Battle in the 740... this weekend ...Waller Gymnasium on SSU Campus/Portsmouth

[pfloyd]

2nd Annual Battle in the 740 Waller Gymnasium on the campus of Shawnee State University

Only $15 for adults for each day is a great deal, $12 for students and seniors.


December 14, 2024 games include:

11am.......... Patriot Prep vs Notre Dame
12:30pm..... Manchester vs Piketon
2pm ..........Walnut Ridge vs Huntington Highlanders
3:30pm...... New Hope vs Fairfield Union
5pm .........Kettering Archbishop Alter vs Ashland Paul Blazer
6:30pm .....Fairland vs Ashland Paul Blazer girls
8pm .........Fairland vs Eastern Brown

December 15, 2025 games include:

12:30pm...... Minford vs Teays Valley girls
2pm ...........Hilliard Davidson vs Minford
3:30pm........ Jackson vs Lakewood (Hebron)
5pm ...........Wheelersburg vs Harvest Prep
6:30pm........ South Point vs Washington Court House

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Saturday's Menu:

Portsmouth Notre Dame vs Patriot Prep (11a)

The Battle Series always does a good job in matching up teams to ensure competitive games, the Battle in the 740 opens with 2 D7 schools - Portsmouth Notre Dame out of the SOC and Patriot Prep out of the Central District/C'bus area ... both teams as of this posting are undefeated on the young season Notre Dame at 2-0 and Patriot Prep 1-0 ... both teams come into the Saturday matchup scoring at a 61 ppg clip while ND is giving up 51.8 ppg and PP 41 ppg ... the Eagles of Patriot Prep are led in scoring by 6-0 sr guard Mason Seward 16ppg/ 3rpg ... Deshawn Crawford 6-3 sr. 13.5 ppg/ 3.5 asts/gm ... 6-5 sr Cameron Thomas power forward/post player is hitting at a 12.5 ppg clip while pulling down 8 rpg ... the Eagles will have the size advantage along with a senior heavy lineup ... Portsmouth Notre Dame will counter with it's own senior group of 5 led by PG 5-11 Landon Barbarits ... 6-1 sr Aaryn Bradford ...5-10 sr Myles Phillips ... 6-1 jr Zion Beorger and sr 6-2 Brady Davis with help off the bench from 6-4 sr Kaden Hadsell & 6-1 soph Garrett Barbarits ... 2 fairly evenly matched teams to open the Battle Series Saturday morning ...

Manchester vs Piketon (12:30p)

Game #2 pits the SHAC vs the SVC ... the Manchester Greyhounds taking on the Piketon RedStreaks ... both teams enter (before Friday night games) at 1-3 with Manchester scoring at 49.5 ppg and Piketon 44.6 ppg ... defensively the Greyhounds are holding opponents to 57.8 ppg / Piketon 58.2 ppg ... 2 of Manchester's losses are to 2 of the best teams in the SHAC - North Adams and Fayetteville ... the Greyhounds will open the game with Parker Hayslip (jr), sr. Braylan Roberts, jr. Braylon Rickett, sr. Leland Horner, jr Elijah Crabtree ... Coach Kingsolver uses a deep bench throughout games so far this season ... Piketon is led by a talented group of juniors for Coach Miller : 6-6 jr man in the middle Bo Henry has been the leader at the offensive end and on the boards defensively ... the supporting cast includes 6-0 jr Luke Gullion, sr Mason Thacker, Jayce Johnson a 5-11 jr, Trevon Shanks 5-10 jr ... off the bench look for more underclassmen - jr 6-2 Noah Ross and 6-0 soph Jace Ritchie to see lots of action for the Redstreaks ...

