Congrats to Miami East for their District Championship and their narrow win over Anna. They are all tough games from here - wish them the best.

Hats off to the University of Dayton for making it to the Dance. But I watched them in the league tournament. Not so hot. I know they have some injuries to players, but they seemed disjointed and out of sync in both the games I watched. Not a good send off into the tournament. And they start against West Virginia. After seeing both teams play, I have WV coming out of the bracket. I hope that UD proves me wrong.

Saw a blurb in the news that stated that Bengals were looking at running backs in the draft. Hopefully it is just some predraft misinformation that was being leaked. If I were a running back the last team that I want to have draft me is the Bengals. Just a horrible track record. In my opinion 2 picks out of the first 3 rounds should be for offensive linemen. Use Benson for another couple of years then sign another free agent.

South’s Season Comes to an End
J. C. Tilton
The last team playing basketball in Preble County finally ended their season at UD arena in the second round of the state playoffs. Their opponent was number one seeded Miami East. Their feature player was Dan Hickman who plans to be playing at the next level for next basketball season. South would have their hands full keeping him away from the basket. And in their regular season encounter, the Vikings decisively beat the Panthers. So South had a lot to overcome to have a chance.

Despite a gallant effort, the team could not overcome a rough first quarter against the Vikings. The Viking execute their trapping 1-3-1 zone very well. And it gave the Panthers fits in the first quarter. The team racked up 8 turnovers in the first 8 minutes. At one point the score was 15-2 and the Panther faithful had to sit on their hands as there just wasn’t much to cheer about. The Panthers were in a hole and had to dig their way out.

The next three quarters were almost even between the two teams. Ryan Innis and Clint Spitler did almost all of the scoring for South. But it just wasn’t enough. The team did adjust and the turnovers slowed down. In the second quarter the team stopped the bleeding and managed to keep pace with the Vikings scoring wise. But were down 34-21 at halftime.

Defensively the Panthers assigned a defender to Dan Hickman throughout the game and the remaining players fell into a zone. The Panthers did keep Hickman from scoring from the field in the second half although he still scored with foul shots. With the extra attention to Hickman, this opened up opportunities for the other players. A total of 4 Vikings would score in double figures.
Like the little engine that could the Panthers kept chugging away at the Viking lead. Finally pulling to within 6 points at the 1:21 mark. Fans that had been quiet were vocal as the Panthers made their late game run. But that would be their high water mark for the game. A heart breaking 3 point shot rimmed out and the Vikings would turn around and score at their end to re-extend the lead. Fouling in the last minute wouldn’t help as they made their shots and the South season ended on the wrong end of a 56-46 score.

“We played even for three quarters, if you could have taken away the first quarter then who knows what might have happened”, stated coach Augspurger. We played so hard and came so close - sometimes this is a game of inches. But we have almost everyone coming back and if they all play ball this summer they have the makings of a solid team - but they have to work at it, it’s not going to happen on it’s own.” Comments: chrisaukcam@gmail.com

State Tournament - One Advance, Two Fall

J. C. Tilton
Thursday night was the opening round of the state tournament for three area teams, the season would halt for two and so only one would advance to the next round. The first game had familiar foes Twin Valley South and Preble Shawnee. This would be the third meeting between the two teams, but the first one at a neutral site. The previous games had taken place at Shawnee’s home court. The series was tied with one win apiece, with both games being hard fought. Fans were looking forward to yet another battle on the hardwood.

But Thursdays game was anticlimactic. South used a stifling defense and a strong presence on the boards to control the game. Shawnee had a tough time getting anything going offensively against the Panthers. South used to the same zone as they had in the previous encounter. But Shawnee was cold from outside - a good many of their points came from driving to the basket. And any rebounds from missed shots were quickly scooped up by the Panthers.

South’s scoring was consistent. Shawnee showed a type of zone in the opening quarter, but went to man to man when South drilled some three point shots. Then the Panthers moved the ball inside and continued to rack up the points. At the half South was up, but not by a lot. Shawnee was down 19-8 with seconds left when Dylan Brown hit a buzzer beater to give Shawnee some momentum going into the locker room.

But in the second half the wheels fell off the Shawnee cart. South charged out of the locker room and built an impressive 18 point lead. Shawnee just couldn’t mount a response. When the horn sounded, South won 50-35. Tony Augspurger was ecstatic about the teams performance, “This was one of the best games we had for doing the things we laid out in practice. We talked about what we had to do to for each move they would make and to their credit we did everything we discussed in practice. Innis and Walker did a particularly good job on the boards. Ryan Innis did a good job of keeping his composure when Shawnee gave him extra attention. We have not been a good third quarter team and I told them in the locker room that if we want to be a tournament team, we have to win third quarters - and tonight we did that.”

Roger Ellis on the Arrows, “We plain didn’t shoot well tonight. South gave up some good looks, but we didn’t take advantage. We were hesitant with our offense. And when South came out strong in the second half, we didn’t respond. We held them to 50 points and if we could have generated any offense at all, we could have been in the game. But 5 out of our last 6 games we haven’t scored 50 points, you can’t win games like that.”

The Dixie Greyhounds drew a tough Dayton Christian team in the opening round. It has been a disappointing season for the team and although the team gave a good effort, the Crusaders just had too many weapons for the Greyhounds to stop. The team was tentative in the first quarter. Caught some momentum in the second quarter, and closed the gap with DC. Seniors Matt Risner and Nick Worley scored during this run. But just when the game got interesting, Dayton Christian found another gear and left the Greyhounds behind. They went on to win 57-38.

