurt to close the quarter. Syd Hubbard's three at the horn capped the run and tied the game at 38. The fourth quarter started like the third. The Vikings jumped out to a 43-38 lead after another Taylor jumper.

Haigh made a tough shot in the lane and Davis knocked down a three to tie the game at 43. Academy scored the next four points, then Syd Hubbard made one of two from the line to make it 47-44 Vikings. Academy coach Donald Dennis said both teams left everything on the court. "Fisher played with a lot of pride and kept coming back. Both teams played really hard," Dennis said.

"We tried to sure up our half -court defense and took advantage of our chances inside to pull this game out." Haigh and Tobin led the Irish with 14 points apiece in the loss. Even though the Vikings took home the win, Johnson was pleased that several players stepped up. "Haigh started her first game for us and accepted her role. She had some steals for us and has a bright future," Johnson said about the sophomore. "And Ally needed to be strong for us defensively and a presence on the inside.

She did that." Fisher Catholic, which won one game in 2003-04, won three in a row before back-to-back losses to Zanesville Rosecrans and Academy to end the season. Annie Carruthers led the Vikings with 14 and Taylor added 10. "They play in a tough league, but coach Dennis has some solid players over there," Johnson said. "They don't do anything fancy, but what they do, they do well." Veteran black coach winning at Orthodox Jewish school evening prayers in Hebrew after games, according to Kessler, who said Killian respects their practices but doesn't participate. The school serves kosher meals and when players treated Killian to a birthday cake, it was kosher.

Practice sometimes gets bumped by studies and holidays, and players don't practice on finals week. Killian must carry a note from the headmaster in case an official objects to the players wearing kippahs clipped to their hair or tucked under headbands. At Fuchs Mizrachi, students take a double curriculum high school courses plus such classes as Hebrew, the Talmud and Jewish law. The school is named for the founding Fuchs family and the Hebrew name of the Orthodox Jewish Zionist movement. the Jewish Sabbath.

Fuchs Mizrachi went 12-15 the year before Killian was hired and 8-13 in his first season. The team improved to 10-4 with Thursday night's 65-44 win over Elyria Baptist. An early adjustment was Killian's emphasis on individual speed and the fast break to crack open a game, an idea that conflicted with the Jewish concept of collaboration. "They come together," according to 5-foot-6 senior guard Yaakov Hecht, who said Jews, by nature, approach most challenges as a community. "It's like a classic Jewish thing." Another difference involved the ultimate goal of players.

Killian's inner city players saw the game as their only chance to get to college. The Fuchs Mizrachi players, who have a collective grade-point average of 3.7 or an A-minus, are sure shots to make it to college just on academic grounds, some after a year of study in Israel and often after service in the Israeli military. Two senior athletes already have been accepted to Harvard, according to Zev Kessler, director of institutional advancement. The non-league Fuchs Mizrachi, with 98 students in grades nine to 12, was a step down in competition for Killian from the big-school Lake Erie League. Fuchs Mizrachi home games are played at the Gross Schechter Day School gym, a Jewish elementary in nearby Pepper Pike with bleachers on one side and no locker rooms.

The team changes amid desks in a classroom down the hall. The players take turns leading UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS (AP) A longtime inner-city basketball coach has come out of retirement to coach a suburban Orthodox Jewish team has proven to himself what he longed believed: That he could coach anyone, anywhere, and that kids are kids. "I told them up front I've never coached white kids," Walt Killian, 67, said when Fuchs Mizrachi School called him about the job after a career in Cleveland and East Cleveland in which he won 302 games. The experience has been educational for Killian, a black Baptist who wondered over the years if a mostly white school would hire him, and his players, who wear the kip-pah, or yarmulkes, on the court and don't play from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday in observance of STATE NOTEBOOK Fresh faces and familiar ones gear up for tournament onship. Zanesville Rosecrans' boys have won 14 straight after a 1-2 start.

SO LONG, BIG RALPH: Longtime high school play-by-play announcer Ralph Guarnieri died suddenly last week at the age of 56. "Big Ralph" covered all the games of the boys state basketball tournament for more than 25 years. He also covered St. Marys Memorial football for 27 seasons and was the voice of sports in Mercer and Auglaize County for 35 years. grade class.

ON A RUN: Salem's girls have won 37 consecutive regular-season games since opening last year with a loss to eventual Division II state champion Beloit West Branch, which they beat last week to give coach Steve Stewart his 200th career win. Four-year starter Jamelle Cornley, the AP Division I co-player of the year last season and a Penn State signee, led Brookhaven to its 11th consecutive City League North Division champi season with a 33-93 record since its opening in 1998, ran its record to 15-2 and grabbed a share of the Mid-State League Cardinal Division championship at 11-1 by beating Grandview Heights 58-56 on Friday. The Warriors share the Cardinal title with Fisher Catholic. Harvest Prep starts three freshmen, a sophomore and a junior. One of the freshmen, 6-foot-10 B.J.

Mullens, verbally committed to Ohio State not long after he attended his first ninth- By RUSTY MILLER AP Sports Writer As usual, many of the mainstays of Ohio high school boys basketball are again having ultrasuccessful seasons: Canton McKinley, Toledo St. John's, Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary, St. Henry and Sebring McKinley, among others.

Yet several fresh faces have popped up this season and don't appear to be ready to take a back seat. Harvest Prep, which entered the It wnc a nnnH I'd like to talk about the project, but I've got to mil 'K meeting. We get Remind you of your co-workers? You've got your reasons. We've got your next job. catch the 4:17.

to start over! I' O' I careerbuilder I newspaper network Ceral OhiaCOHL OP CENTRAL OHIO I A GANNETT CIOUP 0r ir A better job awaits. ft rhfff- iV iti il i ii 'llJ Hit ftiiifiriti rfM ifi iM. 1 ti -Nti 1mfni ftiiHilirfr4iti-iirftiiniint rfritwi 1r It' i4-h -ti tt i A frjhft-- tuifBu-f'-ff f-il lt'iii iif Ai if A fi Hi rfi j.i i -fn it ilif- it Ant ft i i.