Olentangy Orange boys basketball holds off Dublin Jerome in early season test
The Olentangy Orange boys basketball team made an early season statement by beating host Dublin Jerome 55-45 on Dec. 6.
The non-league game featured teams that again have high aspirations. The Pioneers improved to 3-0, while the Celtics dropped to 2-2.
“Dublin Jerome has been getting better and better and they have four guys who have been playing varsity since their freshman year and now they’re seniors,” Orange coach Anthony Calo said. “We knew it would be a good game. They lost to Westerville South in a district final last season in a very good game and they have four really good guards back. We knew it would be a really competitive early game. They have good senior guards and we have good senior guards.”
Orange reached a Division I district semifinal a season ago, losing to Olentangy Liberty 53-50 in overtime to finish 15-8.
Jerome lost to South 71-64 in double overtime in a district final to finish 21-5. The Celtics won the OCC-Cardinal Division title at 10-0.
South is coached by Ed Calo, Anthony's father.
“We don’t talk about last year at all,” Jerome coach Richie Beard said. “The only thing we talk about is trying to repeat as conference champions. We talked about that before the season. We have four guys back that started on that team, but we have seven new guys, so we don’t even talk about last year at all.”
Orange led for most of the game, with Jerome taking its lone lead at 17-16 on Laclan MacDonald’s 3-pointer early in the second quarter.
Mikey McCollum’s 3-pointer late in the quarter capped a 9-2 Orange run for a 30-22 lead at halftime.
The Celtics pulled to within 33-31 late in the third quarter but could not get closer.
McCollum led the Pioneers with 16 points and Nick Chapman scored 11.
“We have a long way to go and a lot of good work we can keep improving on, but I love the makeup of this team,” Anthony Calo said.
Luke Kuhlman scored 18 points for Jerome.
“I thought our kids competed and played hard, we just didn’t do a great job of sticking to the game plan and sticking to our style of play,” Beard said. “We had some defensive lapses at moments that shouldn’t have happened and just little things of knowing our personnel and having great vision to details.”
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This article originally appeared on ThisWeek: Olentangy Orange holds off Dublin Jerome in early season test
