Berlin’s Boys Basketball squad made history on Saturday, March 7, when they took down Westland High School 61-50 and advanced to Regionals for the first time in school history.
The 2025-2026 season is by far the most successful season in Berlin Boys Basketball history. To start, they posted a 15-7 regular season record, which is best in school history; the next best is the 2022-2023 season when they went 15-9 in the regular season, but fell to Pickerington Central in the first round of the playoffs.
The 2026 playoff run started with an upset win over number six-seed, Dublin Coffman. As the 13 seed, Berlin came in as the underdog. Berlin was behind Coffman on the scoreboard for most of the game, until late in the fourth quarter when Berlin went up by three with two and a half minutes left. After a very back-and-forth final two and a half minutes, Berlin came out victorious 53-50.
Senior Colton Less ‘26 and junior Noah Bruns were the stars of the show against Coffman. Less had 14 points as he tied for the most minutes played with 32. Bruns had 16 points with four made three-pointers.
The spotlight turned completely to sophomore phenom Luca Filia against Westland. Filia had 28 points and four three-pointers made. Bruns and Filia have dominated the scene this season, as both are averaging more than 12 points per game: Bruns with 20.6 and Filia with 12.6.
The Bears held the lead for the entire game against Westland on Saturday. They went into halftime with a three point lead, and broke away in the third quarter, as they went into the fourth with a nine point lead.
The Bears now head to the Regional semi-final for the first time in school history, and are set to face one-seed Lakota West. Stationed 25 minutes outside of Cincinnati, Ohio, Lakota West comes into this game with only one loss on the season: a one-point loss to La Lumiere High School.
Lakota West has been on a tear in the playoffs: starting with a 43 point win over Middletown in the first round, and a 21 point win over three-seed Fairmont in the second. Last season, Lakota West made it to the final four, but fell to Reynoldsburg by one point. They are hoping to make it back this season.