Joe Miller was unhappy with the loss, but pleased with his seniors. “They are good kids, and they didn’t quit out there - they played hard. Dayton Christian is a good team and are loaded with seniors. We played some young kids today. They did well too and we talked in the locker room about next summer, what we want to do as a team to get where Dayton Christian is today. It’s been a tough season, but next season will be nice - we’ll be alright.” Comments: chrisaukcam@gmail.com

National Trail - New Football Coach

I like the selection that National Trail made for their new head football coach. It is Coach Graher formerly from Mississinewa Valley. The Black Hawks for a number of years were the team that you scheduled for homecoming. Lucky to eek out one or two wins a season. But Graher turned that program around and made it respectable. Even getting them into the playoffs for the first time ever. So here is a guy with proven track record.

He is being thrown into a similiar situation. Trail can count the number of winning seasons that they have had on one hand - and still have fingers to spare. Sports in general at Trail have really fallen off, although there are signs of life in the 2008-09 school year. I think that it is a good decision and I would like to see what one of the biggest school districts in the CCC can accomplish.

No Love Here

J. C. Tilton
Saturday was Valentines day. But there was no love in Preble Shawnee’s gymnasium as the Arrows squared off for a defensive battle against their neighboring adversary, the Twin Valley South Panthers. Veteran coaches Roger Ellis and Tony Augspurger had their respective teams ready to play on Saturday. South was trying to rebound from a Friday night thumping from league leading Miami East. But revenge was on their mind - Shawnee had beat the Panthers in December at the Holiday tournament. Shawnee was likewise trying to rebound from a Friday loss - a narrow 2 point loss against Carlisle.

Both teams played shut down defense in the first half. South played in a zone which they stuck with all night. Shawnee played some man to man and varied their half court defense. They did press against South, it was not too effective in the first half, but in the final stanza, their press would generate turnovers. The South defense was strong inside initially - blocking several shots and negating the Shawnee inside game.

South was starting to accumulate fouls and with about 4 minutes left had their 7th. During the game Shawnee would toe the line more often as South, but would shoot 53% from the foul line. Meanwhile South would make the most of their opportunities and their foul shooting was almost 80%. There were several lead changes in the second quarter. It looked like Shawnee would take a lead into half time, but Jordan Combs nailed a buzzer beater to give South a 23-21 halftime lead.

In the third quarter South kept making shots to keep their lead. Every time Shawnee would close the gap a South player would make a timely shot to extend their lead. Ryan Nisius and Clint Spitler both hit key three pointers during this stretch. Eric Walker would get his 3rd foul in the third quarter and at the start of the 4th he got another and was sent to the bench. Shawnee turned up the heat by going back to the press - and now were generating turnovers. Post player Levi Robbins put in some critical minutes in the fourth quarter. He scored 6 points in a row when South needed a momentum boost.

South held off the Shawnee onslaught and went into a slowdown offense. Shawnee fouled, but fouled the wrong guy. Ryan Innis would coolly score 5 points from the line in the last minute of the game and would have a total of 10 charity points for the night. South would win 54-49.
“It was a hard fought game from both of our perspectives,” stated Coach Augspurger from TVS, “Both teams are less than we thought we would be at this point in the season. We’ve both lost games we thought we should have won. I know Roger [Ellis] feels the same way. Our second half was great tonight. We had foul trouble, but we made some shots in the second half. We haven’t always used good basketball skills this year, but tonight we took a step in the right direction.”

Rockets Catch Fire in Second Half

J. C. Tilton
The Tri-County North Panthers fell into a tough district in the Division Three State tournament. It is a murder’s row of teams - most of which have winning records. The strength of the district shows when last years state champs - Versailles only drew a 5 seed. Their opponent was the Anna Rockets, a battle tested team from the Shelby-Mercer county area.

North seemed to be a bit intimidated in the first quarter. Anna capitalized by scoring the first 7 points of the game. The North defense stepped up and started to generate some turnovers and these turnovers became points. Mallory Ullery scored, then Sarah Whittaker scored 3 fast break layups in a row, and senior Emily Ervin chipped in a bucket. And although the Panthers were down after one quarter, it was by just 6 points.

One pattern became evident early. The Rockets were substituting freely while the Panthers were limiting their substitutions. Anna used full court pressure during a good part of the game to help tire the Panthers. They did not generate many turnovers from the press, but did make them work the ball down the court each possession. North did try to use a zone thru most of the game to save the legs of their players. Anna countered the zone with a single post spread offense to try to spread the North defense thin.

In the second quarter North had a strong finish. After being down by double figures, they scored the last six points of the quarter and kept the gap at 6 - being down 27-21. Kindra Mullins scored from the field just before the half, but the rest of the points came from free throws as North made a point of driving to the basket against the tough man to man half court defense of Anna.

The Rockets blasted off in the second half. North assigned Abbie Schlater to Anna’s Carrie Watkins who had been an offensive dynamo. She would end up with a game high 19 points. But once North slowed down her down, the remainder of the Anna team stepped it up. Both offensively and defensively. And North’s woes were later compounded when 6 foot post player Mallory Ullery got her 5th foul. Her inside presence had helped keep Anna away from the basket. Scoring inside and outside the Rockets built an insurmountable lead. By the time that the dust settled, Anna had a comfortable 55-33 victory.

Coach Music was disappointed with the loss, “They did a good job of taking Rachel Heindl out of the game. We had a good run at the end of the first half. But they just dominated in the second half.” On his seniors, “Rachel Heindl scored over 1100 points for us and was a competitor. Sarah Whittaker pound for pound, inch for inch may be the most hard nosed player I ever coached. She keeps getting after people on defense and is a vocal leader for the team. Emily Ervin sparked us in several games with her three’s. She was a real team player throughout the season.

