North Adams’ Cody Hesler goes up for two of his six first-quarter points as the Green Devils routed Fayetteville in the SHAC Boys Preview on November 24. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
“For real” begins Friday night
Manchester’s Braylan Roberts looks for a path to the bucket as the Greyhounds battled Peebles in last Friday’s SHAC Boys Preview. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
Peebles’ Bradley Shoemaker get the “hoop and the harm” in the second period of the Indians’ match up with Manchester at the 2023-24 SHAC Boys Preview. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
Driving and elevating on the baseline is West Union senior Isaac Harding as the Dragons faced Ripley in the SHAC Boys Preview. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
Peebles High School was the place to be on Friday, November 24 for the annual Southern Hills Athletic Conference Boys Basketball Preview as the 10 boys teams in the conference got their opportunity to display their skills for a half of basketball. With fans still nursing their turkey hangovers, action on the hardwood took center stage with the regular season lurking just a few days away.
The initial match up of the night saw two coaches in their first seasons with varsity boys facing off, Roy Cooper with the West Union Dragons and Chris Coleman with the Ripley Blue Jays. As most local fans are aware, Coleman is no stranger in the SHAC ranks, coming off a long stint as the coach of the Ripley varsity girls.
Friday night’s half of hoops showed two teams capable of putting points on the board, but struggling defensively, but in a preview that’s par for the course. The Jays got a solid offensive half from sophomore Blake Fyffe as his seven first quarter points propelled Ripley to a 15-10 advantage. The Dragons stayed close in the opening frame with two buckets from senior Isaac Harding and a three-ball from sophomore Billy Flaugher.
In the second period, the West Union offense got a big lift from junior Trae Grooms, who racked up 10 in the fast-paced eight minutes. The Dragons rallied to tie the score late but a Fyfffe basket put Ripley back on top. West Union had the last possession of the half but a contested three by Grooms was off the mark and the Jays took the half 30-28.
“We’ve got a good group of boys, they work hard and we’re going to get better as we go,” said Coach Cooper in his postgame radio spot. “We’re going to try and play up tempo and see how things roll as they adjust to my style. I want to see us play a little better defense and not force so many shots on offense. We’re going to get pressed a lot but I think we can handle it as a group. We have some kids with varsity experience.”
Scoring:
Ripley (30)- T. Fyffe 2, Bartley 2, Kirk 2, French 2, Boone 2, B. Fyffe 14, Rigdon 2, Manning 4
W. Union (28)- Harding 4, Grooms 11, Jarvis 5, Flaugher 8
The next two Adams County squads to take the court did so as opponents with the Manchester Greyhounds battling the host Peebles Indians. Both teams were chosen in the preseason coaches poll to finish third in their respective divisions of the conference, but both certainly with higher expectations than that.
Both coaches, Austin Kingsolver from Manchester and Josh Arey from Peebles, kept things pretty plain and vanilla, which likely explained the 29 combined points in the half. Both teams substituted freely throughout and neither side had a player tally more than five points.
The Greyhounds used five points from sophomore guard Elijah Crabtree to lead 9-6 after the first quarter. The Indians bounced back in the second stanza, getting two scores from Carson Reed and a three-point play from Bradley Shoemaker to eke out a 15-14 win.
“A lot of our kids are young and it was good to get them out here in front of a full crowd,” said Coach Kingsolver in his C103 interview. “Peebles is young and kind of in the same boat that we are but you know by the end of the year, they’ll be pretty good. As for our team, we still have a lot of work to do, take care of the basketball better, turn up the intensity on defense, but we have had a really good preseason thus far. I’d like to think that by February we’ll be at our best.”
“I really like our kids this year, though we weren’t very good tonight. Most of it was probably nerves, being in front of a big crowd for the first time this year,” Coach Arey told C103. “We’ve had some solid scrimmages and we really need to grow some depth and I like how we’ve been shooting the ball and I think we will continue to get better. We’ll be sprinting hard in both directions and hustling all the way.”
Scoring:
Peebles (15)- Shiveley 3, Knechtly 2, Reed 5, Oldfield 2, Shoemaker 3
Manchester (14)- Hayslip 4, Roberts 3, Darnell 2, Crabtree 5
In the coaches poll, Coach Nathan Copas and his North Adams Green Devils, fresh off a regional tourney appearance last season, were picked to win this year’s big school division of the SHAC, and as Dick Enberg might say”My oh my” did they put on a show Friday night. Matched up with Fayetteville, the coach’s pick in the small school division, the Devils dominated from start to finish, jumping out to an 11-0 lead that began with a Breestin Schweickart three-pointer and included layup after layup as the Devils raced away in transition.
With Schweickart scoring 9 and Cody Hesler and Bransyn Copas adding 6 each, North Adams held a commanding 25-8 lead after the first quarter. Coach Copas emptied his bench often in the second period, getting single baskets from Connor Young, Konnor Rogers and Carson Osborne to run away with a 36-15 half.
“We’re still in the process of learning who we need to be and being consistent enough to be successful night in and night out,” said Coach Copas in his radio spot. “The faster we get there the better. We can be a team that’s really fun to watch but every night someone will be there trying to knock you off your pedestal. We have to be hungry and hopefully we have the right kind of group for that. We have to get better at defensive rebounding with our size, be physical and body up, but there are always little things we can do to get better in the long run.”
Scoring:
Fayetteville (15)- South 2, Craycraft 3, Hendrix 3, Coffman 3, Bradshaw 4
N. Adams (36)- Rothwell 4, Hesler 6, Young 2, Copas 6, Rogers 2, Osborne 2, Schweickart 13
All four county boys teams open their regular season this Friday night (November 1), two of them facing each other as North Adams will travel to West Union in conference action. Manchester will also open SHAC action, hosting Fairfield, while Peebles will be in non-conference play at East Clinton.
North Adams and Manchester will both also be back in action on Saturday night, both non-conference. The Devils will travel to Fairland while the Greyhounds will host Portsmouth Clay in a girls-boys doubleheader.
