Sports
Boys’ Preview Shows Whats Ahead For TVC
By: Matt Summers
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With high school football beginning to wrap up, it’s time to look forward to what the TVC has to offer us for a new season of high school basketball as several of the boys’ teams played preview games Saturday afternoon. Preview games include two eight minute halves with no overtime if a game ends in a tie.
The first matchup featured a strong Alexander team that struggled offensively in the first half, but finished strong as they defeated Belpre 35-11. While Alexander was offensively spread out very well, Kameron Riley led the team with eight points while Michael Norris had six. Alexander dominated in all phases as they kept Belpre on their feet and gassed them until the final buzzer. Alexander dominated on rebounds and got several second chance points. For Belpre, they didn’t have much of a chance to score as Alexander’s man-to-man defense kept them away from the basket and forced critical turnovers in the second half.
Southern and Nelsonville-York provided a much closer battle. So close that it ended up as a 30-30 tie. 24 of Southern’s 33 points came from three-pointers, one of which seemed to secure a victory for Southern from senior Trey Perkins. However, Nelsonville-York had a rebuttal to that. Senior Aron Davis marched down the court with time ticking closer to zero and hoisted up a three-pointer of his own with just a couple of seconds left in the game. Southern was unable to heave one from half-court and ended up with the tie. Davis carried the Buckeyes in the second half with seven of their 14 points and totaled 13 for himself. While the Buckeyes appeared to be a little off, it seems Davis could be an interesting player to look for.
The Athens Bulldogs decided to take a huge bite out of Federal Hocking, defeating them 46-10. The Lancers could have easily been held to under double digits had it not been from a late three pointer from Deakin Hatfield. Hatfield also accounted for six of their 10 total points. Outside of him, it was all about the Bulldogs tonight as Griffin Lutz and Robert Dickelmen each contributed 10 points. More importantly, they wreaked havoc all over the Lancers. There were several occasions where they wouldn’t even let the Lancers to half court without getting the ball back off a turnover. However, the coach wasn’t thrilled.
Coach Mickey Cozart called a time out in the middle of the first quarter after several players stopped taking the preview seriously by goofing around with failed dunks and silly alley-oops. Cozart was visibly frustrated as he called his players over. They didn’t fool around after Cozart talked to them.
Finally, the Vinton County Vikings and Trimble Tomcats closed out the preview night as the Vikings dominated the second half and earned a 47-28 victory over the Tomcats. Tristan Bartoe had a team high 10 points while Jake Speakman followed with eight of his own. The score is very deceiving as the score was tied 17-17 heading into the second half. Tyler Slack of Trimble produced nine of those first 17 points, but it wasn’t enough as they only got 11 points in the second half. The difference being the Vikings won the turnover battle and out-rebounded the Tomcats. They were exhausted and simply couldn’t keep up with an overpowering Vinton County offense.
The boys basketball teams will kick of Friday, December 2nd.