DAYTON, Ohio — Ellis Appiah scored 20 points and Olentangy Orange claimed its first state title 56-41 over Reynoldsburg in the OHSAA Division I boys’ basketball state championship game at UD Arena on Saturday.
In an all-Central Ohio state championship matchup for the first time since 1963, Olentangy Orange (26-2) found its stroke in the third quarter, scoring 30 points after totaling 17 in the first half.
Olentangy Orange head coach Anthony Calo shared a message with the Pioneers during halftime, and it energized Appiah and his teammates.
“He told us, ‘When we leave this game and five years later, will we think will we have any regret, or would we be happy with our performance?’” Appiah said. “And that motivated me to push harder in this second half.”
Olentangy Orange led Reynoldsburg (26-2) 17-14 at halftime in what appeared to be a defensive battle and neither team had shot better than 30.4% from the field.
Appiah, who scored seven points in the first half, had a perfect third quarter going 4-of-4 with three triples for 11 points as the Pioneers ended the frame on a 16-4 run.
Appiah finished 8-of-10 from the field. Devin Brown, a Mr. Basketball finalist, had six points.
“This is my career high for Olentangy Orange, and I mean, I was hot out there and they kept getting me the ball,” Appiah said. “And I appreciated it.”
Calo is the son of Ed Calo, who is the head coach at Westerville South where he guided the team to a state title in 2016. The win puts the Calos in a group of father-son duos to win state championships as head coaches.
“I’m not a history buff, but I did live it,” Olentangy Orange head coach Anthony Calo said. “My dad was the head coach at Westerville South when I was 2 years old. I am now 40, so we can all do the math there how long he’s been at South, but I grew up going to St. John’s Arena. Grew up going to the Schott with him.”
Jordan Fisher led the Raiders with 20 points on 9-of-17 shooting. Xavier McKinney also had 11 points.
The loss snapped Reynoldsburg’s 11 game win streak.
“I thought even though we didn’t play great we were right there at halftime,” Reynoldsburg head coach Andrew Moore said. “And then they started the third quarter on a little bit of a run, which we weren’t able to recover from at that point. But I really felt like our guys, they fought till the end. They kept playing hard.”