Walnut Ridge Scots vs Huntington Highlanders - WVa (2:00 p)

Walnut Ridge Scots out of C'bus taking on the Huntington Highlanders out of Huntington WVa ... Walnut Ridge enters as of this posting before Friday night games 2-1 averaging 73 ppg and giving up 53.3 ppg while the Huntington Highlanders will be opening their season with this Battle Series contest are at 0-0 ... the Highlanders enter having finished at the top of the Mountain State Region 1 league with a 9-1 record in 2023-24 and a 17-9 overall record ... the Highlanders are led by 6-3 sr. guard Avonte Crawford (12.2 ppg last season)/6-4 sr. SF Taviun Chandler 8ppg/ and 6-3 jr SF Tayveon Wilson 9.6 ppg ... Huntington avg 69 ppg offensively while giving up 63 ppg defensively - the Highlanders will get out and run the floor in transition ... Walnut Ridge averaging 73 ppg this season offensively likes tp push the tempo as well led offensively by Marquis Lucas 6-2 jr at 17 ppg/ Roman Crosby 6-5 sr. 12 ppg / Deon Johnson 6-3 soph 10.5ppg and 5.5 apg ... this one should be a dandy up and down the court and above the rim ...

New Hope Christian Academy vs Fairfield Union (3:30 p)

New Hope Christian Academy out of Circleville was the replacement for the replacement - for Portsmouth who was the replacement for Ironton to take on Fairfield Union in the 4th game of the day on Saturday ... the New Hope squad has been a solid program for a few years in a row in South East Ohio - last year going 13-7 overall while taking on teams all across Southern/Southeast Ohio including teams from the SOC all 3 divisions, SVC, TVC and MSL ... this years team will be very competitive again standing at 1-0 with a win over TVC Wellston at the Zane Trace Tip-Off Classic 64-46 ... in that game the Statesmen went 10/24 from beyond the arc led by sr. Tyler Cook draining 6 treys on his own ball, sr. Hunter Cavanaugh 14pts/ 3 treys ... sr. Xander Rink led all scorers with 18pts ... NH will be a good matchup with MSL Fairfield Union ... the Falcons of Coach Shaeffer are at 2-1 with MSL W's over Liberty Union and a 17 pt win over rival, & annual MSL player Bloom Carroll ... the Falcons play a stingy D as they showed holding the #1 team in SEOhio Meigs to 40 pts in losing 36-40 ... Coach Shaeffer's FU squad is young with a rotation of 8-10 players with 5 of those being sophs and freshmen ... FU is led by 6-3 sr in the post Keegan Arnett, 6-2 sr Isaiah Delong, 6-1 soph Mason Ailes ... off the bench look for 6-4 freshman Asa Kline to keep getting big minutes for the Falcons ...

Ketter Archbishop Alter vs Ashland Paul Blazer (5:00 p)


Game five starts at 5pm an features the 2024 Division two State Champion in Ohio in Archbishop Alter playing Ashland Paul Blazer High who was in the Sweet 16 in Kentucky losing to the eventual state Champion. Both teams return numerous starters and D1 signees who are candidates for Player of the Year in their respective states.

Archbishop Alter returns All State 2nd team selectee RJ Greer 6-3 sr. averaged 16ppg last season ... on a senior stacked team with size everywhere 6-6 sr Brady Conner, 6-6 sr Kellen Hart, 6-8 sr Charlie Uhl, 6-7 sr Matt Lunne ... Archbishop Alter stands at 3-2 on the season averaging 63.2 ppg while holding opponents to 53.8 ppg ... Ashland Blazer has opened the 2024-25 season at 1-2 thru Thursday this week ... the Tomcats are averaging 81 ppg on the offensive end and giving up 76 ppg to their opponents thru 3 games ... should be a fun game to watch as the Battle Series does a nice job of bringing teams/players who are going to be headed to the next level, some with top D1 programs across the country ...

Fairland vs Ashland Girls (6:30 p)

Game six features the only girls game on Saturday December 14 at SSU. Fairland advanced to the Final four last year and came within one point short of playing in the finals. They are back and strong again as they are off and running to an undefeated season again. Thier opponent themselves in a team that is looking to returning to the Kentucky Sweet Sixteen in Ashland Paul Blazer High School.