Finally, “We take pride in our record as a 13-8 team. We won the mythical Preble County championship as we swept the other teams. There was a late start to the season since I took over at the last minute. I am looking forward to next year with our returning players and being able to get them ready this summer.”

Scoring for the Panthers: Sara Brierly 3; Emily Ervin 3; Rachel Heindl 6; Kindra Mullins 5; Mallory Ullery 8; Sarah Whitaker 8. Comments: chrisaukcam@gmail.com

Rachel Heindl: Congrats to her for scoring her 1000th career point earlier this month. On the the subject of TCN - the girls team are in a tough DIII district bracket. Wow, what a murderers row of teams. Almost every team in that district has a winning record. The Panthers will really need to scrap to advance.

On the other hand, the girls DIV district at Brookville has several local teams that could advance.

Poor Preble Shawnee - another year without a win? Time is running out. A new coach has not made a difference. Picking up a basketball before October would help. I do know that in both of the last two summers that the coaches tried to do summer programs - but no one would show. And the last two winters you can see the results.

South Clashes With Trail

J. C. Tilton
National Trail has had a resurgent season this year thanks in part to freshman 6 footer Kate Yeazel. She has been able to score in double figures almost at will this season. This has lead to a rebound of the Blazer fortunes. They are playing .500 ball this season after a series of losing seasons. South is struggling this season. They are a team of guards, with little height. So they would need to find a way to counterbalance Yeazel’s inside game with speed. The result was a closely fought game with several lead changes.

South sprang out to an early 6-0 lead. They were double teaming Yeazel every time she touched the ball. At first this was effective but finally Trail found other ways to score and closed the gap and the first quarter ended with a 9-9 tie. South employed a number of defenses - man to man and several zone offenses. But Trail showed the ability to score from outside and it was difficult to stay in a zone for very long. Trail stayed in man to man thru out the game. Placing Stacy Davis against South’s leading scorer Adelee Gates.

Yeazel was able to score more on the South defense in the second quarter - she had all of the Blazers 10 points. Trail employed a spread offense to loosen up the South defense and when South tried to trip them up by going to a zone, they were still able to get the ball inside to her. The half ended with Trail up 19-18.
This season South has had problems in the third quarter and this game was not an exception. They had two turnovers, missed foul shots and open shots from the field in the first 4 minutes of the half. Finally coach Mabry had seen enough and called a time out to get the team back on track. But Trail had already taken advantage and rang up a 10 point lead thanks to Kate Yeazel and Alyssa Joyce. The time out had the desired effect. Now it was South’s turn to go on a run and they closed the gap by slashing to the basket. Adelee Gates, Taylor Creech, and Whitney Wysong (4 free throws) all contributed to the South run which allowed South to pull within 2 of Trail by the end of the third.

Another factor that fell into the Panthers favor was Yeazel getting her third foul in the third quarter which sent her to the bench. And early in the fourth quarter, she would get her fourth. With Yeazel out of the game, South was able to get a small lead. But with the game on the line Yeazel would reappear in the last 5 minutes of the quarter. South had a 4 point lead at this point. But during this critical stretch, South could not find the basket and began missing shots. Alyssa Joyce was a big factor for Trail, scoring 2 big baskets during their run to the finish. Her second basket would tie the game at 41 with 1:47 on the clock. Later with :28 on the clock Yeazel would hit one of two free throws to give Trail the lead. South would try to set up a last second shot, but the attempt did not fall and they fouled on the rebound. This set up the final score of 43-41 in favor of the Blazers.

South Coach Mabry on the game, “Our girls played well, it just came down to who would score the final bucket. We had to foul on their end and they made the bucket. And we tried to set up an out of bounds play, but we couldn’t get the ball where we wanted it.”

Trail Coach Ferguson, “We tried to pull ahead there in the second half. But give South credit they really came back. I thought that our girls played really well. Our bread and butter is our inside game. They did a good job of taking it away early by doubling down. But our girls stayed with it. And Alyssa Joyce ended up with a critical rebound at the end of the game that sealed the win for us.” On defense, “We knew going in that Gates was their leading scorer and we assigned Stacy Davis to her - she held her to 9 points so she really hustled.”

South Outguns North

J. C. Tilton
Both North and South came into the game knowing that they would need to shut down the other teams leading scorer. Ryan Innis has lead the way for TVS and Brandon McAdams has been the leading scorer for TCN during this season. Finding a way to stop or at least slow down these two players would be a part of each teams defensive strategy.
North employed a man to man defense for most of the game - switching defenders on Innis. South implemented a box and one defense to start the game. This was effective for the first quarter and a half of play. North couldn’t get anything started offensively and South’s Innis had 15 first half points. At one point, South was up 30 to 12; it was starting to look like a blow out.

But finally the lethargic North offense woke up and they went on a 15-3 run to close the gap towards the end of the second quarter and at the half they were down 35-27. They continued their momentum in the third quarter. Closing the deficit to 5 with about a minute and a half left in the quarter. The North defense slowed down Innis, holding him to 4 during this run.

South entered the fourth quarter with resolve and went to work. South needed to regain the momentum and looked for someone to step it up a notch. Both Clint Spitler and Ryan Innis answered for South - finished strong, doing the bulk of the scoring in the stretch run. Both players attacked the basket and the North defense was back on their heels as the South lead lengthened. North tried vainly to press in the last couple of minutes as South countered with a slowdown and cruised to a 67-55 win.

