SoutheasternOhioPreps.com

Fairland 61
Chesapeake 40 a final

... made the 2 hour drive to Fairland High School tonight to catch Coach Speed's Dragons vs Coach Davis and his Chesapeake Panthers ... it was my first look at the Dragons this season - my #7 on the Elite 8 rankings ... it was the first time I had seen the 2018-19 Edition of FHS ...the last time I saw the Dragons they had the same lineup as the year before, and the year before , and the year before, and the year before THIS years Dragons showcase an outstanding freshmen/sophomore group anchored by senior QB Matt Mondlak ... while the 'peake has NO seniors and an excellent group of - you guessed it freshmen/sophomores anchored by juniors Austin Jackson/Logan Walsh/Josh Cox ... my crystal ball has THIS matchup being BIG for the foreseeable future - going to be fun to watch ... tonight? I thought it would much closer and WAS - on paper ...BUT the game isn't played on paper , this one was over after the first 2:24 of the game as the Dragons opened with 2 Clayton Thomas triples bookending a Jacob Polcyn deuce 8-0 Dragons timeout CHS ... in the first quarter Sophs - Polycn/Chinn/Thomas plus freshman Aiden Porter put up the FHS first 15 points while Chesapeake stayed within shouting distance behind Austin Jackson (jr) 5 points/2 each from Tylan Hutchinson (jr) and Eli Archer (so) ... Fairland 15 Chesapeake 9 end of 1 ... Fairland outscored the 'peake 12-8 in the 2nd behind a strong inside game from Ian Chinn (the newspaper preview has Chinn as a soph/but I THOUGHT the PA announcer had him as a senior - which could have been just my bad hearing LOL) ... Chinn put up 7 points in the 2nd with 5 points from sophs Thomas & Gavin Hunt ... Chesapeake kept the game respectable with 2 apiece from Eli Archer/Logan Walsh/Travis Grim (so)/Levi Blankenship (fr) ... Fairland 27 Chesapeake 17 at intermission ... Quarter #3 was ALL Fairland, the Dragons dropped 4 of 5 triples in the quarter (Porter 2/Mondlak 1/Thomas 1) ... a couple of putback baskets from Chinn for the Dragon offense couple that with holding CHS to 2 fgs and 3/7 from the FT line in the period ... turned the game into a 23 point spread after 3 ... Fairland 48 Chesapeake 25 end of 3 ... Chesapeake outscored Fairland 15-13 in the final quarter as freshman Levi Blankenship added 6 points including a triple to lead the Panthers in the period ...FHS looked no further that Clayton Thomas to maintain the status quo - the sharp shooting guard added his 5th & 6th three pointers for the game in the final qtr. to pace the Dragons ... Fairland 61 Chesapeake 40 a final ...

... Pfloyd's Official "unofficial" Napkin Stats - Chesapeake ...

Scoring ... Austin Jackson 8, Eli Archer 8, Levi Blankenship 8, Nathan Cox 6, Tylan Hutchinson 2, Logan Walsh 2,Travis Grim 2, Josh Cox 2, Zander Schmidt 2
3 Pointers ... 4/13 ... Nathan Cox 2, Austin Jackson 1, Levi Blankenship 1
FTs .... 6/11
TOs ....14
PnP ... 10 fgs/20 points in the paint
PnT ... 2 fgs/4 points in transition

... this was my 2nd look at the 'peake ( caught them vs Piketon on the opening weekend of the season) ... lots of very good young pieces to the Chesapeake team ... the key here is they are youngsters who will keep getting better and better under the teaching/coaching of Coach Davis and his staff ... would have liked to have seen Eli Archer get more touches in the paint tonight - Archer has the potential to be THE outstanding post player in the OVC before he is done at CHS - but he can only be effective IF/When he gets touches down low where he is effective - sometimes it appeared that he was being ignored in the post - the sooner the CHS TEAM realizes their success is going to run through Eli Archer the faster they will get "better"... Good young guards - Nathan Cox/Austin Jackson/Logan Walsh/Travis Grim/Levi Blankenship ... Chesapeake has come a long way THIS season ! I look for a giant step forward NEXT season ...

...Pfloyd's Official "unofficial" Napkin Stats - Fairland ...

