Not off the Press: Basketball returns this weekend and thoughts from recent games
By
Stephen Forsha-sforsha@gmail.com
Welcome to 2013, where the temperature is freezing, hot chocolate is the drink of choice for Ohioans and where there will be nonstop basketball until the conclusion of the state basketball championships.
Where Highland County teams fit into that equation isn't for me to say, but there is one thing for sure, and that is it should be interesting to watch the rest of the way.
Having the opportunity to watch the first of the two days of the Wilkin Memorial Scholarship Tournament, I can say the Whiteoak Wildcats are showing more and more improvement each time I cover one of their games.
They won their past two games at the Wilkin tourney with wins over Lynchburg-Clay and Paint Valley. In the game before that, a couple days before Christmas, they even played well in a loss to Hillsboro.
Whiteoak is 4-4 overall, and I still think they can be better than a .500 team once the season comes to a close.
A couple players on their team who are having a very good year thus far are Luke Taggert and Doc Seip, and they continued that trend this past weekend at LCHS. For the season, Taggert is scoring around 17 points per game, and Seip is averaging 18.8 ppg. I've seen this team a few times already, and like I've said before, this team is improving and getting better, plus they haven't had a really long break like a lot of teams, and my opinion is teams play smoother when they play games before the New Year's break.
• The game of the past week
The most competitive game I covered this past week was the Fairfield Lions and McClain Tigers … two teams who I think are playing better now than they were at the start of the season.
For the Lions on Saturday night, they showed they can win the close game, come back from a deficit and play in a tough atmosphere, and players stepped up when they needed them by making turnovers and scoring points at critical times late in the fourth quarter.
The Tigers are playing better than they were at the start of the season, and before the loss Saturday, they were on a three-game winning streak as they are 4-4 on the season.
As for the game Saturday, the physicality of the game was great (except for the technical foul that I didn't see), and it was enjoyable to see teams who really wanted to gain the Highland County win, but Saturday night was full of emotions and is the way high school basketball should be played.
I wish these teams could play again this season, but we'll just have to wait until next season.
More on Williams … he's averaging 21.3 ppg after 10 games, but his last three games have been a barrage of scoring as he's put up 24, 24 and 23 for an average of 23.6 ppg.
As for Faulconer … he's the best sophomore player I've seen in a long time. He's a pure athlete, and currently, after eight games, he's averaging 13.3 ppg, scoring his season high of 23 points against Fairfield. He's only had one game of single-digit scoring and 12 or more points five times this season.
Both these teams return to the court on Jan. 4 as MHS plays at Washington and FHS hosts Ripley.
• Looking at upcoming games
- Thursday, Jan. 3 — Girls Basketball: Fairfield at Lynchburg-Clay: It's always fun to watch two local teams play against each other, but LC right now is the better team. I will say the Lady Lions played very tough against McClain in their most recent game, and I agree with McClain head coach Dennis Overstake as he said Coach Hodson is doing good things with his team.
As for the Lady Mustangs, they've won their previous four games, and Laney Lewis is playing the best basketball of any girls high school players I've watched this season.
- Thursday, Jan. 3: Girls Basketball: Hillsboro vs. Waverly — Hillsboro is another program that was playing with a lot of energy when the break came. The Lady Indians are playing much improved from this point one season ago with a young team as their leading scorers are underclassmen. I'm interested in seeing how much more this team improves in the coming weeks.
- Friday, Jan. 4: Boys Basketball: Lynchburg-Clay at Whiteoak — Already seen this game once this season with the Wildcats earning the victory, but rematches are always fun to watch, especially when the game is at Whiteoak with LC visiting. Should be another great environment to watch a basketball game.
- Friday, Jan. 4: Boys Basketball: Hillsboro at Madison-Plains — This is a big game in the South Central Ohio League. Both teams have four wins this year, plus just one league loss … again, a very important game in the SCOL standings.
- Friday, Jan. 4: Boys Basketball: McClain at Washington — Will be a competitive game between two neighboring schools. Washington has two SCOL wins and the Tigers have one … big game for positioning in the SCOL as the season continues. Washington, from the time I watched them, is dangerous from the three-point line.
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• Random sports thoughts
- I've had a nice few days off from going to games, but it is now time for the nonstop schedule of games close to every day for the rest of the winter. I hear Starbucks calling my name.
- Congrats to LCHS for a nicely run winter tournament. Also, congrats to the Mustangs for gaining their first win of the season.
- Congrats to the Hillsboro wrestling team for winning the West Jefferson Invitational.
- Ray Lewis announced his retirement Wednesday … Gonna miss seeing him play football. He played football like it should be played.
- I guess I'm excited for the NFL Playoffs. Winners this weekend will be Texans, Packers, Colts and Seahawks.
- The bowl games on New Year's Day were entertaining … except for the Orange Bowl. I did like the Rose Bowl, for the most part.
