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congratulations go out to coach lambert and his rockets for their victory over liberty christian 57-31 and good luck in there game against village academy tommorow at 6 high scorers for the rockets prater 10 points 11 rebounds cales 13 points 5 steals goodluck rockets!

Coach Lambert actually called in the information with the score 59-31 in favor of Wellston.

Congrats to Coach Lambert and the Rockets.

The report in today's (12-30) Times-Journal.


Rockets roll to win over Liberty Christian

By PAUL BOGGS
Sports Editor

MILLERSPORT —The Wellston High School boys basketball team got some much-needed confidence, and a much-needed win, on Monday in Millersport.

The Golden Rockets raced out to a 24-5 advantage after the first quarter, then coasted to an easy 59-31 win over Liberty Christian in the first day of the Millersport Holiday Classic.

Both teams now stand at 2-4 overall.

The win snaps a three-game losing streak for the Rockets, as two of those three losses have come to a pair of five-win teams in Alexander (5-1) and Oak Hill (5-0).

Wellston’s only other win was at Ohio Valley Christian, 73-37, on Dec. 9.

Since then, the Rockets have adjusted amid a backdrop of distractions, including the year-long suspension of longtime head coach Jim Derrow.

Derrow was, according to the Ohio High School Athletic Association, found to be involved in a recruiting violation.

The Rockets had lost three straight until Monday, as Derrow last coached the club at Ohio Valley Christian.

The victory over Liberty Christian marked the first for interim head coach Jamie Lambert, who will guide the Golden Rockets for the remainder of the season.

“Basically, we’ve talked about getting through this together, as a family, no matter what,” said Lambert. “We’re going to be successful, despite what people are saying about us and doubting us. We’re going to do some good things. We’re not writing this season off by any means. We still plan to have a good year in spite of everything that has happened so far.”

Wellston dominated on Monday, early and often.

The Rockets rolled the opposition 24-5 in the first quarter, then outscored Liberty Christian 35-26 for the remainder of the match.

Wellston won the second half 23-15, and stymied Liberty Christian to single digits in all but the second stanza.

All but one Rocket on the varsity roster scored, and everyone saw game time.

Lambert said the Blue and Gold got defensive in the first quarter, which led to a lot of steals and baskets the other way.

“We’ve really stressed defensive intensity the last few practices and tonight, we played hard and played aggressive and got after it on that end,” he said. “We attacked them with a jump-and-run, got some quick steals and those turned into points for us. Hopefully, the kids will buy into this system that we’ve created here in the past couple of weeks. We saw that tonight. We had seven people score in the first quarter alone. It was a total team effort.”

Indeed it was.

Only two Rockets recorded double figures, but all but three Rockets had at least three points.

“In the second, third and fourth quarters, we played a lot of people, just trying to stay fresh for Tuesday night,” said Lambert.

Senior Slone Cales, on four total field goals and 3-of-4 free throws, led the winners with 13 points.

Cales canned a pair of three-pointers as did junior Jeff Matteson, who scored six.

Freshman Jaylen Prater posted a double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds.

Prater put in four field goals and a pair of free throws.

Junior Ryan Wagener, on two field goals and 4-of-4 free throws, added eight points as Cody Wilkett wound up with seven points and seven steals.

Cales came away with five thefts as senior Tyler King (four points) connected on a three as did freshman Ty McNelly.

Wilkett scored the second-most field goals with three as junior Ryan Darnell dropped in three points as well.

The Rockets shot 19-of-45 for the game, including 13-of-31 from two-point range.

They also overcame only 15-of-30 made free throws, 23 turnovers and 22 personal fouls.

No Liberty Christian player posted double figures, as William Twitty tallied eight points to lead the way.

The Rockets racked up 19 total field goals to only 11 for the opposition.

The Rockets return to non-league action, and return to Millersport tonight, when they tangle with Village Academy in the second day of the two-day holiday classic.

Tip time is set for 6 p.m.