“I thought that we passed well and Clint [Spitler] did a good job of looking up the floor,” stated Coach Augspurger after the win, “Our offensive rebounding went well, which is something we haven’t done much this year. We pounded the glass pretty hard in the second half.” On Ryan Innis, “He has done well for the team this year. One thing he did real well tonight was go after the boards, he got beat on pretty well, but fought hard for rebounds. And I don’t know how many assists Clint Spitler had tonight, but he had a bundle. He did a good job of taking care of the ball.”

Coach Woodworth had praise for South, “They know how to pass the ball, who to get it to at the right time. We were down by 18 points and outplayed them in the 2nd and 3rd quarters. But when we needed a stop tonight, we couldn’t get it done. We allowed Innis too many second shots in the paint. Defense and rebounding wins basketball games. When we learn to do that consistently then we will have something.”

Scoring for TVS: Spitler 16; Innis 25; Burns 1; Combs 7; Smith 4; Nisius 3; Balthis 3; Walker 8. Scoring for TCN: Broughton 2; Burnside 16; Werner 9; McAdams 12; Williams 3; Robinson 13. comments: chrisaukcam@gmail.com

North Defense the Difference Against Dixie
J. C. Tilton
On a day where most students had the day off, two teams were hard at work this past Martin Luther Kings day. The North girls basketball team has been riding a wave this season and have had only 3 losses. Seniors Sara Whittaker and 4 year starter Rachael Heindl and freshman Mallory Ullery have been factors in the teams success. Dixie had been playing .500 basketball, but was riding a losing streak that they wanted to break.

Both teams were sluggish as the game began. The North defense was generating turnovers, but no buckets. Coach Music from TCN speculated that the day off may have gotten the girls out of their groove. But in the last minute or so of the half North finally caught fire and went on a 10-2 run to open up a 14-5 lead.

North used their press to help keep Dixie off balance and get them out of their game. They went to a spread offense to try and open up opportunities to cut to the basket. Dixie played mostly man to man, mixing in some zone. For their part, North got their points from driving to the basket or by shooting from the outside. Dixie had a tough time getting any consistent offensive production against the stiff North defense. Although Kayla Bertke was a bright spot for Dixie - scoring in double figures again. Also the Dixie defense was tough inside. Limiting North’s post player Ullery to just 4 points.
However, Dixie could not find a way to halt Rachel Heindl who is fast closing in on 1000 career points. This was her second game in a row where she would score 21 points. Dixie did make a 6 point to run to start the third quarter and the fourth quarter. But just as things would start to get interesting, North would press the gas and pull ahead. In the final minute North went into a slow down and then rode home with a 53-40 victory.

“We were clicking on Saturday night against a decent Ansonia team.” Said Coach Music from Tri County North, “But tonight nothing was working. But it was a win and we’ll take it. Our press and transition really helped us tonight when our set offense wasn’t working. Both of our senior guards have come up big for us several times this season and both Heindl and Whittaker did well.”
Scoring for TCN: Mullins 2; Errin 8; Bierly 8; Ullery 4; Whittaker 10; Heindl 21.
Scoring for Dixie: Seim 5; Kneisly 9, Ruppert 2, Neaves 1, Bertke 11, Rader 7, Thompson 5.

The JV contest was a close game with North edging Dixie 28-25. Scoring for TCN: Whittaker 12, Broughton 2, Shrier 6, Cruse 1, Mullins 10. Dixie: Brannon 3, Purcell 4, Landis 5, Rader 6, Bates 6, Camper2.

Fourth and One
…and Other Life’s lessons
J. C. Tilton
There is a Chinese proverb which states that a child is a book in which everyone writes a page. This article is about a man who has written many pages in many books. As a teacher, a coach, a father, a husband, and a friend. A teacher not only in X’s and Y’s; or as a coach in X’s and O’s; but he went beyond that and was a teacher and coach on life. He touched many as could be seen from the number of those of us that attended his service this past week. He spanned several generations as evidenced by those who attended - from young men in letterman’s jackets, to old grey hairs (no hairs!?) like myself who came to pay their respects. As I sat there I thought back in time.

I first met Mr. Delong in his math class as a skinny 7th grader. At the time, he was very intimidating. To wake up the class, he had a yard stick he would crack against his desk to get everyone’s attention. Once he was earnestly trying to make a point that we weren’t getting and he smashed his chalk into pieces on the chalkboard. And his voice, that booming voice, I heard it many times over the years in the classroom, on the football field, and even as an adult. This was back when paddling was allowed in school and I don’t think he ever had to paddle anyone as the voice was enough to keep even the most unruly in line.

He had his gruff side, but as we got older we learned the other side of Mr. Delong. In the classroom we would occasionally leave the text book and talk about other things. He would pass along his wisdom and experience. Seemed to always have a story to share. Same with sports. Tough on the field, but approachable and willing to share off the field.

He was part of the success of many teams. He coached the linemen and helped give North football it’s only 10-0 season and several championships. He coached several athletes that attained all-state honors. I remember being part of the track team that won a district track championship, even though we had no track to practice on! Later when the district split up and he went home to South, he continued his success there. Finally after he retired, instead of sitting home, he continued to coach and work as a substitute teacher. He really loved working with youth and didn’t miss a beat.

And it seems like everyone who was a student of his has their Mr. Delong story. Even the pastor at the Memorial Service, Jim Hazelwood, told how he took him under his wing and helped make a football player out of him. A student, Nancy Moberly(Moore), told me how when she was pregnant in high school and some shunned her, that instead he was compassionate and helped her get thru a difficult time in her life.

