Prep Hoops Roundup: Graham girls rout Shawnee in sectional opener

Tecumeh's McKee scores career-high 31 against Northwestern.

XENIA — The Graham High School girls basketball team, seeded fourth, opened the Division II sectional tournament with a 68-38 victory over No. 8 seed Shawnee at Xenia High School on Monday.

Darbie Zirkle and Tori Purk each scored 17 for the Falcons (16-4), who won their eighth straight game. Purk had nine rebounds. Taylor Dyke had 13 points and seven assists. Darcie Zirkle scored 14.

“I was really pleased,” Graham coach Bruce Vanover said. “We did a great job with total team defense and matching up and knowing what’s going on.”

Graham will play Urbana for the third time this season in the second round at 6 p.m. Monday in Xenia. Graham beat Urbana 66-56 and 59-58 in the regular season.

Shawnee ended the season with a record of 8-13. Carly Gregory led the Braves with 11 points and 13 rebounds.

Versailles 37, West Liberty-Salem 31: The No. 3 seed Tigers (17-4) lost to No. 5 seed Versailles in the first round of the D-III tournament at Tippecanoe.

Triad 61, Southeastern 58 (OT): Hannah Smith scored eight of her 21 points in overtime as the Cardinals (16-4) earned a share of the Ohio Heritage Conference title for the second straight season with West Liberty-Salem. Triad and West Liberty both finished 12-2.

Southeastern led 38-33 after three quarters. Triad hit 3 3-pointers in the fourth to send the game to overtime.

Jenna Erwin scored 28 for the Trojans (11-9, 8-6 OHC).

Emmanuel Christian 40, Middletown Christian 38: The Lions (8-11, 5-7 Metro Buckeye Conference) hit 5-of-6 free throws in the final 90 seconds to secure the victory.

Ashley Oren had 18 points and nine rebounds. Haley Lewis added 15 points.

Greeneview 70, Mechanicsburg 45: Bri Lovely scored 16 and Ashton Lovely 14 for the Rams (14-6, 11-3 OHC), who closed the regular season on a four-game winning streak.

Boys

Northeastern 61, Cedarville 52: Mark Schwitzgable scored 21 points to lead the Jets (6-12). Daniel Lenk added 17, and Niles Tackett had 15.

Tecumseh 87, Northwestern 72: Mike McKee scored a career-high 31 points, hitting seven 3-pointers as the Arrows (8-9) won their third straight game and their seventh in the last eight games.

It was the highest-scoring game of the season for Tecumseh and the second-highest for the Warriors (6-11).

Brandon Biedelschies scored 20 for the Arrows. Levi Burns and Devin Nicewaner each had 20 for Northwestern.

Troy Christian 70, Yellow Springs 55: Tyler Bruntz led the Bulldogs (7-10, 5-5 MBC) with 18 points.