This is what high school basketball in Adams County is all about. A tuesday night rivalry game before a packed house on both sides as North Adams and Peebles face off for the only time in the 2025-26 regular season.(Photo by Mark Carpenter)
Peebles opens season with three double digit wins
In his first taste of the North Adams-Peebles rivalry, Peebles freshman Keegan Puckett, right, scored 15 points to help lead the Tribe to a 60-40 triumph. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
North Adams sophomore Carson Davis gets off a contested shot attempt in the Green Devils’ loss at Peebles on December 9. Davis tallied 13 points for the game. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
If you were in the Peebles High School gymnasium on December 9, you saw the epitome of what boys high school basketball is in Adams County. An overflow crowd representing both schools, two very spirited student sections and two rival teams that have both dislike and respect for each other. That was the scene as the North Adams Green Devils and the Peebles Indians faced off last week, renewing a long-standing rivalry for what unfortunately will be the only time the two teams will meet in the 2025-26 regular season.
The last time these two teams met in a meaningful contest was last spring at the Ohio University Convo in the division VI district championship game. That meeting was all North Adams as the Devils won by 20 and captured their third consecutive district title. Since that day, Peebles players, coaches and fans have had December 9 circled on their calendars as their opportunity for a little bit of revenge and to make an early statement. Last Tuesday’s game went as expected by those in attendance, at least for a half. Leading by three at the intermission, the Indians took control in the second half, outscoring the Devils 33-16 to ironically, post a 20-point victory, downing the Devils by a final count of 60-40.
“This is a huge rivalry, two schools just nine miles apart and they’ve been extremely good the last few years,” said Peebles head coach Josh Arey in his postgame interview on GoodGuysRadioTV. “It feels good to come out on top tonight.”
“There’s no better young coach than Austin McCormick and his team controlled the pace of the game early and we had tow work to get the pace back in our favor. We were able to get some things going and stretch it out there in the second half. Our defensive pressure is a big part of our game and it worked for us tonight but we still have things to work on and get better.”
The first quarter of last week’s battle was a slower-paced halfcourt game, which actually favors neither team’s style. Peebles took an early 8-3 lead behind baskets from Josh McClary, Bo Johnson and Paxton Ryan, but the visiting Green Devils bounced right back with a 9-0 run to claim the lead. That run was ignited by consecutive three-pointers from Dalton Pence and Jesse Kennedy and gave the guests a 12-8 advantage. A pair of Ryan free throws with 51.8 seconds left in the first left the North Adams lead at two.
To open the second stanza, the Devils got a bucket on their firs possession from Carson Davis and a three-pointer from Kennedy to take a 17-12 lead but the host Tribe went on an 8-0 run over the next 90 seconds to reclaim the advantage on the scoreboard, getting back-to-back three pointers from McClary and Connor Gross to go up 20-17. The Indians got a big boost off the bench from freshman Keegan Puckett and he began his night with two baskets int he second quarter to give his squad a 24-21 lead, only to see a three-ball from Kennedy tie the game with 15 seconds left in the half, but it was the home team taking the lead to the locker room as Ryan nailed a long triple at the buzzer making it 27-24 Peebles.
After the break, the third quarter was much of the same, though the Indians slowly began to put some space between themselves and their guests. The Tribe opened quarter number three with a 6-2 spurt, consecutive scores by Puckett giving them a 31-26 advantage. with 2:08 left in the third, an old-fashioned three-point play from Puckett stretched the Peebles lead to 36-28 and a steal and score from Colyn Sims made it a double digit lead for the home side.
North Adams got a Thaddeus Moore three-point goal and a free throw from Davis to close to within 40-34 with 2.6 seconds left, but the inbounds pass went to Peebles’ Gross, who took a couple of dribbles and banked home a desperation heave from three-quarters of the court away to send the Indians into the final period with a nine-point advantage.
That Gross shot may have taken some air out of the North Adams sails as they could only manage six points in the entire fourth quarter,l two of those coming from Pence on their first possession. After that Pence score, the Indians put the nails in the coffin by going on a big 13-0 run that began with a Sims back door cut that resulted in a three-point play and concluded with a jumper from Bo Johnson and a 56-36 lead for the home team with three minutes to play. North Adams finally stopped the run with a jumper by Moore but another basket from Puckett and a breakaway layup from Ryan made it 60-38. Ryan got a bit too animated in his celebration after the basket and was assessed a technical foul and the final two points of the game came on the ensuing free throws from the Devils’ Caleb Brown.
The victorious Indians were paced by three players in double figures, led by 15 points from 6’4” freshman Keegan Puckett, who also led the team with 8 rebounds. Paxton Ryan added 13 with Bo Johnson tossing in 10.
“We’ve been working Keegan (Puckett) in in practice and we put him out there and he performed well,” said Coach Arey. “He played an outstanding game tonight and he just foes and gets rebounds and he will just keep getting better and better. We have multiple guys who can hurt you every night and that is a blessing.”
North Adams was paced by two in double figures, Jesse Kennedy with 14 and Carson Davis with 13.
The win over North Adams made Peebles 2-0 and they made it three straight double figure wins on Friday, December 12 as they went on the road and handled the Whiteoak Wildcats 71-56.
Not to be overlooked is the Peebles JV team, coached by Michael Walls, who are also 3-0 with double digit wins over Manchester,North Adams and Whiteoak.
Box Score
North Adams
12 12 10 6 —40
Peebles
10 17 16 17 —60
N. Adams (40): Kennedy 5 1-2 14, Eldridge 0 0-2 0, Brown 0 2-2 2, Moore 2 1-2 6, Pence 2 0-0 5, Davis 6 1-4 13, Team 15 5-12 40.
Peebles (60): Sims 2 3-3 7, Gross 3 0-0 8, Johnson 5 0-0 10, Ryan 5 2-2 13, McClary 3 0-0 7, Puckett 7 1-2 15, Team 25 6-7 60.
Three-Point Goals:
N. Adams (4)- Kennedy 3, Pence 1
Peebles (4)- Gross 2, Ryan 1, McClary 1
