Several SCOL coaching changes for 1982-83
By
Bob Patton-
(Continued from last week.)
The SCOL teams got back into league action Jan. 7, 1983, when Washington visited Hillsboro. After a torrid battle, the Indians captured a 76-75 overtime win from the Blue Lions. Vince Johnson led the Indians’ scoring with 33 points, while Tim Redman chalked up 32 for the blue and white. This was not a defensive struggle.
Miami Trace notched a home win the same night when they edged Madison-Plains, 69-63. This broke a 19-game SCOL losing streak by the Panthers and also a 12-game losing streak on their home court. Elsewhere, McClain downed Teays Valley, 58-45, when the Vikings hit only 17 of 62 field goal attempts for a paltry 27 percent (the girls junior high team shot better than that).
Circleville bounced Wilmington by 23 points Jan. 11 at Circleville. This win guaranteed that there would be no gold basketball this season, as all the teams had suffered at least one league loss. The final score was Circleville 64, Wilmington 41. The Tigers held Greg Nared to nine points, while Luke McConnell collected 22.
This threw the race into a three-way tie, as McClain, Circleville and Wilmington now all stood at 5-1.
Coach Dick Heath was suspended for one game by the Washington school administration, for his actions during and after the Blue Lions’ one-point overtime loss to Hillsboro. Assistant coach John Denen was at the helm when the Lions met Greeneview the next night at Jamestown. Greeneview won the game, 64-54.
Also on the 11th, Miami Trace downed Teays Valley, 88-63. The Panthers were beginning to put it all together. This was their second straight league win. They were playing about ten people and were getting very good balance in their scoring.
At WCH, Wilmington enjoyed a comfortable 51-37 lead over the Blue Lions midway through the third quarter, when the Lions caught fire and came roaring back behind Tim Redman and Jeff Shaw. The Hurricane was lucky to hold on and take a 61-60 win. Redman scored 21 points and played a great floor game, while Shaw totaled 18 points to go with 11 rebounds. Wilmington had shown an inability to put teams away when they had comfortable leads. They were led by junior Bill Ward, who racked up 23 points. The Blue Lions hit only 6 of 17 free throws and lost the game by one point.
In Greenfield, turnovers in key fourth-quarter possessions cost the McClain Tigers dearly, as the visiting Circleville Tigers overcame a three-point deficit and edged the purple and gold, 49-46. Hillsboro played at Madison-Plains, and came away with a 73-71 win.
The Circleville win over McClain did away with the three- way tie for the league lead. Circleville and Wilmington now shared the top rung with 6-1 marks, while McClain (5-2) dropped to third place, followed by the (4-3) Hillsboro Indians. Madison-Plains, WCH and Miami Trace were all tied with 2-5 SCOL marks, while Teays Valley clung to eighth place with a 1-6 league record.
At the halfway point of the league race, McClain’s Rob Munyan was leading the individual scoring race with 144 points in 7seven SCOL games for a 20.6 ppg. average. He was followed by Tim Redman of WCH, who trailed Munyan by only 12 points. His average was 18.9 ppg. The next three individual scorers were Luke McConnell of Circleville (17.9), Doug Hoover of Teays Valley (17.1) and Greg Nared of Wilmington (17.0). Munyan also led in the overall individual scoring race with 233 points in 11 games for an average of 21.2.
At the midway point in the season, Circleville was the top offensive team in the loop. The Tigers were averaging 68.7 ppg. McClain was the SCOL’s stingiest defensive team. They were allowing just 50.1 ppg.
On Jan. 14, Washington finally overcame their dreadful free-throw shooting when they canned 9 of 10 against Circleville. The result? The Blue Lions lost by 35 points. Circleville’s superior height helped them take a huge rebounding advantage over the Lions. This resulted in many second and third-chance baskets by the visitors. Led by Luke McConnell’s 27 points, the red and black took an 86-51 victory.
McClain visited Miami Trace, where the defense-oriented Tigers got caught up in MT’s run-and-gun game and tried to beat the Panthers at their own game. They failed. McClain liked to control the tempo of the game. Miami Trace controlled the tempo of this one and won, 59-54.
In Ashville, visiting Hillsboro fell 10 points short against Teays Valley. The Vikings, led by 28 points from Doug Hoover, thumped the Indians, 77-67. Hoover was unheralded, but he was an excellent basketball player.
Wilmington traveled to Madison-Plains, where junior Bill Ward of the Hurricane chalked up 31 points, the high of his career, and the Hurricane won the game by a 72-65 count. So, after eight league games, Circleville and Wilmington, tied at 7-1, led third-place McClain (5-3) by two games.