Fairland vs Eastern Brown (8:00 p)

The final game of opening day has OVC annual power Fairland vs SHAC big school Eastern Brown ... Fairland enters Saturday's action undefeated with a 3-0 record/2-0 in the OVC after beating South Point on the road 50-46 in OT ... Fairland has already knocked off North Adams out of the SHAC at NA 48-35 ... Fairland is led by RIO commit 5-11 sr PG Brody Buchanan, 6-3 jr. Cliff Fransen, 6-3 sr Keegan Smith, 6-3 sr Gabe Polcyn and 6-0 jr 2 guard Trevor Lochow ... the Dragons of Coach Speed having graduated 4 of 5 starters had us looking at FHS being in a rebuild year but the newcomers to the starting lineup have more than filled in - solid Dragon D, 3 point scoring from Buchanan/Fransen/Smith/ Lochow great inside passing/rebounding from Polycn in the paint ... Eastern Brown led by HOF/Legendary coach Coach Rob Beucler 457 wins 215 losses to go with 10 SHAC 'ships in his illustrious career ... the Warriors are off to a 2-1 start in their season ... all 3 games league games, EB is averaging 55 ppg while holding opponents to 46.6 ppg ... the Warriors are still young in the starting group led by 5-10 sr Kade Walkup, jr 6-1 Pryce Murphy, jr. Braxton Vance, 6-4 jr Grady Barber and new to the lineup transfer soph PG 6-1 Chase Pinkerton and 1st off the bench 5-10 soph Kayne Dotson & sr Drew Edmisten ... could be a clash of offensive styles as Fairland likes to get up and down, get points out of the transition game while Eastern Brown with it's size inside a more deliberate offensive half court attack ...

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Sundays Menu:

Minford vs Teays Valley Girls (12:20 p)

The first game is a girls games featuring the Minford Falcon girls /was a District qualifier last year will facing the Teays Valley Vikings a member of the OCC and who also advanced to the district tournament in Division 1 in the Central District. Both teams feature good and aggressive defenses..

Hilliard Davidson vs Minford (2:00 p)

The Minford Falcons , D5, ranked #2 in Pfloyd's Elite 8 rankings will take on OCC member school Hilliard Davidson to kick off the boys side of Sunday menu of games. Hilliard Davidson sits at 2-1 on the young season, averaging 54 ppg offensively and 52 ppg on the defensive side ... HD plays a deliberate brand of basketball with a half-court offense ... supported by solid defense on the opponents end of the floor ... Minford is the exact opposite - pressure man to man D, looking to score in the transition game with quickness at the PG position in 5-10 sr Myles Montgomery ... Montgomery took over the boys career scoring mark at Minford of 1518 by scoring 27 vs Oak Hill in the MHS opener this week, MM has 1538 and counting, he should get to the 2000 pt mark in his high school career in late February... when the Falcons run the offense look for scoring from 6-6 Bennett Kayser - the sr. swing forward will reach the 1000 pt club with his next 143 points ... 6-4 sr Jackson Shoemaker roams the paint and steps out to the top of the key for the 3 , Shoemaker scores in bunches if he hits the first trey he will hit 2 or 3 more ... Minford looks to go deep into the post season with Coach Shoemaker counting on developing a solid 7-8 man rotation Ashton Reeder soph showed in his first start the ability to drive the ball to the rim and hit the 3 ball, MHS has SouthEast Ohio size off the bench in 6-3 jr Ty Borland and fr. 6-4 Colt Donahoe ... this one will be a good barometer game for Minford and its deep run post season aspirations ...

Jackson vs Lakewood (3:30 p)

Jackson, 2-0 (will have a big FAC game vs Miami Trace Friday night), is averaging 50 ppg offensively while playing typical Jackson, on ball pressure man to man D to hold opponents to just 34 ppg ... Coach Morrow has never had real size to work with inside, so the combination of a deliberate halfcourt game on offense and tough man to man defense is the norm ... the Ironmen have only 1 senior in the lineup, starting in the post 6-3 sr. Garrett Legg (transfer portal from Piketon) to go with a host of juniors who have played hoops together since kindergarten: 6-2 jr. Stephen Jenkins - inside or outside a scoring threat and excellent interior passer ... 6-3 jr Charlie Woodard scores the 3 ball and gets out in transition ... Ryan Seimetz 5-11 jr handles the ball, distributes and can score the trey, Jax Carroll 5-10 jr. ballhandler , gets to the rim and shoots the 3 ... off the bench Bodhi Wolford 6-2 jr. rebounds/handles the ball/ scores at all 3 levels ... the only real size for JHS is CJ Crabtree - getting back from a football related injury this week he saw limited action Tuesday night ... Lakewood enters the game 0-3 thru Thursday ... scoring 35.3 ppg to their opponents 41.7 ppg ... the record might be a little deceiving as their 3 opponents are 2-1 West Muskingum (2pts in OT)/ 2-1 Granville and 4-0 Lancaster ... both teams like the slower pace so this one should be another good matchup on the day ...

