One little win, one giant threat in way of Malvern's first OHSAA basketball final four

ATHENS − The Malvern Hornets have jumped through every hoop.

They are 27-0 in the quest for Malvern's first boys basketball final four.

The final hoop might seem the eye of a needle.

Malvern's opponent in Saturday's 1 p.m. Division III regional final is the Harvest Prep Warriors. The venue is Ohio University's Convocation Center, where the main seating area is an oval just above the court, perfect for projecting noise from a Malvern traveling crowd expected to be out in force.

Head coach Dennis Tucci said weeks ago Harvest Prep was the power his Hornets likely would see if they kept winning.

Harvest Prep has reached six final fours, all since 2007. The Warriors won a state championship in 2019. Last year, they fell to Lutheran East in the state semifinals. This year's team was 7-4 against a rugged early schedule but since has won its last 15 games.

Harvest Prep can be found about 15 miles southwest of Columbus, in Canal Winchester. It opened in 1986 as Word of Life Christian Academy, renamed itself World Harvest Christian Academy, and in 2002 changed its name again to Harvest Preparatory School.

Harvest Prep first reached the state finals in 2011 but had to forfeit its state runner-up finish and lose two years of postseason play for breaking assorted OHSAA rules. David Dennis became head coach in 2012 and is still on the job.

Yes, the coaching matchup is Dennis (Tucci) vs. (David) Dennis.

David Dennis's first final four came in the Warriors' first year off suspension, in Division IV in 2014. That ended with a 54-41 loss to a Stark County team in its second final four, St. Thomas Aquinas.

In 2019, Prep beat Lutheran East in the Division III state finals.

Lutheran East rings a bell for Malvern.

The schools collided in a 2017 regional semifinal in Canton's Memorial Field House. The Hornets surged to a big early lead behind 6-foot-10 center Mark Mayle and slick guard Jaret Majestic. Mayle got in foul trouble, a big factor in what became an overtime win for eventual state champion Lutheran East.

Malvern had a stellar all-around team in 2008, when the Hornets clobbered Columbiana Crestview 103-67 in Division IV regional semifinals before falling 75-65 to Bedford Chanel in the game to get to the final four.

Saturday's challenge mirrors the ones from 2008 and 2017: Play the game of your life against a private-school team with a loaded roster.

In Wednesday's semifinal round at Ohio U, Malvern dressed after its 56-50 win over McDermott Northwest and watched Harvest Prep hammer North Adams 78-48.

The teams Malvern and Harvest Prep beat both are from the geographical bottom of the state near the Ohio River.

The team Malvern now will try to beat comes at you from every direction.

Against North Adams, the Warriors overwhelmed with speed, passing, dribbling, shooting, leaping, rebounding, defense, muscle and teamwork.

"We’re finally getting into a groove,” coach Dennis said afterward. “We’re starting to understand who we are and what we are doing.”

The Warriors lack a 6-10 type in the middle, but they have good overall heights, comparable to Malvern's.

Harvest Prep starts two seniors, 6-foot-4 London Foggie and 6-2 Adonus Abrams; two juniors, 6-3 Khalil Daniels and 6-1 Brandon Roddy, and a sophomore, 6-4 Ephraim Campbell.

Antwon Pollard, a 6-4 freshman, scored 20 points and sank four 3-pointers in Wednesday's semifinal. Abrams and Campbell combined for 27 points and 14 rebounds.

Alan Chiles, a 6-3 senior, gets heavy minutes off the bench, as he did on last year's final four team. Seven Warriors who will face Malvern played in last year's state semifinals.

Harvest Prep, in turn, must deal with the Hornets.

Malvern is a proud group backed by a strong community with a head coach who was a Hornet senior 12 years before Harvest Prep existed.

Most of the 2024 Hornets have played together for a long time. They have the top six scorers back from last year's 24-2 team, which lost 65-61 to Garaway in last year's district finals.

Garaway, incidentally, fell 49-47 in last year's regional finals to Columbus Africentric. Harvest Prep got to this year's regionals by beating Africentric 62-61 on a last-second layup by Khalil Daniels.

All three seniors on Malvern's roster, 6-5 Mitchell Minor, 6-3 J'Allen Barrino and 6-2 Dylan Phillips, are multi-year starters. The other two starters are juniors, 6-5 Jared Witherow and 6-2 Rodney Smith.

First off the bench are 5-11 junior Drake Hutchison and 6-1 junior Eric Swain, with another group that promises to keep the Hornets strong next year in reserve.

All of the main rotation players have had big moments in the tournament run.

Barrino is a finalist for Ohio's Mr. Basketball award. Records aren't reliable for best field-goal-shooting percentage in Ohio history, but Barrino has to be up there, making more than 70% of his attempts, unheard of for a guard.

It remains to be seen how Malvern, coming off a difficult 58-52 win over McDermott Northwest, will match up with a team that overwhelmed its regional semifinal foe.

At minimum, the Hornets come in energized and confident. They entered regionals as Ohio's only unbeaten team, regardless of division.

Barrino sat with foul trouble Wednesday, but as Tucci noted, "The guys played great without him. We were a complete team over the course of the night."

Smith did a little bit of everything in scoring 20 points to stave off McDermott Northwest.

"We just have to come out confident," Smith said in looking to the regional final. "Like coach said before the (semifinal) game, we're 26-0, now 27-0. We just have to play with confidence and play like we're the team."

Phillips made clutch shots in the semfinal and then basically advised the Hornets to do what they do.

"Same thing," he said. "It's just another game. Let's go get one more."

Reach Steve at steve.doerschuk@cantonrep.com

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Malvern vs. Harvest Prep in OHSAA boys basketball regional