Hardwood Heroes Sports
Week In Review: Trimble Flexes Their Muscles After Week of Tough Opponents
By: Zach Paquette
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After great starts from both the boys and girls squads, the Tomcats came into the week with four tough matchups between both squads and they didn’t disappoint.
The anticipated matchup of the week came on Friday when the Tomcats played host to the Lancers of Federal Hocking. This matchup featured two evenly matched teams and it came down to the final minutes before Trimble pulled away with a 59-52 victory.
Blake Guffey had a double-double with 20 points and 11 boards while Brayden Weber had 17 points of his own. Cam Kittle dished out 12 assists while also adding two points of his own.
Trimble’s 12-point fourth quarter lead was cut to one with less than three minutes left, but Sawyer Koons hit some big buckets down the stretch to secure the victory for the Tomcats.
The Tomcats had little time to let this win sink in as they were back in action the next night as they travelled to Crooksville to take on the Ceramics.
With a tie ball game with 1:06 left, Trimble held it for the last shot and Brayden Weber came up clutch, sinking the game-winner with seven seconds left. He finished with a team-high 23 points, Guffey added 15, and Kittle once again played the role of the quarterback and dished out 11 assists.
This game was a dog fight the entire way with Crooksville leading the game from the second quarter up until the last 1:30 of the game. Austin Wisor had two huge 3-pointers off the bench down the stretch to even the score.
This week’s sweep puts Trimble at 8-1 on the season. They’ll look to ride this momentum as they head into an action-packed week with matchup against Wahama and Wellston on the slate before playing in the Beasts of the Southeast tournament at Chesapeake High School on Saturday.
After a light slate of one game the prior week, the Lady Tomcats were looking to build off of their 7-1 start to the season.
On Thursday, the Lady Tomcats kicked off the week with a short drive to face the Rockets of Berne Union and the Lady Tomcats came up clutch down the stretch.
With five seconds left and facing a 1-point deficit, Jayne Six grabbed a rebound off of a front end of a Rockets’ one-and-one and was immediately fouled. She sank both free throws, giving her a team-high 15 points and nine rebounds, but most importantly giving the Lady Tomcats the 50-49 victory.
Emily Young and Brianna Orsborne also had impressive outings with Young adding 13 points and Orsborne adding eight points of her own. Laikyn Imler also added seven points of her own and Sophia Ives added some big defensive minutes as Six struggled early with foul trouble. Ives only had two points, but her defense and team play made a huge impact down the stretch.
“That was a really good basketball team that we played,” head coach Joe Richards said. “Our girls haven’t given up all year and they just buckled down defensively and made the plays.”
The Lady Tomcats looked to ride the momentum Saturday as they travelled to West Muskingum, a D-III power from the MVL. The Lady Tomcats gave the Lady Tornadoes a good fight, but in the end, West Muskingum pulled away for the 54-36 victory.
“They just played harder than us for four quarters,” Richards said. He also indicated that fatigue and a slight emotional letdown could have been the case on Saturday.
The Lady Tomcats found themselves up 22-16 midway through the second quarter but were outscored 38-14 the rest of the way.
Six, Young, and Orsborne each had eight points offensively, but it was Emily Calentine who had some great minutes during the contest. Calentine had five points off the bench, including a huge 3-point basket to start the fourth quarter, cutting the West Muskingum lead to 31-29 at that point.
The Lady Tomcats didn’t play their best game of the season, but they did give a solid D-III team one heck of a fight. They improve to 8-2 on the season, which is a great step for this young program that struggled to have a team a few years prior.
They’ll look to build upon this start as they face a red-hot Belpre team currently riding a six-game win streak on the road before returning home to play Hocking powerhouse Waterford to wrap up the week.
The Belpre-Trimble series has gotten heated after the three meetings last season between these two teams. With the road team taking home the win in each of the regular season matchups, Belpre ended the Lady Tomcat season last year in the sectional finals. This Lady Tomcats team will be having revenge on their mind on Monday night.
It is also worth noting that it was Belpre who handed Waterford their first TVC-Hocking loss in the regular season since 2014 and the Lady Tomcats see both teams this week. Waterford has been the Hocking powerhouse since that 2014 season and they’ll be looking to make a statement since that loss to Belpre earlier this season.