Not off the Press: Looking back at the season that was 
Lead Summary
By
Stephen Forsha-sforsha@gmail.com
Numbers are a big part of the high school basketball season. We know who players are by their jersey number. We keep score so we can determine a winner and a loser of each game. The number of points given for a shot determine where and when it is shot at on the court … you get the point.
Numbers are a big part of basketball and pretty much every sports season. But with basketball lasting over four months with the regular season and postseason, I have accumulated many numbers from just the games I attended this season.
Though I am horrible at math, even I can work a calculator and add up some of the numbers I found unique this basketball season.
I think I attended 61 games this season, and that with nearly a week when my car was broken. If I added correctly, I saw student-athletes score a total of 5,935 points. That averages to 97.2 points per game, and 24.3 points per quarter.
Games I attended had teams scores 60 or more points 26 times, and if I would have had to pay to watch those games, it would have cost me roughly $319, including tournament games.
I don't know what it is about finding unique numbers for an entire season, but at least I was entertained by these facts.
Another number was miles I drove while attending tournament games. I went on 12 trips to 14 games, five venues for a grand total of 1,360 miles. Thank goodness I had company on those trips and a few Arcade Fire CDs and one from Metallica.
• More on the Tournament
This tournament was a fun experience this postseason. We had three teams from Highland County and the Southern Hills League reach the district finals in Athens. The Lynchburg-Clay girls won two tournament games, as did the Fairfield and Whiteoak boys. Those three SHL schools each won sectional titles, as well.
Highland County also had a total of 17 total tournament games through 10 teams and three divisions.
The overall record for Highland County in the tournament was 9-10, with the girls going 3-5 and boys 6-5. One game was between the Hillsboro Indians and McClain Tigers (boys), both from Highland County.
Either way you look at it, this was a fun tournament to watch.
• Tournament performances
Here are some performances that stand out this post season:
- Megan Sword's 35 points in the sectional opener.
- Haley Bingamon scored 23 in an overtime loss for the Whiteoak Lady 'Cats.
- Jenna Perie scored 22 points against Logan Elm in McClain's sectional loss.
- Brooke Hertlein tallied 19 points and 19 rebounds against Adena in the sectional final. In the district semifinal, Hertlein added 20 points to her tournament totals. For the tournament (3 games), she finished with 47 points.
- Austin Fawley sank five 3-pointers in Lynchburg-Clay's sectional win over North Adams.
- Dylan Noll scored 20 points against Peebles in the Mustangs' sectional final loss.
- HHS gained their eighth straight win over the Tigers in boys basketball.
- Chase Gilliland sank four 3-pointers against Waverly, scoring a team-high 12 points in the Indians' sectional final loss to the Tigers.
- Whiteoak had four players score 13 or more points in their double OT sectional final win over Green.
- Whiteoak came back in their district semifinal game with five players scoring 11 or more points against South Gallia.
- WHS seniors Mike Carraher and Joe Michael scored in double figures in all three of their tournament games.
- Fairfield had four players score in double figures against Clay in the sectional round.
- FHS senior Chris Cox scored 26 points against Eastern-Meigs in the district semifinals.
- FHS senior Cameron Rolark scored 23 points against South Webster in the Lions' district finals loss.
• Final Thoughts on the tournament
Highland County should be proud of its teams this tournament. They all played tough, and the games at the Convo were just good basketball games to watch. The Lions made a big comeback in the second half against South Webster, and the Wildcats cut Manchester's lead to single digits twice on Saturday. Then in the district semifinals, the dominance of WHS over South Gallia was fun to see. And the Lady Mustangs gave it a good effort in their appearance at the Convo, as they held the lead in the fourth quarter.
Again, this is me being a nice guy, but this was a good tournament overall for Highland County.
• The regular season
The biggest moment during the regular season was Hillsboro winning a share of the South Central Ohio League. They had many good moments this regular season, but the celebration held at HHS when they defeated the London Red Raiders is something I'll remember for a very long time. That was a great moment to watch.
Another fun moment this season was Rolark's 43-point game. I've never seen a player take over a first half, and first quarter, like he did.
Some of my favorite regular-season games I covered this year were Whiteoak over LC at LCHS in boys basketball, HHS over McClain at MHS boys basketball, HHS over WHS in OT at HHS boys basketball, the two Miami Trace vs. MHS girls games, Clinton-Massie over HHS boys basketball and MHS over CM girls basketball at MHS.
I might be forgetting some.
My favorite game of the year was Whiteoak's double-overtime win over Green in the sectional finals at Valley High School. Just a good, physical game of basketball.
• The game I wish I attended
If there was one game I wish I could have attended this season and didn't get to, it would be the McClain-London boys game when Zach Uhl hit the game-winning 3-pointer.
• 10 thoughts/questions/opinions on high school sports
1. Sounds strange, but I'm going to miss the hectic schedule of basketball season to a point. I will, though, enjoy having free Saturdays most of the time.
