Waverly 61
Warren 56 a final
... the grind of the regular season, the tension of the "one and done" season ... coaches are literally and figuratively "on their last nerve" and have to have a "stomach lined in steel" ... sometimes you're tested by your opponent, oft times you're tested more from within your own ranks ... I walked into the D2 semi-final match hoping for a great game between 2 of the best teams in SEOhio this season - the Waverly Tigers of Coach Travis Robertson and the Warren Warriors of Coach Blane Maddox ... Coach Robertson broke into the 200+ win column this season (215 W's entering yesterdays action) while Coach Maddox with 23 years at the helm of the BBB of Warren had accumulated 382 wins ... to say that both coaches/coaching staffs KNOW how to get it done would be an understatement ... the battle of the 2 brain trusts - game preparation/in game strategizing - how could THIS game be anything but "worth the price of an electronic ticket" ?
... when I go into an venue for "these" post season games I like to "take it all in" - the people, the atmosphere surrounding the game ... yesterday upon entering the game even BEFORE the teams started warming up a big "notice" was sitting on the Warren Warrior bench - starting freshman PG for WHS was sitting in a "boot" - not of the SEOhio Rocky Boot variety but a hard plastic, restrict mobility, medical need - boot ... Stadelman who had taken over at PG after the New Year , who had given WHS quickness at the guard position, who had provided a perimeter scoring game to a Warren offense which was limited to 2 BIGS down low ... was now doubtful for the biggest game of the season vs THE best team in SEOhio ... digging more, I found out that the young freshmen had not practiced all week, was diagnosed with a bone fracture in his foot ... in a game that was difficult enough vs a Tiger team led by the best guard in SEOhio, now the Warriors would need to go without the services of their starting pg ...
... the emphasis of the game turned from "outscoring" the Tigers to how do we "keep the Tigers from scoring" - defense ... minus Stadelman on the perimeter the Warriors bumped up Colton Eddy in the rotation - going from, a 6th man defensive specialist to starting off guard ... without Stadelman the Warriors had to rely on the BIGS - soph Trent Taylor and senior Brayden Sallee ... in the opening period both dented the scoring column for the Warriors - Taylor with 2 buckets down low & 1, Sallee a bucket and 2/2 from the FT line ... without Stadelman the perimeter scoring game was going to be challenged for sure - Colton Eddy & the Warren rotation players were going to have to "dent the scoring column" - Eddy took a nice interior pass for 2 points and Dennis Pettey a 2 in transition to round out the 13 point opening period for Warren ... for the Tigers, Coach Robertson was looking to "get by" Warren - entering the game KNOWING that WHS was going to make this a physical game, try to make Robertson the younger "feel the game" every time he touched the ball while limiting what the supporting cast added to the scorebook ... Mark Stulley, the pg for the Tigers, picked up 2 fgs (4pts) , Hudson Kelly 2pts, Will Futhey the 6-5 sr post player for Waverly added a bucket (2pts) ... Trey Robertson dropped a triple and a deuce for 5 points to lead the Tiger scoring attack and off the bench Braylon Robertson does what BR does coming off the bench - dropped a three pointer ... takes from the opening period - Julian Stadelman played (struggled with the speed of the game, had a couple of turnovers, but he played in a heavy wrap to limit his foot movement) ... Warren turned the ball over 8 times in the opening period or the Waverly Tiger defensive quickness turned the Warriors over 8 times, converting on 3 transition buckets - the first 2 possessions of the game were transition buckets for the Tigers ... a check of the Warren perimeter scoring 0/4 from behind the arc, a check of the perimeter scoring for Waverly 2/4 from downtown) ... Waverly 16 Warren 13 after 1 ... in period 2 the story line was the Tiger D or the lack of Warren being able to put the ball in the hole either way Waverly outscored Warren 16-10 ... holding the Blue of Warren to 2 fgs in the period - 1 each from Ayden Cornell off the bench and Dennis Pettey plus a FT - Warren GOT looks at the rim! nothing fell for