DAYTON, Ohio — Adonus Abrams scored a team-high 26 points and Canal Winchester Harvest Prep clinched a spot in the state title game for the first time in five years beating Ottawa-Glandorf 61-59 in the OHSAA Division III boys basketball state semifinal at UD Arena on Friday.
Ottawa-Glandorf’s Colin White, the 2024 Ohio Mr. Basketball winner, missed a potential game-winning 3-point shot as time expired.
The Warriors (24-4) will head back to the state championship game returning from their championship year in 2019.
“Both teams hungry for one more game,” Canal Winchester Harvest Prep head coach David Dennis Sr. said. “These young men stepped up, made the right play at the right time, got the right stop at the right time.”
A 12-3 run brought Ottawa-Glandorf (24-4) within 49-47 with 3:47 left to play, the closest the Titans had come since the first half.
Canal Winchester Harvest Prep made four of its final five shots and didn’t take any in the final 1:06.
Ephraim Campbell made one of two free throws with four seconds left, and Ottawa-Glandorf called timeout with 2 seconds on the clock setting up the final shot for White who caught the inbound in the far corner but fell short getting the ball to the rim.
“We beat Harvest Prep on that same play a couple years ago,” Ottawa-Glandorf head coach Tyson McGlaughlin said. “They did a good job of defending it and pushing us out a little bit further than we wanted to.”
Abrams finished 11-of-17 from the field and a game-best 3-for-5 from distance. Khalil Daniels, who fouled out with 4:25 left to play, scored 10.
Canal Winchester Harvest Prep went 5-of-13 at the free throw line in the fourth quarter — and 7-of-18 overall — compared to Ottawa-Glandorf’s 0-for-2 posting.
“I feel like we played good defensively in the first two quarters and then in the second half we kind of let up a little bit,” Abrams said. “They went on their run and we picked it up at the end.”
White joined LeBron James as the only players in OHSAA history to start for a semifinal team all four years in their career.
White, who is committed to Ohio State, finished with 32 points, 13 rebounds and a perfect 7-for-7 at the free throw line.
“It was just cool to go out there one last time and go at it with these guys, go to battle with these guys,” White said. “It was a great feeling all year and it was just really sad it’s come to an end now but we’ll always look back and have these memories of what a great year our senior year was.”
Ottawa-Glandorf scored 24 points in the fourth quarter cutting down a 12-point deficit to one. Caden Erford totaled 12 points and 10 rebounds for the Titans.
“We talked to our guys at halftime about just getting back to being OG basketball and being the aggressors and kind of coming at them,” McGlaughlin said. “And the last thing I told our guys, I don’t care about the final outcome, you’re going to walk in this locker room and you’re going to have no regrets, and these guys just laid it all out there for 16 minutes.”
Canal Winchester Harvest Prep will play the winner of Camden Preble Shawnee-Cleveland Heights Lutheran East in the Division III final on Sunday at 2 p.m.