THE 2026 COACH YOUNG CLASSIC

By Mark Carpenter

People’s Defender

Portsmouth Clay 49

West Union 35

(Boys)

The first Adams County team to take the court for this year’s Coach Young Classic was the West Union Dragons as they faced off with the 4-9 Portsmouth Clay Panthers. The Dragons were in the midst of an eight-game losing streak coming after their only win of the season on December 12 over Ripley, and were playing their fifth game without the services of injured senior point guard Tegan Knox.

In this Saturday morning contest, the Dragons were plagued by some of their usual misfortunes, turnovers and missed opportunities which led to them playing from behind from the get-go and eventually falling to the Panthers 49-34, dropping their season record to 1-11.

It was two minutes into the West Union-Clay battle until anyone scored, the first bucket of the game belonging to the Dragons’ Billy Flaugher, and after Clay got a three-pointer from Evan Rider, West Union went back in front 4-3 on a basket by Andrew Daley. That was the last lead they would enjoy on the day.

A three-ball by Clay’s Noah Woods put the Panthers in front and that is where they stayed. The only point the Dragons could muster the rest of the first quarter was a Daley free throw and West Union trailed 11-5 after one.

As the second quarter opened, Coach Adam Barr’s West Union squad showed some spark, an 8-3 run that pulled them within 14-13. The second quarter was a long-distance artillery show as the two teams lit it up for a combined eight three-point goals, five of those going the way of the Panthers. The Dragons got back-to-back triples from Flaugher and another from Tyren Pennington, but still found themselves trailing at the half, 29-16.

A three-pointer from Daley early in the third quarter kept West Union within striking diatance, but a following 6-0 run by Clay extended the Panthers’ lead out to 37-21. Two baskets by Daley were followed by a bucket from Clay’s Corey Williams sent the two teams to the fourth quarter with the Panthers up by 14.

A three-ball from Bryce Whitley got Clay rolling in the final period and the Dragons matched that with a long bomb from Pennington, bu time was not a friend of the West Union five. The Dragons did get a steal and score from Gavin Rowe with a little under five minutes to play but only managed a Flaugher free throw the rest of the way as the Pantehrs cruised home with their fifth win of the season, handling the Dragons by the 49-34 final

Victorious Clay was led in scoring by 15 points from freshman guard Ryan Woods, with sophomore Evan Rider also hitting double figures with 13. The Panthers nailed nine three-point shots int he win.

West Union was paced by 10 points each from Tyren Pennington and Andrew Daley with Billy Flaugher chipping in 9.

Box Score

P. Clay

11 18 10 10 —49

West Union

5 11 9 9 —34

P. Clay (49): Woods 5 3-5 15, Whitley 2 0-2 6, Williams 2 3-6 7, Rider 5 0-0 13, Bailey 1 2-2 5, McCullough 0 2-2 2, Team 15 10-17 49/

W. Union (34): Pennington 4 0-0 10, Daley 4 1-3 10, Falugher 3 1-2 9, Rowe 2 0-0 4, Caldwell 0 1-2 1, Team 13 3-9 34.

Three-Point Goals:

P. Clay (9)- Woods 3, Whitley 2, Rider 3, Bailey 1

W. Union (5)- Pennington 2, Daley 1, Flaugher 2

Manchester 61

Western Latham 57

(Boys)

Next up in theClassic was Coach Austin Kingsolver and the Manchester Greyhounds, matched up with the Western Latham Indians. The Hounds were coming off a tough conference loss to Fayetteville the previous night and were looking to post a victory before another tough conference week ahead. In a contest that came down to the last minutes before being decided, the Greyhounds rode an impressive stat line from senior Parker Hayslip and some crucial contributions from classmate Traevyn Hilderbrand to sneak past the Indians by a final score of 61-57.

“We really enjoy playing in this Classic,” Coach Kingsolver told C103 Radio after the win. “It’s hard to play back-to-back and win and I thought the winner of this game would simply be the team that played harder for four quarters, and I thought we did a pretty decent job of that today. We are doing a pretty good job of going eight deep and all eight guys we played today scored.”