2. Thank you to all the student-athletes for keeping me entertained on the basketball courts since the end of November.
3. Baseball and other spring sports start in around two weeks.
4. What are you looking forward to this spring sports season?
5. I will say baseball is my favorite sport to write about.
6. We have a lot of talent on the baseball fields returning. Last season, four teams were
crowned a champion or co-champion of their league.
7. I talked about my favorite moments this basketball season, what were yours?
8. Any predictions on who will the Athens regional semifinal game … Manchester or South Webster?
9. I wonder how the talks on basketball teams hosting sectional games are going with the OHSAA?
10. Hope everyone enjoyed the HCP's coverage this winter.
• Quote of the Week: "I'm very proud of our seniors. Joe, Mikey, Logan and Mark, they stuck with it. All are four-year guys. I'm very proud of them and how our juniors and sophomore have done. Hopefully we can build on this for the future." — Tom Wessner, WHS boys basketball coach.
• Another Quote of the Week: "This has been a long time coming, but this reminds me of two years ago when I had a senior-laden group down here, and we came close against Oak Hill … that night we came up a little bit short. Tonight, we weren't going to have any of that. We held on, and I thought everyone who was out there played disciplined. It's a great team win tonight." — Matt Carson, Fairfield boys basketball coach.
• Stat of the Week: WHS went 23-of-31 from the free-throw line in two games at the Convo. They missed just four attempts each game.
• A second Stat of the Week: For the Wildcats, seniors Joe Michael and Mike Carraher averaged double figures in scoring this postseason. Michael had games of 15, 18 and 15 for an average of 16 ppg. Carraher had two 11-point games and a 14-point game for an average of 12 ppg.
• A third (and final) Stat of the Week: Fairfield seniors Cameron Rolark and Chris Cox each averaged 17.3 ppg this tournament (3 games). Rolark had games of 23, 13, and 14. Cox had 9, 26 and 17.
• One non-high school sports thought
Preparing my NCAA bracket is driving me crazy. This year is the toughest in recent history, though I stink at picking every year, so it really doesn't matter.
• One last item of business
Since November, we at the HCP tried to add to our high school basketball coverage. We hoped you enjoyed the videos, slideshows and game stories. I added this extra online column to get different facts, stats and thoughts I had this basketball season. Again, I had fun this season, and I hope you did as well.
Stephen Forsha is the sports editor of The Highland County Press. He can be reached at sforsha@gmail.com. Follow Stephen on Twitter at www.twitter.com/hcpsportseditor.[[In-content Ad]]
Numbers are a big part of basketball and pretty much every sports season. But with basketball lasting over four months with the regular season and postseason, I have accumulated many numbers from just the games I attended this season.
Though I am horrible at math, even I can work a calculator and add up some of the numbers I found unique this basketball season.
I think I attended 61 games this season, and that with nearly a week when my car was broken. If I added correctly, I saw student-athletes score a total of 5,935 points. That averages to 97.2 points per game, and 24.3 points per quarter.
Games I attended had teams scores 60 or more points 26 times, and if I would have had to pay to watch those games, it would have cost me roughly $319, including tournament games.
I don't know what it is about finding unique numbers for an entire season, but at least I was entertained by these facts.
Another number was miles I drove while attending tournament games. I went on 12 trips to 14 games, five venues for a grand total of 1,360 miles. Thank goodness I had company on those trips and a few Arcade Fire CDs and one from Metallica.
• More on the Tournament
This tournament was a fun experience this postseason. We had three teams from Highland County and the Southern Hills League reach the district finals in Athens. The Lynchburg-Clay girls won two tournament games, as did the Fairfield and Whiteoak boys. Those three SHL schools each won sectional titles, as well.
Highland County also had a total of 17 total tournament games through 10 teams and three divisions.
The overall record for Highland County in the tournament was 9-10, with the girls going 3-5 and boys 6-5. One game was between the Hillsboro Indians and McClain Tigers (boys), both from Highland County.
Either way you look at it, this was a fun tournament to watch.
• Tournament performances
Here are some performances that stand out this post season:
- Megan Sword's 35 points in the sectional opener.
- Haley Bingamon scored 23 in an overtime loss for the Whiteoak Lady 'Cats.
- Jenna Perie scored 22 points against Logan Elm in McClain's sectional loss.
- Brooke Hertlein tallied 19 points and 19 rebounds against Adena in the sectional final. In the district semifinal, Hertlein added 20 points to her tournament totals. For the tournament (3 games), she finished with 47 points.
- Austin Fawley sank five 3-pointers in Lynchburg-Clay's sectional win over North Adams.
- Dylan Noll scored 20 points against Peebles in the Mustangs' sectional final loss.
- HHS gained their eighth straight win over the Tigers in boys basketball.
