By Mark Carpenter-
For the 36th consecutive year, the local basketball season concluded last Friday night as local radio outlet C-103 again hosted their annual Senior All Star Game, giving the senior hoopsters of the Southern Hills Athletic Conference one more “shining moment” before fans, friends, and family. The evening was hosted by West Union High School with the usual capacity crowd, and activities organized by the hard-working staff of the radio station.
The evening began with the SHAC Girls All Star Game, with the White Team coached by Peebles’ Billie Jo Justice and Lynchburg’s Whitney Lewis, and the Red Team headed up by Eastern Brown’s Kevin Pickerill and Manchester’s Shawn Palmer.
The girls contest was a close one throughout the first half, with the Red team up 18-11 after one quarter, led by three-point goals from Ripley’s Carlee Daulton, West Union’s Harley Silvia, and Eastern Brown’s Alexa Pennington. In the second stanza, it was the White Team that moved downtown, getting triples from Ripley’s Kailey Kirk and West Union’s Mckenzie Bickett and McKenzie Kirker. At the half, the Red Team held a 27-24 advantage.
After another outstanding performance by the West Union Winter Percussion Group at halftime, the girls action continued and in the third quarter the Red squad nailed four treys, two by Pennington, another from Silvia, and one from West Union’s Jaycee Baldwin to pull away and lead 49-36 after three, but a certain SHAC Player of the Year was not going to let that lead balloon too much more.
In the final period, Lynchburg’s Peyton Scott took control, scoring 14 points to lead her team in a furious comeback that eventually fell short as the Red team held on to post a 63-55 victory.
Scott’s 24 points led all scorers with the White Team also getting 12 points from North Adams’ Grace McDowell. The winning Red Team did not have a girl in double figures, but a balanced scoring attack led by 9 points each from Pennington and Fairfield’s Brianna Barnes, and 8 from Eastern Brown’s Morgan Reynolds.
Between the two contests came the Hot Shot/Three Point Contest, modeled after the annual event at the NBA All Star Game. Six girls and six boys matched up behind the three-point line with three racks of basketballs and 45 seconds to empty them. The girls’ competitors were Pennington, Fayetteville’s Cecilia Murphy, Daulton, Bickett, Reynolds, and Scott. To no one’s surprise, with a score of 17, Lynchburg’s Scott was the girls winner.
For the boys, the competitors were North Adams’ Elijah Young, Fayetteville’s C.J.McCulley, Lynchburg’s Tyler Stevens, West Union’s Clayton Madden and Bowan Tomlin, and Ripley’s Landon Rigdon. Young and Rigdon tied after the first round with Young winning a shoot-off to take the boys’ title. In the traditional girls-boys shootout, Scott downed Young 14-9.
After an auction of a pair of autographed basketballs and an autographed megaphone by the senior cheerleaders, it was time for the boys teams to take the court in a battle that featured a lot of offense and not a whole lot of defensive efforts. The Red Team was coached by Eastern Brown’s Rob Beucler and Peebles’ Josh Arey while the White Team was guided by Ripley’s Rex Woodward and Fairfield’s Josh Howland.
The White Team led 22-15 after one quarter and 42-35 at the intermission, but the game made a total turnaround in the final 16 minutes of action.
Before that happened though came what perhaps is the most important part of the whole evening, the awarding of the C-103 Scholarships. Ten senior student athletes from the SHAC receive $1,000 scholarships and this year’s recipients were: Jenny Seas (Peebles), Brandtson Duffie (Fairfield), Peyton Scott (Lynchburg), Traeten Hamilton (Whiteoak), Kaiti White (Fairfield), Jaki Royal (Ripley), Kylie Sims (Peebles), Conner Campbell (West Union), Cecilia Murphy (Fayetteville), and Sam Buddelmeyer (Fairfield).
Also before play resumed, the popular Slam Dunk Contest took place and this year’s winner was Fayetteville’s Bowen Doane, clinching the trophy when he bounced the ball off of the wall behind the basket and then slammed it home.
When the boys action resumed, the Red Team went crazy, firing in 70 points in the final two quarters, a total that included three-pointers from nearly every spot on the court, led by six long bombs from Ripley’s Rigdon and three by Eastern’s Gage Boone. The shell-shocked White Team never recovered as the Red squad rolled to a 105-66 victory.
The winners placed five players in double figures, led by 18 points apiece from Ripley teammates Rigdon and Landon Dearing, with Boone adding 16, Buddelmeyer 15, and West Union’s Ryan Rothwell 12.
The White Team had a trio of players reach double figures- 13 from Lynchburg’s Stevens, 11 from Ripley’s Corey Germann, and 10 from Eastern Brown’s Marcus Hamilton.
“It’s always a lot of fun,” Peebles head coach Josh Arey told the Ledger-Independent after the game. “You get to spend time around kids that you never get to see. Coach Beucler and I had them in the gym Sunday and they worked extremely hard. It’s fun for them because they spend four years competing against each other and to be able to come inhere and work together-you can tell they had a good time. We had a real good time in the second half.”
All of the proceeds from the evening will be put towards to scholarships awarded at the 2020 All Star Game.
GIRLS BOX SCORE
White (55): McDowell 12, Kirk 3, Bickett 6, Scott 27, Kirker 3, Murphy 4
Red (62): Smith 3, White 4, Daulton 7, Reynolds 8, Barnes 9, Baldwin 3, Malott 4, King 7, Silvia 6, Pennington 9
Three-Point Goals:
White (9)- McDowell 2, Kirk 1, Bickett 2, Scott 3, Kirker 1
Red (8)- Smith 1, Daulton 1, Baldwin 1, Silvia 2, Pennington 3
BOYS BOX SCORE
White (66): King 8, Rand 2, Doane 6, Young 8, Madden 5, Stevens 13, Germann 11, Hamilton 10, Setty 3
Red (105): Dearing 18, Boone 16, C. Rothwell 8, Campbell 3, R. Rothwell 12, McCulley 5, Carr 6, Calvert 4, Buddelmeyer 15, Rigdon 18
Three-Point Goals:
White (11)- Young 2, Madden 1, Stevens 3, Germann 3, Hamilton 2
Red (19)- Dearing 2, Boone 4, C. Rothwell 1, Campbell 1, R. Rothwell 2, McCulley 1, Buddelmeyer 1, Rigdon 6
