North College Hill defeated Archbold 49-34 in the semifinals of the Ohio Division III state tournament on Thursday to advance to their second straight title game.

The Trojans (25-1), ranked No. 1 in the state, third nationally by USA Today and defending state champions, will face No. 8 Villa Angela-St. Joseph (21-5) on Saturday at 2 p.m. at Value City Arena in Columbus, Ohio.

Even bigger news on Thursday was the absence of star junior guard O.J. Mayo, who did not dress for the game or even make the trip with the team to Columbus for undisclosed reasons.  A decision on whether Mayo will play in the championship game will be made on Friday afternoon by school officials, according to North College Hill.

Even without Mayo in the line-up the Trojans prevailed behind NCH’s other big gun, 6-6 junior Bill Walker, who scored 23 points and grabbed 13 rebounds.  Paul Leary added eight points and seven rebounds for NCH.

Unranked Archbold tried to slow the game down with a deliberate style of play and kept NCH almost 40 points below their season scoring average.  But Archbold did not help their cause by shooting just 23.3 percent. Josh Wyse and Gene Goering both scored a team-high 12 points for Archbold.

The Blue Streaks started quickly and gained a 7-2 lead before NCH closed the first quarter on a 6-0 run for an 8-7 first quarter lead and never trailed again.  By the second half NCH enjoyed leads as big as 21 points.

NCH shot 40.4 percent for the game and out-rebounded Archbold 40-25.  The taller Trojans out-scored the Blue Streaks 28-10 in the paint.