Hillsboro, in fourth, was only (4-4), and everyone else was far behind the leaders.
Hot Miami Trace took on the East Clinton Astros on Jan. 18 and quickly jumped out to a 31-15 lead by the middle of the second quarter. But the young Panthers were not able to close the game out. East Clinton came back and took control of the non-league game. The Astros eventually took a tough 67-66 decision over the Panthers. This was a costly defeat for Trace, who had been on a hot streak and blew a game they should have won on their home court.
On Jan. 21, 1983, a heavy snow blanketed the entire area and forced the cancellation of the Miami Trace at Hillsboro game, as well as the Wilmington at McClain and the Madison-Plains at Washington games. Circleville did make the very short trip to Teays Valley and defeated the Vikings, 61-48.
The MT at Hillsboro game was rescheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 25. After looking futile for more than half of the East Clinton game, the Panthers totally outclassed the Indians and went home with a 102-71 blowout win. All of the Panthers played well, while Hillsboro looked very tentative. Miami Trace was now confident and had taken four consecutive SCOL wins. But on Friday night, Jan. 28, they would face the tall and talented Circleville
Tigers. The Tigers were ranked ninth in the state in the Associated Press AA state rankings.
After a heart-throbbing 32 minutes of exhausting basketball, the red-hot Panthers edged Circleville, 56-55. MT senior Tim Lindsey, who had played well in three of the last four games, racked up 22 points shooting 75% from the field and 80% from the free-throw line and also grabbed nine rebounds. His play was the key to the upset win.
In Wilmington, the same night, the Hurricane took a 75-65 win over Hillsboro. The Indians, still reeling from the 102-71 shellacking by Trace, were behind by 17 points at the third quarter before staging a mild comeback against the Hurricane second-stringers in the fourth stanza.
McClain had a tussle with Madison-Plains before taking a lackluster 59-51 win over the Golden Eagles behind 27 points by Rob Munyan and 14 by Gary Purdin. Craig Wright’s 14 led the Eagles. And, in Ashville, the Washington Blue Lions hung in there with Teays Valley until midway through the final quarter, then fell apart and lost, 41-37.
(Continued next week.)
Bob Patton is a Highland County sports historian and a columnist for The Highland County Press.[[In-content Ad]]
The SCOL teams got back into league action Jan. 7, 1983, when Washington visited Hillsboro. After a torrid battle, the Indians captured a 76-75 overtime win from the Blue Lions. Vince Johnson led the Indians’ scoring with 33 points, while Tim Redman chalked up 32 for the blue and white. This was not a defensive struggle.
Miami Trace notched a home win the same night when they edged Madison-Plains, 69-63. This broke a 19-game SCOL losing streak by the Panthers and also a 12-game losing streak on their home court. Elsewhere, McClain downed Teays Valley, 58-45, when the Vikings hit only 17 of 62 field goal attempts for a paltry 27 percent (the girls junior high team shot better than that).
Circleville bounced Wilmington by 23 points Jan. 11 at Circleville. This win guaranteed that there would be no gold basketball this season, as all the teams had suffered at least one league loss. The final score was Circleville 64, Wilmington 41. The Tigers held Greg Nared to nine points, while Luke McConnell collected 22.
This threw the race into a three-way tie, as McClain, Circleville and Wilmington now all stood at 5-1.
Coach Dick Heath was suspended for one game by the Washington school administration, for his actions during and after the Blue Lions’ one-point overtime loss to Hillsboro. Assistant coach John Denen was at the helm when the Lions met Greeneview the next night at Jamestown. Greeneview won the game, 64-54.
Also on the 11th, Miami Trace downed Teays Valley, 88-63. The Panthers were beginning to put it all together. This was their second straight league win. They were playing about ten people and were getting very good balance in their scoring.
At WCH, Wilmington enjoyed a comfortable 51-37 lead over the Blue Lions midway through the third quarter, when the Lions caught fire and came roaring back behind Tim Redman and Jeff Shaw. The Hurricane was lucky to hold on and take a 61-60 win. Redman scored 21 points and played a great floor game, while Shaw totaled 18 points to go with 11 rebounds. Wilmington had shown an inability to put teams away when they had comfortable leads. They were led by junior Bill Ward, who racked up 23 points. The Blue Lions hit only 6 of 17 free throws and lost the game by one point.
In Greenfield, turnovers in key fourth-quarter possessions cost the McClain Tigers dearly, as the visiting Circleville Tigers overcame a three-point deficit and edged the purple and gold, 49-46. Hillsboro played at Madison-Plains, and came away with a 73-71 win.