Bryan Statzer, a captain of the undefeated North football team, liked him as a coach, but thought that he did even better in the classroom. “I thought the world of Mr. Delong. He was someone that you could relate to; someone that you could connect to personally. You could talk to him and we have continued to stay in touch over the years.” Mark Shepard, a colonel in the army and professor at West Point stated, “I would not be what I am today if it weren’t for Mr. Delong. “

My memory is this - every football team practices scenarios. And the ultimate scenario is 4th and one on the goal line with seconds to go in the fourth quarter. So when we got to the end of practice and we were lined up to go one more time. He would admonish us that when it’s fourth and one is when you reach inside yourself and find that something extra. It’s when you steel your nerve and think thru the other guy. It’s a physical toughness and a mental toughness. And several times over the years it’s been fourth and one in my life. And I hear that voice shout out “It’s fourth and one and we’re running to your side - what are you going to do!” It has helped give me the resolve to do what needs to be done.

With all the work that he did with school, did he slack with his family? The answer is no according to his sons, Mike and Jason. “He was always there for us. From helping change diapers for his grandchildren or helping us skin a deer when we were teenagers - he looked over us. We weren’t the best athletes in school, but he was there for our games. He knew what his priorities were, nothing came in front of god and family. We would not be what we are today if it weren’t for him.” Both sons knew that their father was popular and along with their mother, Charlotte, were amazed at the outpouring of support from the community. “There must have well over a thousand people at the Tuesday service, we had no idea that so many would show up.”

And there are some humorous stories as well. My senior year the linemen had a bad game on Friday. So Monday we lined up at the blocking sled and Coach Delong admonished us that we needed to sustain our blocks and drive until the whistle. We lined up at the sled, he gave the cadence and we flew out of our stances and popped the sled. And we drove it, and drove it - first 10 yards, then 20, 30 - around the 40 yard line 2 guys dropped off, the rest kept driving and finally we too fell from exhaustion after driving about 2/3rd of the field. We turned around to find out that Coach had dropped his whistle in the grass when he went to blow it, couldn’t find it, and was running behind us down the field yelling whoa! We were too tired laugh, too tired to do anything but roll over and lay down in the grass.

So I sat in the filled room and listened to the Memorial service and I took a look around. My mind refocused from the past and came back to the present. I thought to myself we worry about the finances on Wall Street and the economy. But here is true wealth. Here in this room are the people that have been enriched by one mans life. This is the treasure that can’t be measured in bank accounts and balance sheets. As long as we have people ready to pick up the baton and carry it like Mr. Delong did our future is not in doubt.

Leaving the world a better place - a lesson for all of us.

South Varsity 2-0 Saturday Night
J. C. Tilton
Both the South Girls and Boys teams came up winners on Saturday night in games over Dixie. But both games were exciting and weren’t decided until the final quarter. It was a day where you could get all the basketball you could eat. Starting with a Dixie - South freshman game, then JV’s and finally varsity’s the two schools squared off all afternoon and battled until the final whistle blew after 9 o’clock that night.
The South girls varsity took an early 13-7 lead. But the Greyhounds doggedly stayed on their heels. South stretched out their lead to 10 points but Dixie closed the gap thanks to a pair of baskets from Kayla Bertke and a pair of free throws from Jessica Leis. This late quarter surge brought Dixie back to within 5 at the half.
Dixie played mainly in a man to man defense, while South used a variety of defenses to keep the Greyhounds off balance. South was being very aggressive on defense and accumulated a surplus of fouls in both halves. This would be a factor late in the game and also showed on the scoreboard as Dixie would go on to score almost a third of their points from free throws.
Dixie made a run at South in the third quarter. They pulled to within one at the 2:29 mark. South needed to regain momentum and got it when Adelee Gates connected on a trey to pull South ahead. South stayed true to form and ended the quarter with 6 fouls to Dixie’s one. A short South team was made even shorter when sophomore Laura Ingram was sent to the bench with 4 fouls.
The last quarter was in the hands of the defense. Both teams turned over the ball but had problems finding the basket. South deliberately ran their offense and tried to use clock. Dixie played aggressive defense and chipped away at the South lead. Laura Ingram would get her 5th foul and would watch the rest of the game from the pine. Dixie closed to within 2 and got their chance with 20 seconds left. They tied up the South offense and got a jump ball. They set up their shot, it hit iron but didn’t drop. Time expired before another attempt could be made. South would win 37-35.
South’s Coach Mabry, “We played well in spurts, we had open shots but they weren’t always dropping for us. We’ve been working on getting the ball inside tonight, but we probably didn’t get in there hardly at all tonight. A win is a win and at this point in the season, I’ll take it.”
Dixie Coach Tom Geglein, “We started out slow. We let Gates hurt us with 10 points and Ingram added 4. We hustled and we had the last second shot. It looked nice, it just didn’t fall. I can’t complain, we played well - if we played like this against Eaton we would have beat them. They have a nice team, Gates is a nice player.”
The boys varsity game followed a similar format. South got the early lead with a 6-0 run. Dixie stayed on their heels. Dixie seemed to have problems with the South zone, but were later able to figure it out and at start scoring. Dixie started in man to man defense, but went to a box and one, placing Nick Worley one on one with South scorer Ryan Innis. Greyhound Tyler Darney made his presence known with three 3 point baskets in the second quarter. South with Innis getting extra attention, balanced their attack with shots landing from the outside as well as scoring in the paint. Dixie made up some ground but was still short 33-26 at the half.
In the third quarter South again peeled off a 6-0 run to start. They applied pressure with a half court trap and made adjustments on offense to open up scoring opportunities. But like their counterparts in the previous game. South accumulated fouls at a faster clip. And their big post player Eric Walker accumulated his third foul early in the third quarter.
The Greyhounds made their run and pulled to within 3 with about 2:54 left in the game. But a foul shot by Jordan Combs followed by a bucket by Eric Walker stretched the lead back out again. South was sure footed on the foul line and extended their lead as Dixie tried in vain during last minute of play. At the final buzzer South would win 67-57.
“It was a frenetic game,” stated coach Augspurger, I thought Dixie’s kids battled hard and scrapped hard. We started off playing well, but I thought we didn’t move in our zone as well as we needed to move and they took advantage of that. They changed the pace of the game with the box and one. Worley did a great job against Ryan [Innis]. But there are other guys who can help offensively and until we start making shots, we are going to be susceptible to this. But this is the type of game up to this point of the season that we have lost. We could have folded and died but we didn’t do that tonight.”

