photo by: Kim North

Monroe Central senior Tucker Howell cuts down his piece of net Friday night after the Seminoles routed Hiland, 54-33, in the Ohio Division VI Boys Basketball Eastern District Championship Game inside Cambridge High School. The Seminoles advanced to the regional tournament for the first time in program history.

CAMBRIDGE – For the first time in program history, Monroe Central is headed to the regional tournament in boys basketball.

The Seminoles (22-3) combined a blistering shooting performance with a suffocating defense to rout Hiland, 54-33, Friday night for the Ohio Division VI Eastern District Championship before a standing-room-only crowd jammed inside Gene Ford Gymnasium at Cambridge High School.

“I’m really proud of the effort we gave tonight,” second-year Monroe Central head coach Mason Lang said. “Hiland is a really good, well-coached team. It is well-disciplined, but tonight I thought that we played within ourselves and didn’t force any shots. Defensively, we executed our game plan and really limited what they wanted to do.”

Monroe Central, which shot 65 percent from the floor in eliminating Malvern in the semifinals earlier in the week at Harrison Central High School, only missed six of 27 shots from the floor for a sizzling 78 percent. The Seminoles were 13-for-18 in the first half and made their first eight shots of the second half before missing.

“It feels pretty cool. We’ve had a full year to prepare for this game,” Monroe Central senior Tucker Howell said. “We took good shots tonight and executed when we needed to.”

With the lop-sided, but cherished win, Monroe Central, which avenged a loss to the Hawks (21-3) in last year’s Division IV district final at Union Local, advances to Wednesday night’s Region 23 semifinal against the Southeast District winner at 5:30 p.m. at Ohio Dominican University in Columbus. The Southeast District championship will be played Sunday at 2 inside the Convocation Center at Ohio University in Athens between No. 2 Seaman North Adams and No. 11 Peebles.

Deadlocked at 10 after four lead changes, Monroe Central scored the final seven points of the opening quarter and 23 of the next 30 for a commanding, 33-17, halftime lead. It would never be threatened.

“It’s always easier to play when you’re ahead and I think we just ran with it,” Lang said. “Hopefully, we just keep it rolling.”

Trailing 10-7, Cooper Howell buried a three from the right wing that ignited the Seminoles. Caedyn Silva followed with a bonus goal from the top of the key and Monroe Central never looked back as Chance Allen scored the final four points of the first eight minutes.

“Allen started the second quarter with a basket and Corbin Farnsworth followed that with a triple from the right wing that forced veteran Hiland head coach Mark Schlabach to call a 30-second timeout.

The lead was 25-15 before an 8-0 spurt in the closing minutes of the second quarter pushed the margin to 33-17 at the break as Allen had eight of his team-high 14 points in the quarter.

Monroe Central tickled the twine on all of its six shots in the third quarter as Tucker Howell muscled his way around the paint for two buckets before canning a fall-away jumper from the left baseline that bumped the margin to 43-21 and forced the Hawks into another timeout.

Despite turning the ball over 13 times in the second half, the Seminoles defense was dynamite at the opposite end of the floor. They held Hiland to 28 percent shooting (14-49) for the game, including 7-for-26 in the second half and 3-for-17 from three-point range.

Silva added 12 points – including four free throws – and Tucker Howell finished with 11. Cooper Howell and Farnsworth each pulled down five rebounds as Monroe Central limited the Hawks to one-and-done for the most part as it led 27-18 off the glass.

“I think Tucker and Cooper controlled the boards, especially on the defensive end,” Lang noted.

Nick Wigton was the lone double-digit scorer for Hiland with 13, far below his season average.

“Chance defended him most of the night and he did a really good job,” Lang praised. “Chance has a lot of length that made it tough for Wigton to shoot over top of him. I’m really proud of him.”

The 6-5 Allen relished the role of stopper.

“We knew if we could stop him we had a good chance at winning,” he said. “He’s their big scorer, but we did a job on him tonight. That was the key.”

Monroe Central finished with 18 turnovers, seven more than Hiland.

This will be the third time a Monroe Central basketball team has reached the regionals as Troy Baker has led the Lady Seminoles there in 2008-09 and 2021-22.