DAYTON, Ohio — Behind a balanced scoring night and 24 points from Micah Young, Westerville North beat Massillon Perry 78-46 and won its first state title in 31 years in the OHSAA Division II boys’ basketball state championship game at UD Arena on Friday.

What You Need To Know

  • Westerville North last advanced to the final four when it went from 1994-96
  • The Warriors turned Massillon Perry over 27 times

  • Massillon Perry entered the postseason with a 9-13 record

Westerville North (25-2) last advanced to the final four when it went from 1994-96. Friday’s win marked 24 in a row for the Warriors to finish the season, and they won their final six outings — all postseason games — by an average of 38.7 points.

“I’m extremely proud of the way the kids played tonight,” Westerville North head coach Shan Trusley said. “To step up on this stage and play the way they did means a lot to our community. It means a lot to the team, and to see the Westerville North community rally around our group tonight, to see everyone here tonight and supporting our kids is special.”

Young splashed in a 3 to get the scoring going for the Warriors, who led wire to wire in the victory.

Westerville North led 23-8 after the first quarter, getting 17 combined points from Young and Tony Cornett while forcing the Panthers (14-14) to go 0-of-5 from 3-point range amid 40% shooting.

The Warriors turned Massillon Perry over 27 times and capitalized for 37 points off of them.

Akron commitment Tai Perkins contributed 19 points on 7-for-11 shooting and Cornett finished with 10 on 4-of-5 shooting.

“I feel like we had a good start,” Perkins said. “We’ve been ready for this game, so we just came out with a lot of energy and effort. And we had a lot of adrenaline. I feel like that helped us out.”

Drake Jacobsen led the Panthers with 13 points. Luke Wolf added 11 points and nine rebounds.

Massillon Perry entered the postseason with a 9-13 record and won five straight including two in the final seconds to get over .500. Massillon Perry’s 13 losses are most by a final four team since Linden had 14 in 2005. The Panthers are the sixth school to reach the state tournament with 13 or more losses and only team to win a game there.

“For us to be here and represent our school and our community, it was an honor,” Massillon Perry head coach Matt Voll said. “It’s not the outcome we wanted. We fought. We did the best we could. We didn’t execute. We didn’t handle the ball very well. Their pressure, their rotations,their blitzes, their traps, really sped us up, and we just unfortunately had too many live-ball turnovers, and from that standpoint, that was the huge difference.”