Shawnee Humbled by Carlisle
J. C. Tilton
At the half way point of the season, the 0-10 Preble Shawnee girls basketball team is desperately seeking traction. Their campaign has been made even more difficult with the loss of their point guard, Withrow. They lose her points, defense, and passing for the next month or so. Carlisle entered the game with a 4-6 record - not sterling, but in past years they have felt the pain of Shawnee.
With 6’2” Donna Holbrook in the paint, Shawnee was not able to get off many shots in the red zone. Settling for outside shots while she was on the floor. In the first half these shots were not dropping for the Arrows. And on the offensive end of the court Holbrook helped the Indian cause with a solid performance scoring 12 points. Murphy, a Carlisle freshman, would end up as the leading overall scorer with 17 points. She showed a lot of poise and did not make many freshman mistakes.
Carlisle made a statement starting from the opening whistle as they went on a 9-0 run to start the game. Coach Webster from Shawnee took a time out to stop the Indian run midway thru the quarter. They slowed down the Indians, but couldn’t stop them. The Arrows could only manage 7 first half points to the Indians 23.
The second half was more of the same. The Shawnee offense just couldn’t connect on shots and Carlisle just kept applying the whip on offense - leading by as many as 27 points in the third quarter. Anna Shroeder, who would be high scorer with 14 for Shawnee, scored 9 of those points in the final quarter.
Coach Glover from Carlisle had praise for his team, “I think we played really hard again tonight. When we played New Miami we played lackluster with out a lot fire or emotion and ever since then we talked about playing with a sense of urgency and of pride. And here today we did exactly that. Our game plan was to play aggressive man to man and to take away Schroeder - we did that. On offense we wanted to get the ball to Holbrook. When we were able to that, then the outside game opened up.” On Murphy, “Being a freshman guard and handling the ball at the point is a daunting task. Trying to run the plays and get the ball to where it needs to go is hard for anyone and she has been doing it since the beginning of the year.”
Coach Webster was pragmatic about the game, “We did not play well at all. We did lose Withrow, our point guard, she was a good defender and a good passer. And we are still trying to find someone to take her place. Carlisle was a good team, but we made them look better than they should have today.”
Scoring for Shawnee: Schroeder 14; Clippinger 2; Simpson 8; Groh 5; Patterson 4. Carlisle Scoring: Murphy 17; Estep 12; Turner 5; Hamilton 1; Holbrook 12; Leach 2; Sturgis 2; Monton 3.
JV game was won by Carlisle 32-28. Scoring for Shawnee: D. Clippinger 1; Bratton 14; Woodard 7; Johnson 2; Belvo 5. Scoring for Carlisle: Stamm 5; Campbell 2; Smith 6; Linch 12; Sturgis 2; Richards 4. Comments: info@vandeet.com

Ohio State a loser, maybe not? It wasn't a blow out like Penn State in the Rose Bowl. If it had been another blowout, that would have made it even more difficult for Ohio State to make it to a future BCS bowl game without a perfect season. Instead it showed that the Buckeyes can stand toe to toe with a ranked team. Texas had something to prove, they thought that they should have had a shot at the number one game. So they came into the game with a chip on their shoulder. With 2 losses Ohio State was playing for nothing but pride. So Tressel should be commended for getting his players fired up.

Boeckman made some plays late, including the TD to Pryor. And even though he played sparingly he had 110 yards passing to Pryor’s 66. It would be interesting to see if an NFL team would give him a shot. With a good offensive line, he may be able to play at the next level. Pryor will only get better. Seems to have a good head on his shoulders, making better decisions throughout the season. Great poise for a freshman. He could be your Heisman candidate next season. Wells was great in the first half. But Texas had his number in the second half and shut him down. And getting the concussion kept him off the field. I still see him playing football at the next level some day. He has both speed and power that teams with single back sets need.

