Bishop Ready remains unbeaten with 79-36 win over Worthington Christian

COLUMBUS, OH – It didn’t turn into the result that either the Bishop Ready or the host Worthington Christian boys basketball team expected Tuesday night, but both left believing that good came from their last-minute non-league addition.

The Silver Knights are the state’s No. 1-ranked team and had a scheduling opening, as did the Warriors, who are the No. 2 seed for the Division III Central District tournament.

In addition, Ready is in its last season in the CCL and will join Worthington Christian in the Central Buckeye League next season.

Those factors encouraged the teams to agree last weekend to a matchup, but the Knights showed how ready they are for the coming postseason by producing a 79-36 rout.

“We came into this game on kind of short notice, but we just played these guys last year and they had a lot of the same guys, so we were familiar with them,” Ready senior Charlie Russell said. “Our big emphasis was coming out and executing and getting off to a good start. We’ve kind of struggled with that this year and obviously we did that and were clicking on cylinders.”

Russell was a big part of why Ready improved to 21-0 as he scored 12 first-quarter points, including making two 3-pointers and going 4-for-4 from the floor.

He finished with a career-high 29 points for the Silver Knights, who will look to close out a perfect regular season Friday against Hartley.

According to Russell, the Silver Knights don’t talk exactly about going undefeated, but the goal is clearly on the radar a season after they lost in a district championship game.

“We just said, ‘Let’s just finish this thing off Friday if we can,” Bisutti said. “The goal has been not to go undefeated, but it’s just to win the next game. We were hitting on all cylinders tonight. When we come out shooting like that, of course we know we’re built on our defense and I thought we made it a little hard on them.

“(Russell) was something. If we don’t have three first-team all-district guys, and I know that isn’t popular, but if there ever was a time, it’s this year.”

Bisutti was referring to the postseason honors that could be bestowed to Russell and fellow seniors Kaleb Schaffer and Luke Ruth, who finished with 21 and 13 points, respectively, as Ready had 10 players score.

In the second period, Ruth went 3-for-5 from the floor with a steal, Russell had seven points and Schaffer hit a 3-pointer as the Knights stretched their lead to 41-21 by the half.

Meanwhile, Ready held Worthington Christian junior forward Sam Johnson, who came in averaging 18 points, to four first-half points and none in the second quarter.

“A big thing for us was moving the ball,” Schaffer said. “We all play so well together and we just came out there and know if we move it, we can get good shots. We have guys that can knock down open shots anywhere we want, so if we move the ball, we’re going to get great shots.

“It’s always about defense for s. We can always get better on the defensive end. Offensively, if we’re hitting shots, we’ll be fine. We’ve got to think defensive-minded, especially as we go later into the tournament. If we focus on defense, I think we’ll be pretty fine.”

Worthington Christian has a new coach in James Storey, who took over after Kevin Weakley stepped down after a 22-year tenure that included winning 383 games and reaching two state finals.

The Warriors, who split their first four games before winning 15 in a row, have lost back-to-back games but are 17-4 overall heading into their regular-season finale Friday at home against Briggs.They got 12 points from Johnson and six apiece from Jonah Lewis and Logan Woloshan.

Ready outscored the Warriors by 11 in the first quarter, by nine in the second and third quarters and by 14 in the fourth period.

“We thought it would be a great challenge,” Storey said. “Bishop Ready is a phenomenal basketball team and we did not play well tonight. We were excited for the challenge knowing where they’re ranked in Division II and knowing they’re coming into the (same league next year) and we just didn’t play well. We learned about some things we need to work on offensively, but give credit to Bishop Ready, too, they’re a great team and move the ball well.”