A Hamilton County judge ordered the Ohio State High School Athletic Association to back off a last-minute decision that blocked Walnut Hills senior Dontonio Wingfield Jr. from playing basketball this season. Walnut Hills is the top-ranked large high school program in Southwest Ohio this year. Judge Robert Ruehlmann said the OHSAA previously ruled Wingfield eligible under school transfer guidelines and should not have suddenly reversed course at the last minute. He described the Nov. 29 decision as a total change that came out of the blue.“I granted a restraining order that said he can play, and now there is agreement he can play,” Ruehlmann told CityBeat on Tuesday after an emergency hearing on the dispute.  “He is eligible and we’re done. The OHSAA has worked things out with his attorneys. It is over. He is playing.”Wingfield is the son of former University of Cincinnati Bearcats star Dontonio Wingfield, who left the university for the NBA after a single season. Wingfield Jr. is considered a the top prep shooting guard in Ohio this year. He has verbally committed to attend Ohio University in Athens.OHSAA officials, who in August told Walnut Hills there was no problem with Wingfield’s eligibility, notified the school by email last week that he used up his transfer options when he moved from Summit Country Day to Lockland High School. His lawyer, Terence R. Coates, said there has been some inadvertent paperwork errors involving transfer rules. “Dontonio planned to attend a four-year college and felt the academic regiment at Walnut Hills wouild best prepare him for being successful in college. His transfer was not motivated by athletics,’’ Coates said. He called the OHSAA ruling that made Dontonio ineligible “arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable."Meanwhile, the hearing on another student athlete, Winton Woods female guard Alexxus M. Paige, was delayed until Dec. 7 on procedural issues. Judge Ruehlmann said there is a likelihood the case might be settled by having Paige return to Withrow High School to finish her senior season this year. She had transferred to Winton Woods because of family issues. OHSAA ruled her ineligible for a year.

A Hamilton County judge plans to hold an emergency hearing next week that will allow Alexxus Paige to challenge a rule that has kept the star guard from playing her senior year at Winton Woods High School.Last month, the Ohio High School Athletic Association declared her ineligible for the current basketball season. It says her family’s move into the suburban school district was not for “bona fide” reasons; it was solely to play basketball. A lawsuit filed by Paige’s mother, Vivian Watkins, contends Withrow High School opposed the transfer and filed an inaccurate complaint that led to the ban. OHSAA has not yet filed its formal response in the case. Court officials told CityBeat its lawyer has been in touch with the judge and indicated it will fight to keep Paige from playing high school hoops. The 18-year-old Paige is a 5-foot-7 guard who is one of Cincinnati’s top female athletes. A post-high school college scholarship might be hanging in the balance of the court case. She was all-conference for the past three seasons in the Cincinnati Metro Athletic Conference, the league which includes most of the city’s public urban high schools. (Clark Montessori and Walnut Hills are the two city schools that are in different leagues). Three years worth of Paige’s stats are available by clicking here. Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Robert Ruehlman has scheduled a Dec. 4 hearing on a request for a temporary injunction that would lift the OHSAA ban and allow Paige to play. The basketball player’s mom — who is acting as her own lawyer in the case — says legitimate family issues led to the move outside the city. The mom contends the OHSAA has refused to consider evidence showing her daughter transferred to Winton Woods because the mom’s marriage broke down and she moved into a suburban apartment with her two children. “Mrs. Watkins looked for apartments that would fit her budget and a decent community to reside in,” the mom wrote in the lawsuit against the OHSAA. “She looked all over and finally found a place in May of 2012. Since Alexxus was moving with her it would have been hard to transport Alexxus back and forth to Withrow High School, so it was decided that Alexxus would attend Winton Woods High School which is closer to Alexxus place of residence.”The state rule is designed to hamper schools from recruiting star athletes to pump up their sports programs. In the past, there have been allegations that players enrolled in schools where they did not actually reside, or had temporarily “moved” in order to improve a team.North College Hill was dogged for years over rumors it recruited O.J. Mayo and Bill Walker for its state championship hoops teams.  Both are now in the NBA: Walker plays for the New York Knicks and Mayo is with the Memphis Grizzlies.