North - Northridge Battle in Overtime
J. C. Tilton
League leading Northridge came into Lewisburg to take on Tri County North last Saturday, if they expected a cakewalk, they were disappointed. The Polar Bears are tied for first in the SWBL Buckeye division, while TCN has had a tough time to stay out of the cellar of the CCC with a win over National Trail over the Holiday break. That has been their only win of the season so far, but the Panthers were ready to play on their home court.
North played some sloppy ball in the first quarter and part of the second. Turnovers were a big problem giving up 4 steals and 2 travelling calls in the first quarter alone. Both teams mixed up their defenses. The Polar Bears starting in a triangle and two and later showing man to man. Occasionally going to a full court man to man. North used several different zone defenses thru out the game.
Northridge was very much in command over the first half, but couldn’t quite shake the Panthers who stayed on their heels. They got the turnovers under control and using good passes and shot selection chipped away at the Northridge lead. The first half was a low scoring affair ending with the Polar Bears up 24-18.
Both teams got their offensive engines revved up in the second half. North raced out of the blocks first. Northridge tried to ambush the Panthers with a half court trap. But the fast passing Panthers quickly broke this defense down and got some easy baskets before they switched defenses. With this momentum North kept the pressure up, catching up and then passing the Polar Bears. A Northridge time out did not cool down the Panthers. And the frustration was displayed on the court when a Northridge player had a word with a referee after a call and was tagged with a technical. North had an amazing 22-2 point run and the lead. In the last two minutes, North cooled off and allowed Northridge to catch up but ended the quarter with a 42-35 lead.
The fourth quarter began as a foul fest. The teams went into bonus and then double bonus - exchanging trips to the foul line. Northridge went back to full court man to man and got some turnovers. With about 3 minutes left they had a 5 point lead. And at two minutes went into a slowdown. North stayed on task and fought back. In the waning seconds with Northridge trying to eat clock, Brandon McAdams tough defense generated a 5 second call against Northridge and gave North the ball and new life. Then with 5 seconds left on the clock and North down by two he was fouled. He toed the line and calmly sunk two free throws to extend the game into overtime.
In the overtime, North spotted Northridge 5 quick points, then tried to climb back into the game. But Polar Bear Frank Spells had other ideas. Northridge spread their offense and opened lanes for Spells to drive to the basket. He would end up scoring 7 points in the overtime to propel Northridge to the win. North tried to rally but ended up short by 5 - 70 to 65.
Coach Woodworth wasn’t happy about the loss, but was pleased with the teams performance. “Offensively we had a good night. Cody Burnside had some key baskets in the second half and Brandon McAdams had a good night. He should be the most valuable player in the conference. He hit free throws when we needed them. But defensively we gave up too much. We held them at 24 in the first half, but gave up 48 points after that. If we can get our defense working better then our team will do better.”
North Scoring: Broughton 10, Burnside 18, B. McAdams 28, Werner 5, Robinson 2, Hofacker 2.

Random thoughts on 1/1

Random thoughts on 1/1
Browns: Big shakeup in Cleveland, both the coach and GM sacked. Same with Detroit. Several teams have said 'no more' after disappointing seasons and gotten rid of coaches.
Meanwhile the...
Bengals: Stand pat. In a familiar scenario to Bengals fans, the team has a disappointing first half of the season. Then in the second half of the season, they pick up easy wins against dispirited teams that have given up on the season. Giving false hope that "next year will be the year". Don't be fooled. Unless TJ and Mike Brown have some sort of secret pact, I can't see TJ staying. Interesting the report that the Bengals will not use the franchise player tag on him. He and Benson were the only solid performers on the offense. And Benson could be gone as he is a free agent as well. Palmers arm is still a question mark, as is the offensive line. So the offense is very much in turmoil - it could be radically different from what we saw this past season.

Caldwell did provide a spark at wideout in the last game. So that is a glimmer of hope. And the defense seems improved - also a check mark in the plus column. But I still have reservations that the Bengals will improve much in '09

CCC Girls poll is over: the consensus seems to be that the Vikings will cruise thru the CCC and win another championship. No disagreement from me on this.

CCC Boys: The current poll asks which boys team will win the CCC. Probably another year where there will be a shared crown. But could Miami East get two basketball Championships this winter - one on the boys side, on for the girls? Lots of exciting high school basketball yet to be played.

Eagles D Leaves Hounds Cold
J. C. Tilton
It’s been a tough start to the season for the young Dixie Greyhounds. The team is winless but they have had their chances losing three of their games by three or less points. So they are playing competitive ball, but are falling short down the stretch. But that is part of a young team maturing, learning how to finish. Eaton on the other hand has some experience and an overall team height advantage. It wasn’t that long ago that the Eagles were cellar dwellers, but the team has caught a wave under coach Don Moormeir and is now a team to be reckoned with.
Dixie played even with the Eagles for one and half quarters. But ominously, I counted 4 turnovers in the first 4 minutes for the Greyhounds. This would plague them thru out the game. Eaton would score at least 10 points off of turnovers. Both teams played a man to man defense. One factor that was a plus in the Dixie ledger was their defensive rebounding. They were able to hold the Eagles to just one shot on most possessions.
At the end of the first quarter, Dixie had a slim 8-7 lead. But this lead was quickly squandered in the next quarter. After giving up a trey, Dixie further aided the Eaton cause by giving up two turnovers on their next two possessions. These were both converted into baskets. Freshman Ryan Gabbard coolly hit 4 free throws and fellow frosh Garret Moore nailed a trey to pull the Hounds back in front 15-14 midway thru the quarter. But this would be Dixie’s last lead of the night as Eaton went on a 12 point run to break the game open before the halfway point.
In the second half, Dixie played even thru the third quarter closing the gap to eight thanks in part to senior Nick Worley scoring on back to back possessions in the last minute. Matt Risner scored all eight of his points in the second half to help rally the Hounds. The team began pressing at the end of quarter and it had some success in hurrying up the Eagles into bad passes. The Dixie big men Gabbard and Risner helped the team chip away at the Eagle lead scoring almost all the 4th quarter points. The team pulled to within 5 in the last 20 seconds, but couldn’t close any further and ended with a 52-45 loss.
Coach Joe Miller chalked up the loss to two factors - missed shots and turnovers. “We missed several open shots and even some easy layups. Now they did pretty good from the free throw line. Our rebounding isn’t bad, now we go after it. And our defense isn’t bad, we just aren’t scoring. But it is a young team - playing freshmen and a sophomore. We are going to make mistakes.”
Dixie scoring: Darney 5, Moore 11, Worley 8, Gabbard 11, Risner 8 Prater 2.
Eaton scoring: Baker 12, McKinney 8, Jordan 4, French 18, Moormeir 10.
Eaton JV won 47-45.

