Lucasville Valley 16-2 (12-0) @ Waverly 14-5 (9-3)

[steppinontoes]

65 64

[toast]

One for the Ages! Best game played in the Waverly gym in years. High intensity top notch basketball from start to finish. And what a finish!

Good Luck to both teams in the tourney. One game at a time.........

[The Ghost of Swanker]

Psychic
<----

[smurray]

Unbelievable game with an unbelievable atmosphere. Hawhee's Palace was rockin' - it's doesn't get any better.

Waverly lead 18-16 after one and 36-33 at halftime. The Tigers lead by 6 a couple times in the half.
The teams played even in the 3rd and Waverly lead 51-48 after three. The Tigers lead by 7 at one point in the 3rd at 40-33.
Waverly lead 54-50 with 4:51 to play before Valley took a 57-56 lead with 2:59 to play. Waverly would never lead again until the game winner by White. After a Valley timeout with 1:21 to play and up 59-58, Yates hit a shot to go up 61-58 with .43 to play. Valley fouled Kelly on purpose with .33 to play and Kelly calmly stepped to the line and knocked down both FT's in a one and one situation to make it 61-60 Valley. Keller was fouled on the inbounds with .32 to play and hit both FT's to put Valley back up 3 at 63-60. Kretzer hit a bucket with .19 to play to cut it to one at 63-62 and a Waverly timeout. Yates was fouled with .15 to play and hit 1 of 2 to make it 64-62. Kretzer brought the ball up and was going to drive to the bucket but kicked it out to a wide open White who calmly knocked down the 3 with .03 to play. White had 6 points on two threes, both in the 4th period.

Kretzer 35 points
Kelly 8
White 6
Wardv 6
Corcoran 6
Hart 4
Waverly was 11-15 from the line (much improved)

Yates 25 points
West 18 (5 threes)
Dwyer 7
Dunn 6
Keller 4
Riehl 4
Valley was 17-28 from the line

[coop]

Valley has to hit the FT's down the stretch in the tournament. No shame in losing this ballgame, VERY good Waverly team.

Indians have 1 more to get to 17-3 (13-1) for the year...going in we were thinking 18-2 (loss to Waverly, Ironton) Looks right on par except for that EARLY Zane Trace loss...so the Indians are right where we expected.

3 losses by combined 6 points...we'll tae that!

Congrats to Waverly, BEST of luck to you in the tournament, represent the SOC well!

[Hoggy]

Congrats to the Tigers on the victory!

Both teams have the potential to make a deep tourney runs. Good luck to both teams on the tourney trail.

[N B Heat]

Amazing game unbelievable effort for both teams neither one refusing to give in , Valley playing for the unblemished conference record ,Waverly playing for pride and to avenge the loss at Valley. Congrats to Waverly on a hard fought win ,just thankful i got to witness this type effort ! Best game all season long .

[sparky]

where is yates going to school next year?

[smurray]

This is one game I'd like to have a copy of the DVD. Wire to wire intensity.

[SOCMAN05]

Great game !!! I dont think anybody in the house was sitting down through the final quarter ! Waverly sent Jake out as a winner in the final game and the atmosphere there was unreal ! Hats off to all the players who literally laid it out ! Congrats to Waverly on the win and as for my Indians this is not a bad loss and it will prepare us for the Tough tournament ahead ! Good Luck to both teams in tje Tourney.

[bookem13]

An absolute classic! My son had a 6th grade game in Portsmouth...got there in the 2nd quarter. When I opened those gym doors, the Palace was electric! Both student sections were awesome, and the place was packed to the rafters! On the radio after the game, Kretzer said it well..."both teams brought their A game tonight." I was so impressed with the Valley kids...man, Yates can flat get to the rim and finish...and he's such an unselfish player. They're long, play as hard as any team I've seen, and have class. I give kudos to their coach, who is doing a fantastic job with those young men.

Now, for my Tigers. I thought we did a fantastic job of handling Valley's relentless pressure...great job Doc Kelly! Corcoran and Ward battled their tails off, Jake played at another level, and J.P...what can I say....sweet stroke at the end! I thought that said a lot when Kretzer gave that ball up for a wide-open teammate with the game on the line. We also got huge minutes from our bench...I love the Davis kid! I thought Coach Robertson did a nice job of mixing defenses down the stretch (putting different defenders on Yates), and getting good looks at the basket against one of the best defensive teams I've seen. I wouldn't have wanted to be an official in that one...it was like watching a Big 10 game....physical!

[Jesco White]

Congrats to Waverly on the win. I think it's great to see so many people from both sides of this game agree as to how great a game it was. That's the kind of sportsmanship that seems to be lacking overall anymore, so it's great to see that displayed on a night where two groups of kids (and the communities that support them) competed so hard.

[coop]

Congrats to Waverly on the win. I think it's great to see so many people from both sides of this game agree as to how great a game it was. That's the kind of sportsmanship that seems to be lacking overall anymore, so it's great to see that displayed on a night where two groups of kids (and the communities that support them) competed so hard.

Agree...usually it's blaming the refs, and this guy had not sportsmanship, and this fan did that...nice to see for a change, because in EVERY game..someone wins and someone loses, but EVERY kid plays hard!

[bucki4life]

I agree this was a great game for the entire 32 minutes. These two teams showed great sportsmanship but really battled like the rivals they truly are. Devin Kelly and Luke Keller are good friends and you could see the friendly competion between them during the game. I agree both teams brought thier "A" games and this time Waverly came out a little ahead. Both teams were well coached and the fans were great! Good luck to both squads for a long tourney run!