the WHS big men down low - Sallee with 3 points / Taylor 2 points in the qtr all from the charity stripe ... for Waverly when you have a "horse that can run" you let him run - Trey Robertson went off for 10 points in the 2nd - getting a pair of mid range pull up jumpers to go with another transition bucket, Will Futhey 2 points in the paint and 2 pointer from Hudson Kelly and 2/2 from the line for Mark Stulley ... both teams settled down , took better care of the ball - Waverly (2 fumbles) and Warren 3 ... but the damage was done - Warren 11 TOs for the half/ Waverly 6 ... Waverly 32 Warren 23 going into intermission ... a 9 point deficit for the Warriors ... without any points coming from Stadelman playing with a foot fracture ... over the years , 23 years to be exact, of watching Coach Maddox "coached" teams you come away knowing that 1) the BBB is never out of a game, 2) a Maddox coached team never quits 3) Coach Maddox courtside IS one of the best there is - end of story ... no perimeter scoring game, have to count on the BIGS to get those buckets to fall AND Defense ... Warren turned the Tigers over 4 times in the 3rd, getting 2 transition buckets ... to open the 3rd the Warriors went on a 7-2 run ... 30-34 Waverly at 5:21 on the clock - game on ... a lot of energy expended ... Warren was led in paint by Taylor's 5 pts in the period/ Sallee's 5 points and another 2 pointer from Colton Eddy ... good teams take the blows/know that good opponents WILL MAKE runs such a Warren's ... Waverly absorbed the blows, let Warren expend the energy to "get back into the game" ... 38-35 Waverly with 1:20 on the clock in the 3rd ... by the time the buzzer sounded to end the period the Tigers had once again gotten separation ... a BIG triple off the bench from Penn Morrison from deep in the corner on the final shot of the quarter made the game a 3/4 possession game vs a 2 possession game, a bucket each from Stulley, T. Robertson rounded out the Tiger scoring ... BOTH teams turned the ball over 4 times in the 3rd ... Warren with 16 miscues through 3 and Waverly 10 ... Waverly 43 Warren 35 after 3 ... sitting in the cheap seats among the Waverly faithful, I wondered out loud - stating I thought the Warriors had one more run in them ... although they had expended a lot of energy in the 3rd ... the Warriors had 8 fgs in the 4th to Waverly 2 fgs ... Warren not only got back in the game they took the lead in the 4th ... Warren finally got a couple of perimeter scores 2/5 from behind the arc in the final qtr. Stadelman hit a triple (3 pts), Pettey hit a triple (5pts), Caleb Davis a 2 pointer, the ball started falling in the paint Taylor 6pts/Sallee 5 pts ... Warren battled back to make the game a 1 possession game 42-45 with 5:45 on the clock WITH back to back stops, WITH back to back opportunities to tie the game or get to within one ... back to back turnover possessions by the Warriors ... one last run ... Warren took the lead 47-45 on a drive to the hole ... a Robertson triple (one of 2 Waverly fgs in the period) making it 48-47 Tigers ... Waverly went to the line for 21 FTs in the 4th making 13 ... Trey Robertson 10/12 from the line in the 4th ... Waverly 61 Warren 56 a final ...
Pfloyd's official "UN-official" Napkin Stats - Warren
Scoring ... Trent Taylor 18, Brayden Sallee 17, Dennis Pettey 10, Colton Eddy 4, Julian Stadelman 3, Ayden Cornell 2, Caleb Davis 2
3 Pointers ... 2/11 ... Juilan Stadelman 1, Dennis Pettey 1
FTs ... 14/17
TOs ... 19
PnP ... 18 fgs/ 36 points in the paint
PnT ... 5 fgs/ 10 points in transition
Pbk ... 0
... great season for the Warren Warriors of Coach Maddox ... a year that was to be a "rebuilding year" , a year that on paper schools in Southeast Ohio were chomping at the bit to "get payback" on the Warriors - they were finally going to be "down, gettable" ... Warren lost the opening game of the season vs Washington CH, they lost to New Lexington before Christmas - Warren didn't lose another game vs a team in the Southeast district the rest of the season - until yesterday vs the #1 seed Waverly Tigers ... next year - rebuilding year? gettable? Trent Taylor in the post - is back, Stadelman at PG - is back, Eddy/Cornell with experience in THE big game - are back ... a freshman team that played up as the JV team - is back ... they have a different definition of rebuilding at Warren Local ...