Manchester’s Landon Doyle opened the game’s scoring with a corner three-pointer as the two sides went back and forth in at tight affair, a long three-ball from Hayslip giving Manchester a 12-8 advantage, quickly matched when Latham’s Baiden Taylor also connected from deep. The Hounds then created some distance with an 8-0 run, getting three-balls from Hayslip and Joel Blythe to take a 20-11 lead. The Indians were able to cut into that deficit before the first quarter ended, a triple from Josiah Satterfield closing the gap to 24-17 after one.

The high-powered scoring of the first eight minutes slowed down considerably in the second stanza. Western got another trey, this one from Landan Owens, on their first possession before the Hounds’ Colton McChesney scored in the paint to keep the Manchester lead at six, where it stayed after a later offensive rebound and score from Braylon Rickett. The Indians than got back to back scores from Satterfield as they threatened to overtake the Hounds, who got a series of three free throws from Clayton Colvin to go up 31-26. Western finished the first half with two more buckets from the suddenly unstoppable Satterfield and at the intermission, the Manchester lead stood at just a single point, 31-30.

A basket by the Indians to open the third quarter brought them all the way back and gave them the lead, only to see Manchester go on a 7-0 run, getting a layup from Hilderbrand in transition and another Hayslip three to make it 38-32. Western answered with a Foster Davis three as the Indians found themselves playing from behind the rest of the game. Hayslip continued what would be a banner night with a pair of baskets that left his team with a 46-42 advantage as the third period closed, setting up an exciting final wight minutes.

Another Foster triple opened the final quarter, followed up by two clutch hoops from Hilderbrand that kept the Manchester lead intact. One of those scores began an 8-0 Greyhound run as they threatened to break the game open, a Hilderbrand steal and score giving the Hounds a 56-47 advantage. As Coach Kingsolver will gladly tell you, his team has an annoying habit of letting teams get back into the game and Saturday was no exception. After the Manchester run, Western came right back with a 5-0 spurt to draw within four with under a minute to play.

The two teams then exchanged turnovers before a bucket from Owens pulled the Indians within 57-54 with 20 seconds left on the clock. With that deficit and that little time left, Western was forced to foul and Hayslip hot a pair from the strip to push the lead back out to five. only to see the Indians’ Satterfield convert a three-point play with just 8.5 seconds to left. To put the game on ice, Hayslip went back to the line and hit two more free tosses to wrap up a well-earned four point win for the Greyhounds.

It was Parker Hayslip leading the way for the winning Hounds (7-9), a stat line of 26 points, 8 rebounds, 4 steals, 3 assists and 2 blocks. The 26-point effort left him just nine points shy of 1,000 for his memorable career. Also outstanding for the Hounds was the play of Traevyn Hilderbrand, who scored a career-high 10 points while adding 3 assists. Braylon Rickett scored 8 and had a team-high 10 boards and 7 assists.

The Indians only had four players score in the game, three of them in double figures, led by 21 points from Foster Davis (including five three-pointers), with Josiah Satterfield adding 20 and Landan Owens 13. Western did fire in eight three-point goals int he loss.

Box Score

W. Latham

17 13 12 15 —57

Manchester

24 7 15 15 —81

W. Latham (57): Taylor 1 0-0 3, Owens 6 0-0 13, Satterfield 9 1-3 20. Davis 5 6-8 21, Team 21 7-11 57.

Manchester (61): Hayslip 8 7-10 26, Doyle 1 0-0 3, Blythe 2 0-0 5, Colvin 0 3-4 3, Rickett 4 0-1 8, Applegate 2 0-2 4, Hilderbrand 5 0-0 10, McChesney 1 0-0 2, Team 23 10-19 61.