Jets Slip by Panthers

J. C. Tilton
Slow starts in the first and third quarters left Twin Valley South playing catch up ball most of the night. Coach Mabry would later acknowledge after the game that we have been a slow starting team this season, we need to pick it up in the first quarter. Turnovers further hampered their play on Saturday night. Finally, the team was playing short handed as a couple of players were unable to dress for the game.
The game itself was an exciting match up. The Jets raced off to an early 10 point lead in the first quarter. The score was even until the midway point and then the Jets went on a 10-2 run to finish out the quarter with momentum. South spread out their offense in the second quarter and found some gaps to exploit. They slowly chipped away at the Jet lead and climbed back into the game. Gates scored 7 in this quarter; Wysong and Creech both scored to pull South within 1 twice and finally the quarter ended with the Jets advantage at 3 & 25-22.
In the third quarter, Franklin Monroe exploited the South interior defense, scoring most of their points in the paint. Again turnovers were a factor as South had several passes get picked off. South adjusted their defense and after being down by as many as eight points, they finished the quarter down 6 thanks to a pair of Creech free throws.
The scrappy Panther team closed the gap with the Jets, but were never able to pass them. Gates, Creech, and Voge(one basket and a three pointer) all hit shots in the last quarter to pull the team even. With a minute and half left it was a two point ball game. The Jets spread out their offense and tried to play slow down. They hit a critical free throw to make it a three point game. South tried to set up a play with a little over 10 seconds left, but the shot rimmed out and Franklin Monroe hit their free throws when they snagged the rebound and were fouled to get the final margin of victory 55-50.
Coach Mabry was pleased with Adelee Gates overall performance. “She is just a sophomore and makes mistakes from time to time, but overall she has done well this season.” On the team, “We have to have stronger starts to our games, we can't spot a team 10 points and then play catch up.” He was pleased with the game the team won earlier in the week against Bradford. “Anytime that you can hold a team under 40 points, you should win the game. We had a strong second half against them offensively and that put the game away.”
Scoring for the Panthers: Wysong 5, Voge 7, Gates 21, Ingram 7, Creech 10.
The JV game was won by Franklin Monroe 30-27. Scoring: Emily Burge 6, Katie Bingham 4, Kim Perry 14, Jessica Hickey 3.

CCC boys: Out of the chute it looks like Bethel and Miami East are the teams to beat. The rest of the teams will be in a dog fight for third place. Twin Valley South has no seniors this year, but still should do well. Trail is in a rebuilding mode with a new coach and inexperienced players. North is off to a slow start, that program is a hard one to get right. Not much height and so they will need to be a scrappy team to get victories. Covington is also off to a surprising slow start as well.

CCC Girls: I just don't see any team in the CCC good enough to beat Miami East. North should do well. They have some height for a change and good guards. Even though they have a first year coach in Music, they should have a winning record this year and if the cards fall right they could challenge for second place. Trail is a team on the rebound. After years of being the cellar, they are off to a strong start. Again a team with height and decent guards, they will surprise a lot of teams this winter. South is a team of guards this winter. Like the North boys team, they will need to be scrappy and play tough defense to get their wins. They should finish in the top of the heap at seasons end.

Buckeyes: The match up with Texas should be a good one. Colt McCoy is a senior now - the first time that McCoy played the Buckeyes he was a freshman. The Longhorns will have a chip on their shoulder as they feel that they should have been playing for number one in the BCS. The Buckeyes will be playing for pride. Can Tressel get the team fired up for this game? This long layoff from the end of the season to the bowl game has plagued them in the past.

Bengals: When is the last game? Isn't it about time for the punishment to stop? Carson Palmer's arm is supposed to be OK. But it would be wise to sit him on the sideline and just save him from getting injured again this year.

Browns: I see more upside for the Browns than the Bengals for next season. Winslow has repented. Quinn will be mended by next year.

I do not follow a professional football team - I am a Bengals fan.

This season is circling the toilet and like 15 out of 16 seasons in front of it - another losing season is guaranteed. I spoke with a Bengals fan who said that they will do better next year. What, they will win two games? Even with Palmer back, they will have a patchwork offensive line. Either Johnson or Housmansadah and possibly both will be gone. So not only will Carson be running for his life, he will have the likes of 'stone hands' Glen Holt to throw to. Not a recipe for success.

Say what you want about Marvin Lewis, Johnson, Palmer, and Co. The only way you change the Bengals is to change the way that the team is ran. The only constant in the Bengals misfortunes on the field is the management and I do mean Mike Brown. His father took the team to two superbowls. Mike Brown can just barely generate a winning season. But then Mike measures success by the balance of his bank account and that is where there the problem lies.

As a fan you measure success by wins and losses. As a businessman you measure success by your profits. So by Mikes measurement he is very successful - why change when the bucks are rolling in. So there is the root of the problem - in the NFL there is no danger of losing money even when the product on the field is subpar.

So how can you force a change? Complaints to Mike fall on deaf ears. The only thing that can force Mike to change is the NFL. And the only thing that can make the NFL change is the fans. Complain to the commissioners office. If everyone complains to the commissioner, to your congressman, to your local papers, to anyone that will listen, then the roar of protest from fans will gradually overwhelm any support for Mike and force him to sell, or at least hire a GM and give that GM the power to run the team the way the other teams in the NFL are ran.

Folks sitting on our hands and taking it has gotten us no where. Complacency means another 15 years of the same thing. If the NFL won't act, then we must force it to act. My son is 16 years old and has only seen 1 winning Bengals season. And the question is, "Dad why do you follow the Bengals anyway?" And I don't have an answer any more.