Peebles’ Gage Grooms goes to the rim in action from the Indians’ season-opening win over St. Patrick on November 29. Grooms scored 13 points in the win. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
Trio in double figures leads Peebles over St. Pat
High -flying Christopher Oldfield turned this lob into a Peebles basket in the third quarter of the Indians’ 72-20 win over St. Patrick. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
Peebles guard Hayden Browning hustles the ball into the front court during the Indians- win over visiting St. Patrick on November 29. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
Peebles’ Hayden Countryman hauls in a rebound between a pair of St. Patrick opponents as the Indians opened their season with a convincing 72-20 victory. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
The Saints may have come marching into Peebles High School on Tuesday night, but that most definitely was the end of their marching. A November 29 match up with the St. Patrick Saints was the 2022-23 season opener for Coach Josh Arey and his Peebles Indians boys varsity basketball squad and they hardly broke a sweat in handling their out-of-state guests. Scoring the game’s first 10 points, then an 18-0 run, plus a trio of players in double figures all added up to the Indians winning in a rout, 72-20.
From the outset, it was obvious that Tuesday night’s contest was bound to be lopsided. Three baskets by Mason Sims, another by Cory Reed, and one from Gage Grooms and within the first two minutes the Tribe held a 10-0 advantage. After the visiting Saints got on the board with a basket from Gus Rechtin, the Indians got a three from the corner from Reed and a later steal and score by Hayden Browning put the home team up 18-4.
St. Pat’s Amari Myrick scored to make it 18-6, but it would be over seven minutes before the Saints changed the numbers on their side of the scoreboard. In the meantime, the Peebles offense kicked into high gear, aided also by a large number of turnovers that gave them a number of easy buckets. A three-pointer at the buzzer by Browning made it 23-6 after one quarter and the Indians proceeded to rack up the first 13 points of the second stanza.
That onslaught began with a three-ball from the top of the key by Grooms and included four points from Christopher Oldfield, a bucket from Zane Knechtly and another Reed three-point goal that left the Indians firmly in control with a huge 36-6 lead.
The Saints finally hit double digits on the scoreboard with back-to-back three-pointers from Garrett Tesmer but the Tribe responded to that by ending the first half on a 14-0 run, closing out the first half with a pair of three-point baskets from the red-hot Grooms. At the half, the Peebles lead had expanded out to 52-12.
With the huge score disparity, the OHSAA running clock rule went into effect for the entire second half. but that barely slowed down the Peebles scoring. On their first possession of the third period, the Indians got a putback score by Sims, then followed that up with three-point baskets on their next two possessions, one by Carson Reed and one by Sims. A later turnaround bank shot in the lane by Knechtly made it 62-12 before the Saints finally broke their third quarter ice with a basket by Abisai Ignacio. The Indians ended the third quarter with two baskets from Oldfield, the first of those being highlight reel material as the junior forward elevated high off the baseline to grab a lob and bank it in off the glass. The Indians led 66-14 after three.
For Coach Arey, the opener was an opportunity to get all of his players on the floor and get those first-game jitters out of the way before conference plays opens. The final eight minutes with the clock on the move went by rapidly, with the Saints getting two more three-pointers from Tesmer and the Indians getting individual scores off the bench from Hayden Crum, Garrett Shiveley and Jayce West. All that added up to a convincing 52-point victory in their season opener for the home sie.
All of the Indians saw playing time in the victory and 11 different players made it into the scoring column, led by 13 points apiece from Gage Grooms and Cory Reed. Mason Sims also hot double figures with 11 while Christopher Oldfield was right there with 9.
Garrett Tesmer led St. Patrick with 12, all from beyond the three-point arc.
Things will get a bit tougher for the Indians in their second outing of the season as they will open Southern Hills Athletic Conference play on Friday, December 2 with a trip to Whiteoak in a match up of two of the top teams in the small-school division. That game can be viewed live at www.goodguysradiotv.com.
INDIANS 72 SAINTS 20
St. Patrick
6 6 2 6 —20
Peebles
23 29 14 6 —72
St. Patrick (20: Tesmer 4 0-0 12, Ignacio 2 0-3 4, Myrick 1 0-0 2, Rechtin 1 0-0 2, Team 8 0-3 20.
Peebles (72): Carson Reed 1 2-2 5, Sims 5 0-0 11, Wilkinson 1 0-0 2, Oldfield 3 3-4 9, Grooms 5 0-0 13, Crum 2 0-0 4, Cory Reed 5 1-2 13, Browning 2 0-0 5, Shiveley 1 0-0 2, West 1 0-0 2, Knechtly 3 0-0 6, Team 28 6-8 72.
Three-Point Goals:
St. Patrick (4)- Tesmer 4
Peebles (7)- Carson Reed 1, Sims 1, Grooms 3, Cory Reed 2