Three-Point Goals:

W. Latham (8)- Taylor 1, Owens 1, Satterfield 1, Davis 5

Manchester (5)- Hayslip 3, Doyle 1, Blythe 1

Peebles 79

Norwood 51

(Boys)

Game five of the 2026 Coach Young Classic matched up a pair of Indians, Peebles and Norwood. The original Peebles opponent was to be Wheelersburg, but the ‘Burg ended up playing in another Saturday event, therefore Norwood served as a replacement to face Coach Josh Arey and his squad.

As this game progressed, fans may have been a bit confused, as the 32 minutes resembled more of a track meet than a basketball game. In the end, the gold medals for running the floor went not to the White House but to Peebles. The local Indians ran the visiting Indians right off the court, using a 15-0 first quarter run to take the lead for good on their way to a 79-51 victory, improving their season record to 10-2.

In Saturday’s race, Norwood scored first for the 2-0 lead but a later Connor Gross steal and layup put Peebles ahead and from there it was off to the races. With the Adams County Tribe up 8-6, the next 15 points went their way, taking advantage of Norwood miscues and including another Gross steal and score plus a Josh McClary three-pointer to put Peebles up 23-6. After Norwood finally broke the run, Peebles closed the first quarter with baskets by Grady Knechlty and Paxton Ryan to lead 27-8.

With the game beginning to resemble one you might see on a summers evening on an outdoor court in the city, the offenses continued their sprint in the second period. A basket by Bo Johnson put Peebles up by 20 and a later basket “and on” from Keegan Puckett made it 37-16. before the end of the first half, the tribe from the city made a run, finishing the second stanza on a 6-0 run and making things interesting, cutting the Peebles halftime advantage to 43-31.

After Norwood scored on their first possession of the third frame to close the gap to 1o, the Peebles five decided to kick in the afterburners and ran off 10 straight to push their lead back to 20 and for all intents and purposes, put the game in the bag. A bucket by Puckett closed out a third quarter that saw Peebles on top 61-40.

The local Tribe continued to roll in the fourth period, pushing the lead out to 68-46 on a nice offensive rebound and score by Colyn Sims and then adding further to that on an old-fashioned three-point play by Puckett with 5:22 to play, followed by another bucket from Ryan that put his team up 73-46. Norwood was able to cut a few points off the deficit as the fourth quarter wound down nut a free throw from Wyatt Smart with less than a minute to play put the final touch on a big Peebles victory, routing Norwood by the final count of 79-51.

“As a team, we average less that 10 turnovers a game and when you come out and see that pressure for 32 minutes, you have to handle it and not make bad decisions,” Coach Arey said in his postgame radio spot. “We don’t see this type of basketball very often and we prepared as much as we could in two days. If we are fortunate enough to make a long postseason run we could very well see another team as athletic as Norwood was.”

“When you are not shooting the ball well you have to do other things right and I thought we did that today. We can hurt you in a lot of ways and I think we showed that today.”

A balanced Peebles scoring attack placed five players in double figures, led by 18 points from Paxton Ryan, who excelled in the up and down type of racehorse action. Grady Knechtly added 14 points, followed by Keegan Puckett with 12, Bo Johnson with 11 and Colyn Sims with 10.

Norwood was paced in scoring by 14 points from Dillon Taylor with Da”Da’Rell Hearn also hitting double figures with 10.

Box Score

Norwood

8 23 9 11 —51

Peebles

27 16 18 18 —79

Norwood (51): Hearn 4 2-4 10, Cave 4 0-0 8, Hill 2 0-2 4, Bland 5 3-7 13, Foree 0 0-2 0, Cook 1 0-0 2, Taylor 6 1-2 14, team 22 6-17 51.

Peebles (79): Sims 4 2-4 10, Knechtly 5 4-6 14, Gross 3 0-0 6, Johnson 5 1-2 11, Ryan 9 0-0 18, Stephens 0 0-2 0, McClary 3 0-0 7, Puckett 3 6-10 12, Smart 0 1-2 1, Team 31 14-26 79.