Wheelersburg vs Harvest Prep (5:00 p)

This is a rematch of last years Battle in the 740 game in which Harvest Prep won 67-58 BUT the Burg was leading 44-42 going into the final quarter too much Final 4 talent in the end as HP's Brandon Roddy put up 8 of his game high 19 pts and Jaylen Sims had all 9 of his points for the game in the 4th to close out WHS ...Harvest Prep a last year Final Four attendee ... HP 1-1 on the season, returns sr 6-0 Brandon Roddy 18 ppg/ 4 ast pg ... 6-3 jr. Jajuan Wharton 11ppg/ 4 rpg ... 6-2 soph Antwon Pollard 12ppg/4 apg ... Ephraim Campbell 6-5 jr / Jaylen Sims sr. ... lots of bodies returning from last years final 4 team ... Wheelersburg 0-1 on the season ... the strong group of last years sophs who had a coming out party last year in this game vs HP ... now juniors Braylon Rucker (6pts last yr vs HP)/ Hunter Bivens ( 2pts but handled the ball under HP perimeter pressure)/ Kenyon Evans/ Landen McGraw (19 pts/ 2 treys) missing will be Devon Lattimore 19pts/ Luke Swords big on the boards/4pts and Logan Adkins - transferred to Portsmouth ... this years Pirates will be looking to replace the scoring of Lattimore - Mowery scored 19pts in the WHS opening loss, Rucker added 14 pts ... we will have to see if someone steps up and takes over the scoring/ floor presence at both ends of the floor that the Lattimore graduation has left open ...

South Point vs Washington CH (6:30 p)

Closing out the Battle of the 740 will be 2 teams from the SE district , D5 South Point taking on D4 Washington Court House ... both teams were/are considered to be in rebuilding years , someone should tell Coach Wise of So Point and Coach Bartruff of WCH , 2 of the best coaches in the SE district who coach up their teams ... through the opening 2 1/2 weeks both teams are showing they are going to be "players" in their respective leagues (So Point - OVC / Washginton CH - FAC) ... South Point 1-2 (taking Fairland to OT before losing Thursday night 46-50 OT) ... when we think of So Point - 3 point shooters/solid defense/6-3 ish forwards with length comes to mind - this years edition of the Pointers are no different ... 6-4 sr Braydon Hanshaw leads the scoring from all 3 levels/ Ethan Hunt 6-4 soph is a perimeter 3pt threat hitting 3 treys in one qtr vs Fairland in the losing effort/ solid perimeter scoring with sr. Ethan Layne ... handling the ball on the perimeter and getting to the rim PG 5-9 soph Davon Lewis and soph forward Landon Vance ... the youth is there for rebuilding but the basketball talent says the Pointers are simply getting better every time out and threat to beat anyone in the OVC ... Washington CH, 3-2, is in the same boat, underclassmen up and down the roster ... a starting group that has one senior in Roman Chijevsky 9.6 ppg/5 rpg ... the rest of the lineup is all juniors led by 6-6 Noah Haithcock's almost double double average of 17ppg/9 rpg / 4 apg ... 6-1 Jeston Everhart 10.2 ppg/ 2 rpg ... the remaining starters Javin Baker 5-9 jr/ Bryson Heath jr 3.4 assists per game ... great matchup to close out the Battle in the 740 the 2024 edition ...



All games will be streamed/archived by SOSA on their youtube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@SOSAOhio/streams

[retiredref]

Wow. A great rundown of each game and what they bring to the table for this event

[danicalifornia]

Excited to get down to SSU and get setup tonight

All day Saturday and Sunday, should be some great games!