- The hit by Jadeveon Clowney on the Michigan player was simply brutal in the Outback Bowl … in an exciting way. Hit of the season.
- The Outback Bowl was the best bowl of the day.
- Wednesday's Sugar Bowl should be a good matchup between Louisville and Florida. My pick is Florida by a TD.
- Think if there was a college football playoff this year … could have been interesting.
- Received a book titled "The Dallas Cowboys: The Outrageous History of the Biggest, Loudest, Most Hated, Best Loved Football Team in America" for Christmas. That's 805 pages of reading about my favorite team … thank goodness it was published before last Sunday's loss to the Redskins. Geesh … that one hurt.
• One Non-Sports Thought
- A magazine from my childhood, Nintendo Power, recently published their final issue after 24 years. I hadn't read the magazine in many years, but I picked up a copy of the final one and looked at it. The final issue was well done and brought back memories of a six-year-old me playing Super Mario Brothers … sad to see the magazine cease publication, but I guess that is a sign of the times.
Nowadays, I don't even own a video game system and play them maybe once every six months, but that magazine sure brought back a lot of memories, and I need to buy a Super Nintendo for old times' sake.
• Stat of the Week
The Hillsboro wrestling team won the West Jefferson Invitational one year after a sixth-place finish. This year, they scored 449 points … 29 points ahead of second-place Eastwood.
• (A second) Stat of the Week
During their recent three-game winning streak, the McClain Tigers averaged 51.3 ppg while allowing just 35 ppg. All three of those wins were road wins, and all four Tiger victories have come away from McClain Gym.
• (A third) Stat of the Week
In their current four-game winning streak, the LC Lady Mustangs have outscored their opponents 225-136.
• Quote of the Week
"Winning here and defeating McClain two years in a row is a big milestone for us as we haven't achieved this for a number of years. Playing a school like Greenfield and winning at their place is big." — Everett Snyder, Fairfield boys basketball head coach, following the Lions' 54-53 win over McClain, Saturday night at MHS.
• (A second) Quote of the Week
"This was another game with two young teams competing with each other with a lot of fouls being called. The kids are doing what we ask of them, and both teams were playing hard to try to win the game." — Dennis Overstake, McClain girls basketball head coach following their win over Fairfield on Saturday afternoon.
• One last item of business
I can't wait for the 2013 season to begin later this week. Hard to believe half the season is pretty much complete, and here is to more success for Highland County teams this calendar year.
Stephen Forsha is the sports editor of The Highland County Press. Contact Stephen at sforsha@gmail.com. Follow Stephen on Twitter @hcpsportseditor.
Where Highland County teams fit into that equation isn't for me to say, but there is one thing for sure, and that is it should be interesting to watch the rest of the way.
Having the opportunity to watch the first of the two days of the Wilkin Memorial Scholarship Tournament, I can say the Whiteoak Wildcats are showing more and more improvement each time I cover one of their games.
They won their past two games at the Wilkin tourney with wins over Lynchburg-Clay and Paint Valley. In the game before that, a couple days before Christmas, they even played well in a loss to Hillsboro.
Whiteoak is 4-4 overall, and I still think they can be better than a .500 team once the season comes to a close.
A couple players on their team who are having a very good year thus far are Luke Taggert and Doc Seip, and they continued that trend this past weekend at LCHS. For the season, Taggert is scoring around 17 points per game, and Seip is averaging 18.8 ppg. I've seen this team a few times already, and like I've said before, this team is improving and getting better, plus they haven't had a really long break like a lot of teams, and my opinion is teams play smoother when they play games before the New Year's break.
• The game of the past week
The most competitive game I covered this past week was the Fairfield Lions and McClain Tigers … two teams who I think are playing better now than they were at the start of the season.
For the Lions on Saturday night, they showed they can win the close game, come back from a deficit and play in a tough atmosphere, and players stepped up when they needed them by making turnovers and scoring points at critical times late in the fourth quarter.
The Tigers are playing better than they were at the start of the season, and before the loss Saturday, they were on a three-game winning streak as they are 4-4 on the season.
As for the game Saturday, the physicality of the game was great (except for the technical foul that I didn't see), and it was enjoyable to see teams who really wanted to gain the Highland County win, but Saturday night was full of emotions and is the way high school basketball should be played.
I wish these teams could play again this season, but we'll just have to wait until next season.
More on Williams … he's averaging 21.3 ppg after 10 games, but his last three games have been a barrage of scoring as he's put up 24, 24 and 23 for an average of 23.6 ppg.
As for Faulconer … he's the best sophomore player I've seen in a long time. He's a pure athlete, and currently, after eight games, he's averaging 13.3 ppg, scoring his season high of 23 points against Fairfield. He's only had one game of single-digit scoring and 12 or more points five times this season.
Both these teams return to the court on Jan. 4 as MHS plays at Washington and FHS hosts Ripley.
