Hardwood Heroes Sports
Week In Review: Trimble Basketball Continues Great Start; Both Teams Earn Clean Sweeps
By: Zach Paquette
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With the holidays upon us, the Trimble basketball squads gave their fans early presents with both the boys and girls squads each going undefeated this past week.
After splitting their games last week, the Trimble boys were looking to respond, and they did just that. On Tuesday, they narrowly defeated the Eastern Eagles 62-58, holding off an Eagles run late in the game.
Blake Guffey led the way for the Tomcats with 19 points and Brayden Weber was close behind him, adding 14 points of his own, but Tyler Weber also added some offense of his own, adding 10 points.
Eastern’s star big men, Mason DiShong and Garret Barringer, combined for 38 points, but it wasn’t enough as the Tomcats did just enough to get past the Eagles. Head Coach Howie Caldwell stressed the importance of defending their home court and he was really appreciative of his team’s efforts but wanted to stress the importance of foul shots to his team as they only shot 11/24 from the stripe on Tuesday night.
The quality play carried over Friday night as the boys travelled to Corning to take on the Miller Falcons. After jumping out to an 11-point halftime lead, the Tomcats didn’t look back, taking home the 65-52 victory.
Brayden Weber was the high scorer this time around, scoring 22 points and Blake Guffey added 18 of his own. Kyle Kennedy had 11 points and Cam Kittle dished out nine assists on the offensive end.
Coach Caldwell believed his team is striving towards their desired “basketball shape” each and every game.
“We’re getting better each game,” Caldwell said. “We aren’t turning the ball over as much.”
After the two wins this week, the Tomcats improve to 5-1 on the season and have a highly-anticipated matchup against rival Nelsonville-York on December 28, and if these teams hate each other on the football field, it’s probably safe to say it carries over to the basketball court.
“We know they’re going to press us, so we are going to work hard to break it,” Coach Caldwell said.
The Lady Tomcats also face the Lady Buckeyes of Nelsonville-York on the same day, but before they could look to that matchup, the Lady Tomcats had two TVC-Hocking foes on their mind – Southern and Miller.
On Monday, the Lady Tomcats travelled to Racine and went home victorious, defeating the Lady Tornadoes 67-57 after outscoring Southern 20-10 in the final period.
Four Trimble players scored in double figures. Laikyn Imler led the Lady Tomcats with 18 points while Emily Young and Brianna Orsborne each added 17 points. Orsborne also added 8 rebounds of her own. Jayne Six added another double-double with 12 points and 12 boards.
Free throws proved to be the difference-maker for the Lady Tomcats as they shot 18/25 from the stripe on the game.
On Friday, it was another game and the Lady Tomcats found themselves in a similar situation from Tuesday night – a close game entering the final period.
The Miller Lady Falcons went to take the ball out and Orsborne read the play perfectly, stole the ball, and scored the layup to shift the momentum.
Head Coach Joe Richards called it the play of the game as Orsborne finished with 13 points and five steals as the Lady Tomcats sent the Lady Falcons home with a 53-43 defeat.
“That fourth quarter was the best quarter we played all season,” Richards said. “We only had one turnover and played great defense.”
Young and Imler had great games with Young finishing with 13 points while Imler had 11 points and five assists, but defense was the name of the game for the Lady Tomcats in this one.
Jayne Six was dominant on the post all game, finishing with 14 points and eight rebounds, but it was Six’s defense that made a difference as she finished with four steals. Richards called it her best defensive game in her career (so far).
Riley Campbell was a team player in this one. Richards calls her the leader on defense.
“She’s always in the right spot and plays really hard on defense,” Richards said.
All five of the Lady Tomcat starters got involved and made a difference in this one as they have all season. They improve to 6-1 on the season and are playing good, team-oriented basketball so far. The balance of scoring and good defense is making the Lady Tomcats a lot of noise in the Hocking early on.
Both the boys and girls are set to play Nelsonville-York on December 28.