Pfloyd's official "UN-official" Napkin Stats - Waverly
Scoring ... Trey Robertson 30, Will Futhey 11, Mark Stulley 10, Hudson Kelly 4, Braylon Robertson 3, Penn Morrison 3
3 Pointers ... 4/16 ... Trey Robertson 2, Penn Morrison 1, Braylon Robertson 1
FTs ... 21/29
TO ... 12
PnP ... 12 fgs/ 24 points in the paint
PnT ... 4 fgs/ 8 points in transition
Pbk ... 1 fg/ 2 points off of offensive boards
... Waverly played as expected - jumping the ball in the backcourt, on the perimeter every chance they got - turned Warren over 19 times on the game converting on 4 of those for points on the Tiger side of the court ... good teams absorb the runs and answer - the Tigers answered all of the Warren runs ... great floor game from Mark Stulley - Stulley is one of those unsung heroes in every game - he handles the ball on every possession, he gets the tough defensive assignments on the perimeter, he makes life on the perimeter for the opposing pg 32 minutes of h#ll ... he takes advantage of ANY and ALL weak handling of the ball by the opposition, he with the 32 minutes of pressure cause turnovers not necessarily by stealing the ball (which he does) but by wearing down players on the perimeter , he causes issues with opposing perimeter players making poor decisions with the ball - they just want to get it out of their hands! ... Stulley with 10 points last night was icing on the cake - he could score NO POINTS and be invaluable due to points off of turnovers ... Trey Robertson? 30 points, 10/12 in the 4th from the FT line ... with his 30 points last night T Robertson became the all time leading career scorer in Pike County history - congratulations TR ...
Waverly 61 Warren 56 a D2 semi-final
Waverly 61 Warren 56 a D2 semi-final
Last edited by pfloyd on Sun Feb 27, 2022 2:06 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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BigBoneJerome
- Freshman Team
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- Joined: Fri Sep 21, 2018 7:25 pm
Re: Waverly 61 Warren 56 a D2 semi-final
Heck yeah, good read my man. This is the Sunday morning reads I miss.
Re: Waverly 61 Warren 56 a D2 semi-final
LOL - it's like looking forward to reading the comics !BigBoneJerome wrote: ↑Sun Feb 27, 2022 10:48 am Heck yeah, good read my man. This is the Sunday morning reads I miss.
thank you BBJ ...-
Schnellfritz
- Varsity
- Posts: 485
- Joined: Sun Apr 20, 2008 10:43 am
Re: Waverly 61 Warren 56 a D2 semi-final
Good write-up and this was what I was looking forward to seeing. I was at the game and almost became hoarse from yelling, but alas, my warriors came out with the loss. Great game and great season and I commend Waverly and hope they go all the way.
Re: Waverly 61 Warren 56 a D2 semi-final
Thanks for the write-ups this season Pfloyd, tough way to end the year for my warriors but they'll be back. Tough break for Stadelman, wasn't aware of his injury but thought it odd he only scored 3, the fracture would explain it. Good luck to Waverly the rest of the way.
Go Blue
Re: Waverly 61 Warren 56 a D2 semi-final
Ok….good toughness by that young man
Might’ve been even tighter with him all game.
Re: Waverly 61 Warren 56 a D2 semi-final
Great write up pfloyd. Great to see at chat with you at both venues yesterday.
That was us who passed you (and honked) on 23 right before exiting onto Three Locks Rd. We made it home just a few minutes before 11:00
I’m assuming we’ll see you Friday?
That was us who passed you (and honked) on 23 right before exiting onto Three Locks Rd. We made it home just a few minutes before 11:00
I’m assuming we’ll see you Friday?
Re: Waverly 61 Warren 56 a D2 semi-final
Great write-up pfloyd! Warren has a very solid ball club and a great coach. They played tough. Good luck to their seniors moving on to the next stage of their lives!
Glad to see my Tigers moving on to the next round. I've said it before but this is a special group of seniors and they're on a mission this postseason!
Glad to see my Tigers moving on to the next round. I've said it before but this is a special group of seniors and they're on a mission this postseason!