The Circleville win over McClain did away with the three- way tie for the league lead. Circleville and Wilmington now shared the top rung with 6-1 marks, while McClain (5-2) dropped to third place, followed by the (4-3) Hillsboro Indians. Madison-Plains, WCH and Miami Trace were all tied with 2-5 SCOL marks, while Teays Valley clung to eighth place with a 1-6 league record.
At the halfway point of the league race, McClain’s Rob Munyan was leading the individual scoring race with 144 points in 7seven SCOL games for a 20.6 ppg. average. He was followed by Tim Redman of WCH, who trailed Munyan by only 12 points. His average was 18.9 ppg. The next three individual scorers were Luke McConnell of Circleville (17.9), Doug Hoover of Teays Valley (17.1) and Greg Nared of Wilmington (17.0). Munyan also led in the overall individual scoring race with 233 points in 11 games for an average of 21.2.
At the midway point in the season, Circleville was the top offensive team in the loop. The Tigers were averaging 68.7 ppg. McClain was the SCOL’s stingiest defensive team. They were allowing just 50.1 ppg.
On Jan. 14, Washington finally overcame their dreadful free-throw shooting when they canned 9 of 10 against Circleville. The result? The Blue Lions lost by 35 points. Circleville’s superior height helped them take a huge rebounding advantage over the Lions. This resulted in many second and third-chance baskets by the visitors. Led by Luke McConnell’s 27 points, the red and black took an 86-51 victory.
McClain visited Miami Trace, where the defense-oriented Tigers got caught up in MT’s run-and-gun game and tried to beat the Panthers at their own game. They failed. McClain liked to control the tempo of the game. Miami Trace controlled the tempo of this one and won, 59-54.
In Ashville, visiting Hillsboro fell 10 points short against Teays Valley. The Vikings, led by 28 points from Doug Hoover, thumped the Indians, 77-67. Hoover was unheralded, but he was an excellent basketball player.
Wilmington traveled to Madison-Plains, where junior Bill Ward of the Hurricane chalked up 31 points, the high of his career, and the Hurricane won the game by a 72-65 count. So, after eight league games, Circleville and Wilmington, tied at 7-1, led third-place McClain (5-3) by two games.
Hillsboro, in fourth, was only (4-4), and everyone else was far behind the leaders.
Hot Miami Trace took on the East Clinton Astros on Jan. 18 and quickly jumped out to a 31-15 lead by the middle of the second quarter. But the young Panthers were not able to close the game out. East Clinton came back and took control of the non-league game. The Astros eventually took a tough 67-66 decision over the Panthers. This was a costly defeat for Trace, who had been on a hot streak and blew a game they should have won on their home court.
On Jan. 21, 1983, a heavy snow blanketed the entire area and forced the cancellation of the Miami Trace at Hillsboro game, as well as the Wilmington at McClain and the Madison-Plains at Washington games. Circleville did make the very short trip to Teays Valley and defeated the Vikings, 61-48.
The MT at Hillsboro game was rescheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 25. After looking futile for more than half of the East Clinton game, the Panthers totally outclassed the Indians and went home with a 102-71 blowout win. All of the Panthers played well, while Hillsboro looked very tentative. Miami Trace was now confident and had taken four consecutive SCOL wins. But on Friday night, Jan. 28, they would face the tall and talented Circleville
Tigers. The Tigers were ranked ninth in the state in the Associated Press AA state rankings.
After a heart-throbbing 32 minutes of exhausting basketball, the red-hot Panthers edged Circleville, 56-55. MT senior Tim Lindsey, who had played well in three of the last four games, racked up 22 points shooting 75% from the field and 80% from the free-throw line and also grabbed nine rebounds. His play was the key to the upset win.
In Wilmington, the same night, the Hurricane took a 75-65 win over Hillsboro. The Indians, still reeling from the 102-71 shellacking by Trace, were behind by 17 points at the third quarter before staging a mild comeback against the Hurricane second-stringers in the fourth stanza.
McClain had a tussle with Madison-Plains before taking a lackluster 59-51 win over the Golden Eagles behind 27 points by Rob Munyan and 14 by Gary Purdin. Craig Wright’s 14 led the Eagles. And, in Ashville, the Washington Blue Lions hung in there with Teays Valley until midway through the final quarter, then fell apart and lost, 41-37.
(Continued next week.)
Bob Patton is a Highland County sports historian and a columnist for The Highland County Press.[[In-content Ad]]