• Looking at upcoming games
- Thursday, Jan. 3 — Girls Basketball: Fairfield at Lynchburg-Clay: It's always fun to watch two local teams play against each other, but LC right now is the better team. I will say the Lady Lions played very tough against McClain in their most recent game, and I agree with McClain head coach Dennis Overstake as he said Coach Hodson is doing good things with his team.
As for the Lady Mustangs, they've won their previous four games, and Laney Lewis is playing the best basketball of any girls high school players I've watched this season.
- Thursday, Jan. 3: Girls Basketball: Hillsboro vs. Waverly — Hillsboro is another program that was playing with a lot of energy when the break came. The Lady Indians are playing much improved from this point one season ago with a young team as their leading scorers are underclassmen. I'm interested in seeing how much more this team improves in the coming weeks.
- Friday, Jan. 4: Boys Basketball: Lynchburg-Clay at Whiteoak — Already seen this game once this season with the Wildcats earning the victory, but rematches are always fun to watch, especially when the game is at Whiteoak with LC visiting. Should be another great environment to watch a basketball game.
- Friday, Jan. 4: Boys Basketball: Hillsboro at Madison-Plains — This is a big game in the South Central Ohio League. Both teams have four wins this year, plus just one league loss … again, a very important game in the SCOL standings.
- Friday, Jan. 4: Boys Basketball: McClain at Washington — Will be a competitive game between two neighboring schools. Washington has two SCOL wins and the Tigers have one … big game for positioning in the SCOL as the season continues. Washington, from the time I watched them, is dangerous from the three-point line.
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• Random sports thoughts
- I've had a nice few days off from going to games, but it is now time for the nonstop schedule of games close to every day for the rest of the winter. I hear Starbucks calling my name.
- Congrats to LCHS for a nicely run winter tournament. Also, congrats to the Mustangs for gaining their first win of the season.
- Congrats to the Hillsboro wrestling team for winning the West Jefferson Invitational.
- Ray Lewis announced his retirement Wednesday … Gonna miss seeing him play football. He played football like it should be played.
- I guess I'm excited for the NFL Playoffs. Winners this weekend will be Texans, Packers, Colts and Seahawks.
- The bowl games on New Year's Day were entertaining … except for the Orange Bowl. I did like the Rose Bowl, for the most part.
- The hit by Jadeveon Clowney on the Michigan player was simply brutal in the Outback Bowl … in an exciting way. Hit of the season.
- The Outback Bowl was the best bowl of the day.
- Wednesday's Sugar Bowl should be a good matchup between Louisville and Florida. My pick is Florida by a TD.
- Think if there was a college football playoff this year … could have been interesting.
- Received a book titled "The Dallas Cowboys: The Outrageous History of the Biggest, Loudest, Most Hated, Best Loved Football Team in America" for Christmas. That's 805 pages of reading about my favorite team … thank goodness it was published before last Sunday's loss to the Redskins. Geesh … that one hurt.
• One Non-Sports Thought
- A magazine from my childhood, Nintendo Power, recently published their final issue after 24 years. I hadn't read the magazine in many years, but I picked up a copy of the final one and looked at it. The final issue was well done and brought back memories of a six-year-old me playing Super Mario Brothers … sad to see the magazine cease publication, but I guess that is a sign of the times.
Nowadays, I don't even own a video game system and play them maybe once every six months, but that magazine sure brought back a lot of memories, and I need to buy a Super Nintendo for old times' sake.
• Stat of the Week
The Hillsboro wrestling team won the West Jefferson Invitational one year after a sixth-place finish. This year, they scored 449 points … 29 points ahead of second-place Eastwood.
• (A second) Stat of the Week
During their recent three-game winning streak, the McClain Tigers averaged 51.3 ppg while allowing just 35 ppg. All three of those wins were road wins, and all four Tiger victories have come away from McClain Gym.
• (A third) Stat of the Week
In their current four-game winning streak, the LC Lady Mustangs have outscored their opponents 225-136.
• Quote of the Week
"Winning here and defeating McClain two years in a row is a big milestone for us as we haven't achieved this for a number of years. Playing a school like Greenfield and winning at their place is big." — Everett Snyder, Fairfield boys basketball head coach, following the Lions' 54-53 win over McClain, Saturday night at MHS.
• (A second) Quote of the Week
"This was another game with two young teams competing with each other with a lot of fouls being called. The kids are doing what we ask of them, and both teams were playing hard to try to win the game." — Dennis Overstake, McClain girls basketball head coach following their win over Fairfield on Saturday afternoon.
• One last item of business
I can't wait for the 2013 season to begin later this week. Hard to believe half the season is pretty much complete, and here is to more success for Highland County teams this calendar year.
Stephen Forsha is the sports editor of The Highland County Press. Contact Stephen at sforsha@gmail.com. Follow Stephen on Twitter @hcpsportseditor.