[pfloyd]

When you look at the rundowns, do the breakdown of the matchups - it has all the makings of 2 good days of hoops, not only quality teams but good games in each pairing of teams ... pfloyd will be in the house @ the Waller Gymnasium @ SSU both days ... the game schedule IS exactly what it says - one if the issues in attending the in-season classics is organizers just get the games started, game times run behind etc. in the Battles Series organizers keep to the scheduled times literally to the minute ... as a fan who travels to lots of games - keeping on schedule IS a big deal imo ... if the game you want to see is a 2p game it will start at 2p ... the last game on Saturday night between Fairland & Eastern Brown starts at 8p you will be on the road headed home at 9:15p ... well run in-season classic/tourney ... get out Saturday & Sunday - watch some excellent players/great matchups ...

[danicalifornia]

That was the most on schedule event I’ve ever been to

I think the latest a game started was like 2 minutes. That was insane

7 games down, 5 to go on Sunday!

[4out1in]

Outstanding previews pfloyd. I would have liked to have been there in person but I'm 3+ hours away and was able to watch on SOSA. Great 2 days of basketball.

[pfloyd]

Outstanding previews pfloyd. I would have liked to have been there in person but I'm 3+ hours away and was able to watch on SOSA. Great 2 days of basketball.

... thanks 4out1in ! it was an outstanding event again this season as the teams were matched up well, the pace of play kept each game starting on times and the next teams ready to go with 15mins of warmup ... SOSA - Southern Ohio Sports Authority , does an outstanding job covering games across Southern/Southeast Ohio ... excellent camera work, streaming feed/speed, and the play-by-play guys are excellent ... covering all 12 games was a major undertaking for this group BUT it was handled professionally - not only with the game livestream & play by play but the still photos, and post game interviews of players - these guys are the best around ... my hat goes off to them ...

[pfloyd]

... pfloyd was there for the action on Saturday ... great day of games ... great having the opportunity to sit on press row - thank you Jim Berry ( the tourney organizer/director of the show) ... even better getting an opportunity to run into/chat with/meet up with many of the game officials to say "hello" ... coaches - Coach Speed came up on press row - talk some shop, shook his hand to congratulate Coach Speed in picking up win #322 prior the coming the Battle Series game - moving Coach into the all time winningest coach in Fairland hoops history - also got to meet Coach Speed's "youngest" of the Speed youngin's who is playing up in his own hoops league ... Coach Fuller/Coach Tooley ... Coach Shaeffer & Coach Helber for Fairfield Union - in my perch I was able to hear/see the FU bench - it's always interesting to hear the coaching/teaching/ the connection between what is going on in the game at the time and how the "good" coaches/teachers of the game relate it back to what they had done as a team in practices - Coach Shaeffer is outstanding ... Coach Heath Unger for Eastern Brown found pfloyd -we talked at length about hoops in the SHAC - I told him how proud I was of him - coaching now at EB, Austin McCormick at NA, and others who in my 24 years covering hoops in Southern/Southeast Ohio I have seen/covered on SEOP/jjhuddle and now I get to do the same with them being courtside coaching throughout Southern/Southeast Ohio ... got to yell at Clayton Thomas - graduate, outstanding PG/shooting guard for Fairland now playing D1 golf at Marshall University - C is now officiating girls/boys high school basketball as well as attending Marshall U. ... he did an outstanding job in the game he worked Saturday at SSU ...Gabe Polcyn's dad came up to press row to say hello ... high school hoops in basketball Below the Lancaster-Dixon Line IS outstanding - I enjoy watching the games/doing the napkin stats/write-ups/rankings etc. but the best thing in doing it all is that it puts me in contact with amazing people - I'd do it for free! oh wait, I DO do it for free!! LOL ... the people in every corner of the SEOhio district/71 teams that I cover are the best ! - friends in basketball for sure in my book ...

... I didn't make the 2 hour trip back down to Portsmouth today for the Sunday games - watched them all on SOSA though ... had already made the 2 hr trip to the Burg early in the week, then yesterday ... Saturday night - the deer napkin stats were 7 fresh roadkill deer between Portsmouth and Logan, 3 near misses of deer running in front of the Pfloyd Jeep in 3 separate locations from Rt 32 & up Rte 33 ... deer were targeting pfloyd Saturday night LOL - too many near misses to give them a 2nd opportunity LOL ... thanks again to SSU, Jim Berry , SOSA for bringing us all a great show this past weekend at the Battle in the 740 ...