Live updates: Africentric defeats Ottawa-Glandorf in OHSAA girls basketball Division III state championship game
DAYTON, Ohio - Africentric and Ottawa-Glandorf will meet up on Saturday afternoon in the OHSAA Division III girls basketball state championship game at the University of Dayton Arena.
Defending Division III state champion Africentric enters the game at 27-2 and advanced to the state championship with a 62-35 win over Keystone.
Ottawa-Glandorf is 26-2 and looking for its first state title. The Titans enter Saturday's title game after defeating Portsmouth 47-40 in the semifinals.
The game is scheduled to tip at 2:00 pm. Stay tuned at SBLive Ohio for live coverage of the game as it unfolds.
First quarter updates:
5:10 left 1Q: Ottawa-Glandorf has the first four points of the game, as Africentric is 0-of-4 from the floor to start.
3:36 left 1Q: At the media timeout, Africentric has taken a 5-4 lead on a jumper by Janiya Bowers and a 3-pointer by Shaunie Little.
1:40 left 1Q: Africentric takes a timeout after O-G got easy baskets on back-to-back possessions. Africentric leads 11-8 but had been on a 9-0 run.
End 1Q: Africentric leads 15-10. The Lady Nubians finished the quarter on a 15-6 run, hitting five of their last eight shots of the quarter.
Second quarter updates:
4:00 left 2Q: Africentric leads 21-14 at the media timeout.
The second quarter was dominated by Africentric early, as the Lady Nubians scored the first six points but O-G responded by getting a layup off a long pass and then a layup off a steal on the ensuing inbounds pass.
End 2Q: Africentric leads 21-15 at the half.
The teams combined to shoot 4-of-22 in the second quarter.
O-G sophomore Karsyn Erford leads all scorers with six points. Bowers leads Africentric with five.
Third quarter updates:
3:17 left 3Q: Africentric leads 31-27.
O-G began the quarter on an 8-4 run to cut the deficit to two and get their crowd completely into the game, but Africentric again had an answer with a pair of free throws by Kamryn Grant and then a put-back off an offensive rebound by Samairah Thompson.
Back-to-back layups by Erford again cut it to two but Natiah Nelson scored to make it 31-27 with 3:26 left.
End 3Q: Africentric leads 44-33 after finishing the quarter on a 15-6 run.
The quarter was capped on a 10-foot floater by Ashtan Winfrey in the final seconds.
Fourth quarter updates:
5:38 left 4Q: O-G has scored six of the last eight to cut the lead to 48-39, forcing Africentric head coach Janicia Anderson to call a timeout.
3:27 left 4Q: Africentric has fought off a run by O-G that got the lead back down to six, as Thompson and Nelson both made layups to make it 52-42 with a free throw pending for Nelson after the timeout.
End 4Q: Africentric is back-to-back state champions with a 58-47 win.
Check back on SBLive Ohio later for a full game story.
Ottawa-Glandorf and Africentric warm up before the 2024 OHSAA Division II state championship game.
Ryan Isley, SBLive Sports
-- Ryan Isley | ryan@scorebooklive.com | @sbliveoh
