West Union head coach Adam Barr will be happy if his defense stays this tight all season as senior guard Tegan Knox is in the face of his Whiteoak opponent during last Friday’s SHAC Boys Preview. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
Manchester’s Elijah Crabtree and Braylon Rickett collapse around a Ripley shooter in action from the November 21 SHAC Boys Preview. (Photo by Andy Baucom)
Peebles’ Paxton Ryan fires up one of his four successful three-pointers as he scored 14 points in the two quarters of the Indians battling North Adams in the SHAC Preview. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
Peebles’ senior guard Colyn Sims (5) pushed the ball up the floor with North Adams defenders in pursuit as the two teams faced off in the November 21 SHAC Preview. (Photo by Shaelin Trantow)
By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
The excitement and anticipation for the 2025-26 high school basketball seasons was on full display last Friday night at Peebles High School as the ten boys teams from the Southern Hills Athletic Conference gathered to participate in the annual Boys Preview. Five match ups consisting of two quarters each were highlighted by a much anticipated county pairing that turned out to be far more one-sided than anyone in attendance thought it would be.
The evening began with a match up of the West Union Dragons, under second-year head coach Adam Barr, facing off with the Whiteoak Wildcats. The half of action began well for the Dragons but ended in a rather destructive fashion. After Whiteoak’s Christopher Wessner began the scoring with a three-point goal, the Dragons battled back with a bucket by Tegan Knox, a steal and score from Andrew Daley and a three-point play by Logan Caldwell to grab a 7-5 advantage.
Another basket by Billy Flaugher put West Union up 9-5 with three minutes left in the first quarter, but that turned out to be the high point of the night for the Dragons as the proceeded to go scoreless over the final 11 minutes of action, 0-8 from the field in the second period. Whiteoak closed the first quarter on a 7-0 run and then scored all 15 points of the second frame to leave the Cats on the top end of the scoreboard 27-9.
“Tonight didn’t go how we wanted it to go, we really struggled to get in our offense,” said Coach Barr in his postgame radio interview. “I have high hopes for our season, it’s a good group of kids. We just have a lot of work to do in a short period of time. If we bring the energy that we had in the first quarter tonight, I think we can compete with a lot of teams.”
West Union Scoring: Knox 2, Daley 2, Caldwell 3, Flaugher 2
Whiteoak Scoring: Igo 3. Dickey 2, Blair 5, Wessner 11, Brandenburg 4, Hart 2
Next up were Coach Austin Kingsolver and the Manchester Greyhounds with an experienced roster that many expect to have a great deal of offensive firepower in the upcoming season, they just didn’t have it on Friday night in a rather lackluster preview performance. Manchester faced off with the Ripley Blue Jays and to say the least, struggled for 16 minutes. Much like West Union in the opener, the Greyhounds stayed close in the first quarter only to see the proverbial ‘lid” on the basket appear.
An offensive rebound and score from Elijah Crabtree gave the Hounds the early 2-0 lead, but Ripley jumped in front on a three-pointer from Blake Fyffe. Manchester got a Braylon Rickett free throw and a steal and score from Parker Hayslip to lead 5-3 and a later three-ball from Luke Applegate but hat was the last advantage that the Greyhounds would hold as the Jays finished the first quarter on a 5-0 run to go up 10-8 and then extended that run into the second quarter to 13-0 after a Fyfffe three-point play. The Manchester offense could only muster single basket in the second period, a baseline jumper by Landen Doyle at the 3:!6 mark. Ripley got another Fyffe trey late and ended the half with a 23-10 advantage in a half where the Greyhounds hist jut 4 of 24 shots from the field.
“We were here and we played, that’s about it,” said Coach Kingsolver in his C103 interview. “We sure didn’t do our best tonight but luckily it was just a preview. We didn’t look tonight like we have over the last couple of weeks in practice and scrimmages. Our kids play hard and we can be physical when we need to be and we have quite a few kids who can get playing time.”
Manchester Scoring: Hayslip 2, Doyle 2, Rickett 1, Applegate 3, Crabtree 2
Ripley Scoring: Picolo 2. Fyffe 13, Williams 4, Lacy 2, Benjamin 2
In the third match up of the evening, it was Fayetteville defeating Lynchburg 30-21 and that set the stage for the next pairing as the gymnasium at Peebles was filled to the rafters as the host Indians battled the North Adams Green Devils. It doesn’t matter whether it’s in the summer or winter or a pick up game on the outdoor courts in the county, it is always a rivalry when these two teams face each other. The last time the two teams met was last spring in the district tournament at the Convo, with North Adams taking a 65-45 win on their way to the Elite Eight.
Though Friday night was only a two-quarter preview, both teams were looking to make an early statement and gain just a few bragging rights before their only regular season meeting on December 9 in Peebles. As it turned out, it was the host squad putting on a long distance shooting exhibition and further fueling their season expectations as they dominated the Green Devils from start to finish.
The Peebles five definitely made an early statement as they scored the half’s first 10 points, getting three-pointers from Paxton Ryan and Connor Gross. North Adams got on the board at the 2:15 mark of the first quarter with a basket by Thaddeus Moore but the Indians answered from long range, getting three-balls from Josh McClary and Bo Johnson to go up 16-2. After a three-pointer from the Devils’ Caleb Brown, Ryan hit again from long range and a fired up Indians squad led 19-5 after one.
The Peebles onslaught continued into the second stanza as another Gross triple made it 24-5. After a bucket by North Adams’ Colin Tolle, Ryan dialed long distance again followed by a Colyn Sims steal and score and the Tribe was up 29-7. Fittingly the final Peebles points of the preview half came on the fourth three-pointer of the game for Ryan as Peebles coasted to a 34-11 victory.
“Early on we still have some things to work on and hopefully by the time the regular season begins, we’be ready,” Peebles head coach Josh Arey explained in his postgame radio spot. “We just wanted our kids to come out tonight with some good energy and I though we did that, We feel comfortable going about nine deep and we’re excited about where we’re at and where we can go.”
“Peebles is going to be a handful especially if they shoot it like they did tonight,” said North Adams head coach Austin McCormick in his radio interview. “Hopefully tonight was a wake-up call for our guys because we see Peebles again real soon. We have to go back and continue to work in practice and get ready for the season ahead. I didn’t think we were terrible defensively tonight they just shot the ball really well. Our kids are working hard and their chemistry is really good and it’s still early and we will work to get where we need to be.”
North Adams Scoring- Brown 3, Moore 4, Tolle 2, Davis 2
Peebles Scoring- Sims 2, Gross 6, Johnson 5, Ryan 14, Stephens 2, McClary 3, Smart 2
The final match up of the night featured the two teams that the coaches picked to be SHAC champions this season and it was the Eastern Brown Warriors topping the Fairfield Lions 32-15.
The first county boys team to see regular season action will be the Manchester Greyhounds, who will host Portsmouth Clay this Saturday, November 29, North Adams opens on Tuesday, December 2 on the road at Hillsboro and then will be at West Union on Friday, December 5 for the Dragons’ opener. Peebles will open at home on December, hosting Manchester.
