St. John's Raymond on All-Ohio first team

3/15/2005

COLUMBUS - St. John's Jesuit's B.J. Raymond was among the first-team selections on the Associated Press Division I All-Ohio boys basketball team announced yesterday.

The 6-6 Raymond, who will play at Xavier, averaged 20.8 points per game for the Titans, who finished 19-4.

St. John's teammate Zach Hillesland (15.3), who will play at Notre Dame, made the second team.

Three players headed for this week's state tournament and another who just missed his fourth consecutive trip to the final four lead the D-I and D-II teams.

The players of the year in Division II are Upper Sandusky's Jacob Diebler and Dayton Dunbar's Daequan Cook, whose teams will meet in the semifinals. In Division I, the top players are Johnny Wolf, who helped Cincinnati St. Xavier back into the state tournament, and Jamelle Cornley, whose Columbus Brookhaven team lost in the regional finals to fall short of a fourth consecutive appearance at Value City Arena.

Dieblers are everywhere on the Division II team, it seems. Jacob, a 6-3 senior, averaged 18.8 points, 11.1 assists, 7 steals and 7.8 rebounds a game for the state's No. 1-ranked team. His "little" brother, Jon, a 6-6 sophomore, is on the second team after averaging 24.9 points, 7 rebounds and 2.9 assists a game. And their father, Keith, grabbed coach of the year honors for leading the Rams to the poll crown, a perfect 25-0 record so far, and its Thursday afternoon date with Dunbar (22-4).

Cook is a 6-5 junior who averaged 22.6 points, 11.5 rebounds and 5 assists a game.

Joining Cook and Diebler on the first team are: Korey Spates, Warrensville Heights (6-1, sr., 26.5); Morgan Lewis, Painesville Harvey (6-3, sr., 20.1); Dwayne Jackson, Cuyahoga Falls Walsh Jesuit (6-3, sr., 21.0); Chad Fender, Poland Seminary (6-2, sr., 18.2); Dante Jackson, Greenfield McClain (6-5, soph., 24.9); Brian Kreefer, East Liverpool (6-7, sr., 27.4); and Mike Fout, Columbus Hamilton Township (6-4, jr., 28.8).

In Division I, Cornley is a 6-6 senior who hit for 21.1 points and 13 rebounds a game while shooting 60 percent from the field. The Penn State signee led his team to a 16-4 regular-season record.

Wolf, a 6-2 senior, recorded 24.3 points a game for St. Xavier (21-5), which battles crosstown rival Moeller (22-3) in a semifinal on Friday.

The rest of the first-teamers in Division I are Dallas Lauderdale, Solon (6-9, soph., 18.0); Travis Walton, Lima Senior (6-2, sr., 19.4); and Bret Wackerly, North Canton Hoover (5-10, sr., 18.3).