Three-Point Goals:

Norwood (1)- Taylor 1

Peebles (1)- McClary 1

Williamsburg 63

North Adams 46

(Girls)

Coach Rob Davis and his North Adams Lady Devils are not ones to back down from a challenge and a challenge they had as they took the floor for the sixth game of the Coach Young Classic. Standing across the floor from the Lady Devils was a very talented 10-3 Williamsburg Lady Wildcats squad, an uphill task for the North Adams girls, who came into the game sporting a 9-3 record of their own and winners in three of their last four outings.

“These are the kids of teams that you like to play,” said Coach Davis.

In Saturday’s contest, it was the Lady Devils who struck first, taking a quick 5-1 lead behind the strength of a pair of baskets from Emma Pistole, the beginning of her big 23-point night. The Lady Devils extended that lead to 10-4 when Pistole put back in her own miss, but at that moment the proverbial “light came on” for the Lady Cats. Over the span of the final three minutes of the first quarter and the first two minutes of the second quarter, Williamsburg reeled off 18 straight points, a huge run that included a trio of three-point goals from Bryann Ayers. The flip of the scoreboard left the Lady Cats with a 22-10 advantage, a hole the Lady Devils spent the rest of the night trying to dig out of.

North Adams did recover to get a 6-0 run on a Pistole three-point play and a Tenzlee Burns three-pointer to close the gap to 24-18 with 3:15 left in the first half. Over that 3:15, Williamsburg outscored the Lady Devils 9-3 and went to the intermissions with a double-digit advantage at 33-21.

Burg got the first score of the third period, a bucket by Lucy Watts on their first possession, but the Lady Devils answered with a 7-1 run, five of those points coming from Emma Pistole, and moved back to within 36-28. The margin stayed in that range until later in the third when Williamsburg put together a 9-1 run to lead 46-33. Burns ended the third quarter with the old-fashioned three-point play, leaving North Adams down 46-36 as the fourth quarter began.

Things got worse for the host team as the Lady Cats opened quarter four with a three-pointer from Addi Smith and a bucket inside from KK Pollitt and the lead had ballooned to 51-26. From then on it was the Lady Devils valiantly trying to find a way for a miracle comeback with the Lady Cats continually staving them off. Another basket by Pollitt put Williamsburg in front 59-40 as the inevitable became obvious for the North Adams side. The final four point osf the game came from the Pistoles. a basket by Emma and two free throws from Ava, but the final horn sounded on a big win for the Lady Cats, 63-46.

“Williamsburg is a really nice team, they play well inside and outside,” Coach Davis told C103 Radio. “We turned the ball over a lot and a lot of them were just unforced errors which I don’t like. Little things and execution make the difference and it’s still a learning process for us.”

“We need to shoot better from the free throw line. We have good shooters and we’ll get there, but a game like this with this size crowd is a good experience.”

The victors (11-3) placed a quarter of girls in double figures, led by 14 points from Payton Jones, with Bryann Ayers adding 13, KK Pollitt 11 and Lucy Watts 10. The Lady cats also nailed a total of six three-pointers in the win.

North Adams (9-4) was led by a season-high 23 points from Emma Pistole, with freshman point guard Tenzlee Burns tossing in 18. That pair were the only Lady Devils who made baskets from the field in the entire game.

Box Score

Williamsburg

16 17 13 17 —63

North Adams

10 11 15 10 —46

Williamsburg (63): Battista 1 1-3 3, Smith 1 3-4 6, Jones 6 2-4 14, Ayers 5 0-0 13, Arno 2 0-2 5, Watts 4 2-2 10, Pollitt 5 1-2 11, Team 24 9-17 63.

N. Adams (46): E. Pistole 9 5-8 23, Burns 7 3-3 18, Gray 0 1-2 1, A. Pistole 0 3-4 3, Raines 0 1-4 1, Team 16 13-21 46.

Three-Point Goals:

Williamsburg (6)- Smith 1, Jones 1, Ayers 3, Arno 1

N. Adams (1)- Burns 1

North Adams 57

Minford 47

(Boys)

As it always is, the grand finale of a long day of basketball at the Young Classic features the team that Coach Young led for 24 seasons, the North Adams Green Devils, now coached by second-year man Austin McCormick. In recent years the Devils shave developed somewhat of a rivalry with the Minford Falcons and that was the match up late on Saturday night that brought the Classic to a close.

