Hardwood Heroes Sports
Week In Review: Trimble Tomcats Take Down Rival; Continue to Improve
By: Zach Paquette
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GLOUSTER, Ohio – The holiday season is perfect for people to spend time with their loved ones, and one thing that’s for sure is we probably didn’t see Blake Guffey and Mikey Seele hanging out over this break. Why? Because Trimble and Nelsonville-York are not too fond of each other.
On Saturday, Trimble hosted Nelsonville-York, or as some of the Tomcats have referred to them as, “that team over the hill,” in both a boys and girls rivalry matchup. Trimble sent both teams home with a lump of coal as both Trimble squads earned dominant victories.
The Lady Tomcats opened up the double header with a commanding 52-34 victory over the Lady Buckeyes. The turning point in this one came in the second period when the Lady Tomcats outscored the Lady Buckeyes 10-1, taking a 22-11 lead into the half.
Laikyn Imler started off hot, scoring a team-high seven points in the opening half, but it was the dynamic duo of Emily Young and Jayne Six who led the way for the Lady Tomcats. Young finished with 14 points and five assists while Six tallied another double-double with 13 points ten boards.
The Lady Tomcats flexed their muscles on the defensive side of the ball as the Lady Buckeyes were held to 11-46 shooting from the field. This Lady Tomcat defense is proving to be the driving force to the great start for this team.
With this win, the Trimble Lady Tomcats improve to 7-1 on the season. They’ll hit the road next week and take on Berne Union on Thursday and then West Muskingum on Saturday to kick off the new calendar year.
The Tomcat dominance carried over to the boys game that followed as Trimble took home an 80-47 win in dominant fashion.
After a slow opening frame and the Tomcats leading 11-10, they blew the scoring open with a 21-point second quarter and following that up with a 30-point third quarter.
Blake Guffey and Brayden Weber led the Tomcats offensively as Guffey posted a double-double scoring 26 points and tallying 10 rebounds while Weber had 23 points of his own.
The Tomcats forced 26 Buckeye turnovers defensively and held their opponent to under 50 points for the first time this season. Saturday’s game was also the first game that the Tomcats shot above 50% from the field. Coach Caldwell has seen the progression his team has made during practice and it’s starting to show on the court.
“We’re starting to get better at practice. We’ve been cutting down on the turnovers (during the games),” Caldwell said.
The Tomcats improve to 6-1 and will look to build from this solid performance. Up next is a home meeting against Federal Hocking next Friday before hitting the road to face Crooksville next Saturday. Coach Caldwell knows the tough competition they’re about to face and has confidence in his team.
“Federal Hocking likes to press and we will work more consistently on our press offense. It will be a difficult game, but we will rise to the occasion,” Caldwell said.