Jefferson throttles Bedford Chanel by 37

Jefferson's Juan Gay tied for game-high honors with 18 points in the Broncos rout of Bedford Chanel. (Photo by Gary Housteau)

COLUMBUS - In Friday’s second Division IV boys basketball state semifinal at OSU’s Schottenstein Center, powerhouse Dayton Jefferson (16-10) erupted for an 81-44 throttling of Cinderella, Bedford St. Peter Chanel (14-12).

The 37-point margin of victory was two shy of tieing the state record for a D-III state semifinal. In 1997 Van Wert Lincolnview beat Norwalk St. Paul by 39 (88-49).

The Broncos jumped out to a quick 8-1 lead thanks to five points from junior Juan Gay. The Firebirds struck back with their own 9-2 spurt to tie the game at 10 with 3:23 to play in the opening frame.

Enter 6-foot-10 senior Adreian Payne. The Michigan State signee has not started since returning from a dislocated shoulder suffered in the Dayton Dunbar game.

“He opens up shots for us, and just makes everything much easier,” Jefferson junior Cody Latimer said.

Open it up may be an understatement. The Broncos ran off 16-straight points and used a 21-2 spurt to take a 31-12 advantage with 6:05 remaining in the half.

The score was 46-21 by intermission sending most of the spectators at Value City Arena to the gates.

“We were able to use our zone and our length to really give them problems,” Jefferson head coach Art Winston said. “We knew they took a lot of threes on the season and didn’t shoot a very good percentage, so we played the zone to not let (Devonta) Brooks hurt us on the inside.”

Chanel, for the season, shot 122-of-438 from 3 for just under 28-percent. Friday was worse. The Firebirds were just 3-of-19 from distance and 16-of-53 from the floor.

On the other hand, Jefferson was able to convert on 64-percent of its shots. Most of the Broncos buckets came in the paint. To be exact, 56 of Jefferson’s points came in the lane compared to just 26 for Chanel.

Whether it was fast breaks, steal and lay-ins, or drive and dish situations, the Blue and Gold dominated the interior on both ends. Jefferson scored 30 points off turnovers, 18 off fast break and outscored the ‘Birds off the bench 43-12.

After the intermission, the game was just water under the bridge. The lead reached 37 twice in the final 16 minutes, once at (65-28) and the next being the final outcome.

The Broncos got 18 points from Gay on 8-of-11 shooting and a like amount from sophomore guard Devin Foster on a 7-of-8 shooting.

Payne scored 11 points, grabbed six boards and blocked five shots in just 18 minutes of play. Winston said tonight the coaches will meet and take a vote on whether Payne will start in tomorrow’s championship game.

“Us coaches will discuss it amongst ourselves tonight,” Winston said with a smile on his face. “I know what Adreian’s vote will be since he sent me a text last night telling he wanted to start. We really have great team chemistry going with this rotation, so we will have to decide what we want to do.”

Latimer muscled his way to 11 points and nine rebounds for the winners.

Chanel got a solid outing from Brooks. The 6-foot-4 sophomore finished with 16 points and seven rebounds.

Jefferson will meet Newark Catholic (25-1) on Saturday at 5:15 p.m. for the D-IV championship.