Both North Adams and Minford faced similar situations going into this season, that being the loss of a large number of outstanding seniors that both are now rebuilding from. Though Saturday night’s battle may have lacked the intensity of some recent regional tournament meetings, the two teams provided an entertaining eighth game of the day and sent eh fans of the host team happy. In a game that was tight from start to finish, the Green Devils pulled away in the final minutes to improve their overall record to 8-5 with a 57-47 triumph.

“This was a great day for basketball,” Coach McCormick said in his postgame radio interview. “We had to bring the intensity back tonight and we did that coming off a tough loss last night. These kids realize what it means to wear the North Adams uniform and the effort and energy, all the things that Coach Young built this program on, I feel like these kids understand that and hold true to that night in and night out.”

North Adams was coming off a tough three-point conference loss to Eastern Brown on Friday night and were cold from the field early against the Falcons. Minford took a 12-6 lead in the first quarter after a three-pointer from Jett Adams but the Devils came storming back, beginning with their own three-ball from Thaddeus Moore and tied the game at 14 when Jesse Kennedy drilled a triple at the first quarter buzzer.

The offenses were sloppy and no one scored for the first three minutes of the second period. Another Kennedy trey put North Adams up 24-22 and a following bucket by Carson Davis put the Devils up four. The sophomore Davis took over in the second quarter, scoring 10 points total and his two free throws with 7.8 seconds left send the Devils to halftime with a precariously slim 31-29 advantage.

The back and forth continued as the second half began and a three-pointer from Minford freshman Colby Mullins and a free throw from Colt Donahoe evened the score at 35. Kennedy’s fourth three-pointer of the game gave the Devils a 41-40 lead and when teammate Dalton Pence encored Kennedy with a three of his own, North Adams was on top by four. Minford rallied with buckets by Wyatt Dyer and Mark Napier and the game was tied at 44 after three quarters of action.

Over the final eight minutes, the Minford offense went south as the Falcons could only muster three points the rest of the way, a three-point goal by Mullins with 4:20 to play. The Devils took full advantage and another three-ball from Pence got the ball rolling. After the Mullins trey, North Adams scored the final eight points of the night, getting three buckets from Davis and two free throws from Pence to secure the win by the final count of 57-47.

Carson Davis continued his outstanding sophomore season, topping the Devils in the win with 18 points, also hauling down 7 rebounds. Junior Jesse Kennedy used his four three-point goals on his way to 14 points, adding 4 assists and 5 steals, while senior Dalton Pence hit double figures with 12 points and also pulled down 7 boards. As a team, the Devils pumped in eight three-point baskets in the victory.

Minford was led in scoring by 15 points from sophomore Colt Donahoe.

Box Score

Minford

14 15 15 3 —47

North Adams

14 17 13 13 —57

Minford (47): Napier 1 0-0 2, Glenn 2 3-3 8, Reeder 1 0-0 3, Mullins 3 0-0 9, Donahoe 7 1-2 15, Adams 1 0-0 3, Dyer 3 1-1 7, Team 18 5-6 47.

N. Adams (57): Kennedy 5 0-2 14, Call 2 0-0 5, Moore 2 0-1 5, Pence 4 2-2 12, Tolle 1 1-2 3, Davis 8 2-4 19, Team 22 5-11 57.

Three-Point Goals:

Minford (6)- Glenn 1, Reeder 1, Mullins 3, Adams 1

N. Adams (8)- Kennedy 4, Call 1, Moore 1, Pence 2

Other Scores From The Young Classic

Blanchester 43

Ripley 41

Whiteoak 48

Georgetown 47

Williamsburg 47

Eastern Brown 38