- Chase Gilliland sank four 3-pointers against Waverly, scoring a team-high 12 points in the Indians' sectional final loss to the Tigers.
- Whiteoak had four players score 13 or more points in their double OT sectional final win over Green.
- Whiteoak came back in their district semifinal game with five players scoring 11 or more points against South Gallia.
- WHS seniors Mike Carraher and Joe Michael scored in double figures in all three of their tournament games.
- Fairfield had four players score in double figures against Clay in the sectional round.
- FHS senior Chris Cox scored 26 points against Eastern-Meigs in the district semifinals.
- FHS senior Cameron Rolark scored 23 points against South Webster in the Lions' district finals loss.
• Final Thoughts on the tournament
Highland County should be proud of its teams this tournament. They all played tough, and the games at the Convo were just good basketball games to watch. The Lions made a big comeback in the second half against South Webster, and the Wildcats cut Manchester's lead to single digits twice on Saturday. Then in the district semifinals, the dominance of WHS over South Gallia was fun to see. And the Lady Mustangs gave it a good effort in their appearance at the Convo, as they held the lead in the fourth quarter.
Again, this is me being a nice guy, but this was a good tournament overall for Highland County.
• The regular season
The biggest moment during the regular season was Hillsboro winning a share of the South Central Ohio League. They had many good moments this regular season, but the celebration held at HHS when they defeated the London Red Raiders is something I'll remember for a very long time. That was a great moment to watch.
Another fun moment this season was Rolark's 43-point game. I've never seen a player take over a first half, and first quarter, like he did.
Some of my favorite regular-season games I covered this year were Whiteoak over LC at LCHS in boys basketball, HHS over McClain at MHS boys basketball, HHS over WHS in OT at HHS boys basketball, the two Miami Trace vs. MHS girls games, Clinton-Massie over HHS boys basketball and MHS over CM girls basketball at MHS.
I might be forgetting some.
My favorite game of the year was Whiteoak's double-overtime win over Green in the sectional finals at Valley High School. Just a good, physical game of basketball.
• The game I wish I attended
If there was one game I wish I could have attended this season and didn't get to, it would be the McClain-London boys game when Zach Uhl hit the game-winning 3-pointer.
• 10 thoughts/questions/opinions on high school sports
1. Sounds strange, but I'm going to miss the hectic schedule of basketball season to a point. I will, though, enjoy having free Saturdays most of the time.
2. Thank you to all the student-athletes for keeping me entertained on the basketball courts since the end of November.
3. Baseball and other spring sports start in around two weeks.
4. What are you looking forward to this spring sports season?
5. I will say baseball is my favorite sport to write about.
6. We have a lot of talent on the baseball fields returning. Last season, four teams were
crowned a champion or co-champion of their league.
7. I talked about my favorite moments this basketball season, what were yours?
8. Any predictions on who will the Athens regional semifinal game … Manchester or South Webster?
9. I wonder how the talks on basketball teams hosting sectional games are going with the OHSAA?
10. Hope everyone enjoyed the HCP's coverage this winter.
• Quote of the Week: "I'm very proud of our seniors. Joe, Mikey, Logan and Mark, they stuck with it. All are four-year guys. I'm very proud of them and how our juniors and sophomore have done. Hopefully we can build on this for the future." — Tom Wessner, WHS boys basketball coach.
• Another Quote of the Week: "This has been a long time coming, but this reminds me of two years ago when I had a senior-laden group down here, and we came close against Oak Hill … that night we came up a little bit short. Tonight, we weren't going to have any of that. We held on, and I thought everyone who was out there played disciplined. It's a great team win tonight." — Matt Carson, Fairfield boys basketball coach.
• Stat of the Week: WHS went 23-of-31 from the free-throw line in two games at the Convo. They missed just four attempts each game.
• A second Stat of the Week: For the Wildcats, seniors Joe Michael and Mike Carraher averaged double figures in scoring this postseason. Michael had games of 15, 18 and 15 for an average of 16 ppg. Carraher had two 11-point games and a 14-point game for an average of 12 ppg.
• A third (and final) Stat of the Week: Fairfield seniors Cameron Rolark and Chris Cox each averaged 17.3 ppg this tournament (3 games). Rolark had games of 23, 13, and 14. Cox had 9, 26 and 17.
• One non-high school sports thought
Preparing my NCAA bracket is driving me crazy. This year is the toughest in recent history, though I stink at picking every year, so it really doesn't matter.
• One last item of business
Since November, we at the HCP tried to add to our high school basketball coverage. We hoped you enjoyed the videos, slideshows and game stories. I added this extra online column to get different facts, stats and thoughts I had this basketball season. Again, I had fun this season, and I hope you did as well.
Stephen Forsha is the sports editor of The Highland County Press. He can be reached at sforsha@gmail.com. Follow Stephen on Twitter at www.twitter.com/hcpsportseditor.[[In-content Ad]]