By Mark Carpenter-
The man in the brown suit picked up his first high school coaching victory in 1926. The man in the green shirt got his on Nov. 30, 2018. In his debut outing as the head varsity coach of the West Union Dragons, Austin Kingsolver came out on the winning end as his Dragons posted a win in their season opener over the visiting Manchester Greyhounds by a final score of 59-39. The game was also the conference opener for both teams.
The Greyhounds were also seeing a coach make his varsity head coaching debut in first-year man Greg Scott, but on Friday night it was the Dragons who took early control of the game and though they slipped the pedal off of the gas in the second half, they still were able to post the 20-point triumph.
The Hounds are a young squad and perhaps the jitters of Opening Night got to them as they watched the Dragons race to a big first quarter advantage. Getting a pair of Bowan Tomlin three-pointers and another trey from Zane Kingsolver, the home team put up the game’s first 18 points, all in the first four minutes of play. The first Manchester points came at the 4:02 mark of the first quarter, a three-point goal by Kyle Reaves. Another Tomlin three left the Dragons on top 23-5 after the first eight minutes of action.
“I’m extremely happy with the way we came out in the first quarter on an 18-0 run to get that early lead,” said Coach Kingsolver. “I preached all week about rebounding and how that will help our transition game and we will be very successful if we rebound the way we did tonight. Our starters came out with so much intensity that it carried over to everyone else on the floor when they got in the game.”
The Dragons didn’t let up as the second stanza kicked off, getting two buckets from Clayton Madden and another from Kingsolver to stretch the margin to 29-5. The Hounds got baskets from Carl Ricketts and freshman Ryland Wikoff but they couldn’t slow down the high-octane West Union offense as a 6-0 Dragon run keyed by a Conner Campbell steal and score pushed the lead out to 40-11. Manchester got the final five points of the first half on a three-point play by Isaiah Redmon and a bucket by Reaves and at the intermission the Dragons looked to be in firm control, leading 40-16.
Kudos to the young Greyhounds who came out with a renewed vigor and although they never overcame the big halftime deficit, they outscored West Union by four points in the second half as the home team seemed to lose the intensity they had begun the game with. In the third period, which only saw the Dragons put up eight points, the Greyhounds went on a 9-2 run capped by a Redmon trey and the West Union lead was at 48-29 as the game moved into the fourth quarter.
Both teams scored on their first possessions of the fourth quarter, West Union getting a pair of Cameron Campbell free throws and the Hounds getting a putback from Wikoff. From that point on, the two teams swapped scores with the Dragons sinking nine free throws over the final eight minutes and the Hounds getting an old-fashioned three-point play from senior big man Jacob Calvert. The final points of the night went to the Dragons on a pair from the stripe from Tanner Neal and the final horn sounded on a 20-point win for West Union to open their 2018-19 season.
“I think we got a little too comfortable with the lead we had,” said Coach Kingsolver. “Hats off to Manchester.They never quit no matter the score. We tried to work on some things and slow it down a little more than usual late in the third and fourth quarters.”
“Overall I’m very happy with the intensity and energy levels we played with for the majority of the night.”
Tomlin led the winners with 16 points, 12 of those coming in his explosive first quarter. Two more Dragons hit double figures, Kingsolver with 11 and Conner Campbell with 10, while Madden chipped in with 8.
Manchester was paced by 15 points from Redmon, with Reaves tossing in 9.
The Greyhounds were right back in action on Saturday night, getting their first win of the season, 37-35 over the visiting Felicity Cardinals and then were set to make the long trek to Fairfield on Friday, Dec. 7 to fight the Lions in Southern Hills Athletic Conference play. The Dragons returned to action on Tuesday, Dec. 4, hosting Piketon in non-conference action, and will have a busy weekend, hosting Fayetteville on Friday night and then traveling to Rio Grande on Saturday night for a 7:30 p.m. match up with Dayton Northridge.
Manchester
5 11 13 10 —39
West Union
23 17 8 11 —59
Manchester (39): Wikoff 2 0-0 4, Colvin 2 0-1 4, Redmon 5 4-5 15, Reaves 4 0-0 9, Ricketts 1 0-0 2, Scott 1 0-0 2, Calvert 1 1-1 3, Team 16 5-7 39,
W. Union (59): Rothwell 1 2-4 4, Cameron Campbell 0 2-2 2, Staten 0 4-6 4, Lamphier 1 0-0 2, Neal 0 2-2 2, Madden 4 0-0 8, Tomlin 5 3-3 16, Conner Campbell 4 2-4 10, Kingsolver 5 0-0 11, Team 20 15-21 59.
Three-Point Goals:
Manchester (2)- Redmon 1, Reaves 1
W. Union (4)- Tomlin 3, Kingsolver 1
