... Saturday at the Convo watching high school hoops with so much on the line for the teams, coaches, fans, schools, and communities ... it is always something that amazes me - as I can be objective never having a dog in the fight so to speak- to see the pride that is created by a group of players in school, community and TEAM ... Southern/Southeast Ohio is like no other location in Ohio for harvesting the PRIDE that is felt by all involved, the feelings of "family" that are honed among people whose only commonality is that they are supporting a small group of young men who work every day in many cases 365 days a year, who on a few nights a week from December - March carry the hopes and dreams of their schools and communities ... Saturday at the Convo showcased all of the PRIDE eight teams, 8 schools , 8 communities could muster ... no one in attendance was disappointed in the effort, the talent on display in any game ... great stuff ...Game 1 ... Manchester vs Southern ...
Manchester 69 Southern 59 a final ...
Game 2 ... Eastern Brown vs Wheelersburg ...
Eastern Brown 72 Wheelersburg 56 a final ...
Game 3 ... Zane Trace vs Chesapeake ...
Chesapeake 43 Zane Trace 40 a final ...
Game 4 ... Ironton vs Peebles ...
Ironton 69 Peebles 68 2ots a final ...
Game 2 ... this one was in the books after the first quarter - Eastern Brown blitzed the Burg from every corner of the Convo floor ... 4/4 from three pointer land to start the game - setting the tone for the contest ... followed by a couple of complimentary medium range shots ... 2 steals and transition baskets to finish, a MISSED shot with a made followup basket and an old fashion DRIVE to the rim for 2 ...EB 24 the Burg 6 after one ... when the dust settled the SHL Eastern Brown Warriors were 72 - 56 winners over the SOC Pirates from Wheelersburg ...
Pfloyd Napkin Stats - WheelersburgScoring ... Andrew Bendolph 18, Andy Stegman 13, Shane Ward 10, Tyler Lang 9, Parker 2, Graf 2
3 Pointers ... 1/14 ... Lang 1
FTs ... 15/19
TOs ... 17
... the Burg outscored Eastern Brown 50-48 after the first quarter shot to the face by the Warriors ...
Pfloyd Napkin Stats - Eastern BrownScoring ... Taylor Little 20, Tyler Knabb 19, Jordan Payne 14, Austin Smith 11, Stout 3, Wendel 3, Garrett 2, Dabe 2
3 Pointers ... 10/14 WOW! ... Knabb 4, Payne 2, Little 2, Smith 1, Wendel 1
FTs ... 14/18 ... 11/14 in the 4th quarter ...
TOs ... 13
... never saw this one coming from EB ... 10/14 from downtown ... the Warriors bloodied the Burg early and never looked back, answering all of the Pirate challenges after that first quarter bludgeoning - Knabb, Little, Payne ... EB's "triple" threat - literally ...
Game 3 ... what a battle we witnessed between another 2 of my favorite teams from the Pfloyd Tour this season ... Zane Trace came into this one without their key defensive stopper in junior Joel Tripp (dislocated knee cap) if that wasn't enough - Coach Alley entered the final 2 and half minutes , with ZT down 38-40 seeing one of the Pioneer leaders in Gabe Haynes go down, re-injuring his dislocated shoulder... followed at 1:17 left in the contest by ZT's number one scoring option Kirk Maxwell leaving the game with leg cramps - never to get back on the floor ... to top off ALL of that- ZT was taking on the Chesapeake Panthers of Coach Davis WITH ALL of their chambers loaded - Hintz, Copley, McMaster, Saunders, Kennedy ... ZT held the potent front line of McMaster/Saunders/Kennedy to a total of 8 points for the game - Austin McMaster put up 24 vs Piketon in the previous game to get to the district final ( only 4 in this one all in the first half while being blanketed by Gabe Haynes) - outstanding defense ... however the Peake has 4 offensive weapons to garner defensive attention , the 4th cog in the Peake's offensive attack is/was Nathan Copley ... NC scored ALL but 14 of the CHS points for the game (29 points) ... 5 triples on the night ... 13 points in the 4th period bringing the Panthers back from 7 down after three quarters to being 3 up to end the game and moving on - District Champion ...
Chesapeake 43 Zane Trace 40 a final ...Pfloyd Napkin Stats - Zane TraceScoring ... Kirk Maxwell 17, Drew Davis 10, Gabe Haynes 5, Rick Chamberlin 4, Dallas Cochenour 4
3 Pointers ... 4/17 ... Drew Davis 2, Haynes/Maxwell 1 each
FT's ... 6/13
TOs ... 13
... hard to watch the last 2 plus minutes as Zane Trace was left without it's top two options offensively - Haynes/Maxwell ... having seen ZT play a couple times this past regular season I know the one person that wanted to be on that floor more than anyone - Kirk Maxwell ... the young man carried the team in crunch time so many times all season long, to see him unable to go , a senior ... an outstanding career for Kirk Maxwell - best of luck to both Maxwell and Haynes ...
Pfloyd Napkin Stats - ChesapeakeScoring ... Nathan Copley 29, Peter Hintz 6, Austin McMaster 4, Colin Kennedy 2, Trent Saunders 2
3 Pointers ... 5/13 ... Nathan Copley 5
FTs ... 4/9
TOs ... 10
... Chesapeake found the "one" weakness in the ZT defense - ZT had no answer for Nathan Copley ... while ZT could only muster 7 points in the final quarter - Copley was able to hit 2 treys, a regular "& one" , got to the rim twice and added 3 FTs in the final 8 minutes of play - 13 points in the final period of action ... good teams find a way to get it done - Copley put the Peake fortunes on his shoulders - got it done ... throw in the solid defense that the Panther TEAM played in shutting down Haynes (5 points) allowing the one man wrecking crew in Copley to do his magic ... survive and advance - the name of the game ... Chesapeake played the game and moved on to the Regional Semi's this week ...
... best of luck to all of these teams as they continue a step closer to the promised land - somewhere up Rt 33 ... the SHOW it is ... next hurdle The Regionals ... to those teams whose seasons ended this weekend - thank you for the many great moments this season that you provided for us Cheap Seat folks to witness ... thank you ...![Image](http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/82/imagefn9.gif)