* * *

Wellston 24 12 11 12 — 59

Liberty 5 11 7 8 —31

WELLSTON 59 (2-4)

Jeff Matteson 2 0-1 6, Jake Arthur 0 2-4 2, Tyler King 1 1-3 4, Austin Osborne 0 0-0 0, Cody Wilkett 3 1-3 7, Ryan Wagener 2 4-4 8, Ty McNelly 1 0-0 3, Slone Cales 4 3-4 13, Ryan Darnell 1 1-2 3, Seth Weikert 0 1-2 1, Jaylen Prater 4 2-6 10, Chris Osborne 1 0-0 2; TOTALS 19 15-30 59; 3-point goals: 6 (Jeff Matteson and Slone Cales 2 apiece, Tyler King and Ty McNelly 1 apiece)

LIBERTY CHRISTIAN 31 (2-4)

William Twitty 4 0-0 8, Kyle Ball 1 3-7 5, David Masters 2 3-9 7, T.J. Treadwell 3 0-0 6, Michael McDowell 1 1-4 3, Jackson 0 1-2 1, Stewart 0 1-2 1; TOTALS 11 9-24 31; 3-point goals: none

congrats to the Rockets, now that there has been a change at the top this team at least will play with a little more control. I hope these kids win alot of games the rest of the year. If the administration is smart this change will become permanent. Good day Clones!

Keyser_soze78 wrote:Coach Lambert actually called in the information with the score 59-31 in favor of Wellston.

Good for you Keyser_soze78. I wish the new Wellston staff would make themselves more available to the media. Their kids deserve the recognition.

Congratulations to Coach Lambert and the kids. Good win!

Ty Webb....Coach Lambert called in everything last night when they got back from Millersport.

congratulations to the rockets on your victory tonight over village academy 72-40 high scorers tonight matteson 19 cales 16 and prater 12 keep your winning streak alive now as you head to jackson tuesday

Wow, what a great win!

Is Wellston going to get the School for the Blind on their schedule, too?

Easy IronmanFan, maybe Jackson should since they continually get pounded by 40+ all the time.

You kinda set yourself up for that one Ifan01

I still have much more respect for Jackson. At least they are playing legitimate high school teams.

I have never heard of these two schools so I looked them up.

Liberty Christian Academy is located in Columbus and Pataskala and has an enrollment of 700 in Pre-School through 12th grade. That would average out to about 30 per class and perhaps half of those would be boys. I could not find where it was a member of the OHSAA.

The Village Academy is associated with the OHSAA and is located in Powell (Delaware Co.) and has an enrollment of 38 boys and 41 girls.

The 72-40 win over Academy and the 59-31 win over Liberty do not seem as impressive when that info pops up. The two wins rank right alongside the Rockets other win over Ohio Valley Christian by a 73-37 score.

Interesting schedule for the Rockets this season.

... just a couple of years ago Wellston was playing the ASVSM's of the world - now ? the likes of FPI ( the French Pastry Institute) ... the Harmony Science Academy or is that e-Harmony - whatever ... the Steiner Beauty Therapy School ... come on - surely the AD could fill a schedule outside the TVC with equal or better competition for the players ... I liked what I saw in the Wellston young guns - Prater/McNelly/Matteson/Osborne/Darnell & Co. ... got to give them quality competition to have them improve on the hardwood ...

pfloyd...Wellston's participation in the Millersport Holiday Classic, as stated in my story for today's Times-Journal, was a direct result of them not going to Orlando, Fla. to participate in three games in the Rock Holiday Classic.

Wellston was originally scheduled to play the three games in Orlando, but them not going to Florida coincided with the news three weeks ago that Coach Derrow was suspended for the season.

They needed three games to fill the 20-game schedule, so at this late juncture in finding games, the Millersport Classic took up two and Point Pleasant visiting Wellston on Tuesday, Jan. 13 is the third.

So that is the story on how the games with Liberty Christian and Village Academy came about.

... Now! we have the rest of the story !!!! - thank you for clearing things up ... was this trip to FLA ONLY contingent upon Coach Derrow as the head coach? not sure I understand why the TEAM no matter the coach couldn't participate ... other commitments by the current coaching staff ? ... just curious on this end ... a tough situation for the team all around - wish them the best - as I posted - some good young talent on the Rockets ball club ...

Why didn't Wellston fulfill their commitment to the Fla tourney?

What does the coach have to do with going to Flordia?

I'm reading all of this complaining about why wellston isn't scheduling the giants or what you would like to call them. But, we have to all agree wellston that wellston isn't doing that well the past few years. So why wouldn't wellston play these teams. Also we can look at it as possibly Ohio State or the other big conference teams play small school like Youngstown St.(1-AA team). Wellston is simply just trying to get some wins and also put some confidence in the players for tougher games.

Don't know first hand if this is true, but...

Someone mentioned to me that the Wellston players were asked to raise their share of the cost for the trip to Florida. What happens to the money now that the trip was called off?

That Q will probably not have an answer forthcoming.

Again, what happens to the money raised by the Wellston basketball players for the trip to the Sunshine State?

Anybody got the answer?