Scoring ... Clayton Thomas 21, Ian Chinn 13, Aiden Porter 9, Matt Mondlak 7, Jacob Polcyn 6, Gavin Hunt 5
3 Pointers ... 10/25 ... Clayton Thomas 6, Aiden Porter 3, Matt Mondlak 1
FTs ... 5/6
TOs ... 15
PnP ... 13fgs/26 points in the paint
PnT ... 0

... Kolin Van Horn's dad stopped by the cheap seats before the varsity game - told me that this year's edition of the Dragons were fun to watch - after seeing tonight's game I have to agree - a very good basketball TEAM are the Dragons this season (I know Capt. Obvious I am) ... solid defensively, hustle for 32 minutes EVEN when leading by 20+ points the Dragon players were on the floor diving for loose balls, excellent passing team, great movement without the ball, always cutting to the bucket and being found by Thomas/Porter/Polcyn ... give them a inch and they will bury you with the 3 ball - Clayton Thomas is as good of a perimeter shooter as I have seen this season - limitless range to boot ... Aiden Porter - outstanding freshmen guard for Coach Speed ... throw in Polcyn only a soph/good hands/sees the floor so well once he gets the ball in the high post and delivers the ball (out of all of the Dragons he is probably the player who really doesn't look to score - it will come I'm sure) ... I really like Ian Chinn's game down low! tough kid/gets to the rim and finishes ... every good TEAM , especially every good YOUNG TEAM needs leadership - I see that in senior Matt Mondlak for the Dragons - he comes across as the glue that pulls all of the youngsters together ... I have no problem with my ranking of Fairland at the #7 spot in the Elite 8 rankings - a very good TEAM ... when I was talking to Coach Speed & his staff in his office before the game - I mentioned that the Dragons have been THE team that has had to earn their way UP the rankings this season ... I didn't look back to see exactly where I had them in the preseason rankings but my guess is - due to losing their top 6 players to graduation- they were close to 30th or higher ... I'm pretty sure that Coach Speed's Dragons will be starting in the top 8 NEXT season ...

Pfloyd, you are correct, Ian Chinn is a senior.

Tri-StateYouthSports wrote: Sat Feb 09, 2019 1:22 am Pfloyd, you are correct, Ian Chinn is a senior.

Thanks TSYS for clearing that up - I was hoping he was a sophomore so he would have a couple more years - as I said he does a nice job in the paint around the rim ...

Great rundown as usual Pfloyd. The coach from Fairland has done an outstanding job this year in changing the style that they play, compared to the last 3 or 4 years.

Maybe it’s pointing out the obvious but 30 points on 3’s and 26 points in the paint 5 at the foul line looks like all 3’s and layups

Another telling stat.

Assists: Fairland 22 (Polcyn 8, Porter 5, Thomas 4, Mondlak 3), Chesapeake 3

... Great seeing my hoops friends from the Chesapeake/Fairland communities last night - peake71 , Coach Davis' parents, Mr. Van Horn (Kollin Van Horn's father ... Kollin the 6-8 post player for Fairland the 4 years prior to this season now the starting for Cedarville University alongside Chillicothe graduate Branden Maughmer) ... and of course the coaching staffs from both teams - such great peoples as they always have a good word for pfloyd when we run into each other ... Coach Evan Salyers (a great high school big man in the middle for Fairland a few years back now the FHS JV coach) - I enjoyed watching Evan when he played for the Dragons, we have kept in touch since his graduation - such a great young man ... glad I'm able to watch his growth as a coach court side for his alma mater ...

Thank you ALL for making pfloyd & Mrs. pfloyd feel at home every time we make the trip to the River ... as I've said many times before there's something special about going to the River to watch high school hoops ... the basketball is always good but the people I've run into and become acquainted with over the years make it special - I thank you ...

... a side note take-away from the game last night - I am NOW a BIG Clayton Thomas (Fairland guard) ... sophomore , 5-9 ... such a heady basketball player ... fearless shooting the ball from beyond the arc, quick release ... does a nice job defensively ... great passer of the ball, sees the floor... ALL are what he brings to the court "basketball skills" wise BUT the young man comes across as a kid who "truly loves playing the game" ! ... he comes across as a kid who enjoys playing WITH his teammates ... he wants them ALL to do well from Aiden Porter the outstanding freshman up to the leader of the TEAM Matt Mondlak - he pumps them up, he's a cheerleader ON the court as well as a "coach" on the floor ... love watching this kid play ... well done Clayton Thomas ! you've won over a fan in pfloyd ... I'm looking forward to watching you the rest of this season and 2 more ! Dragon hoops ON the floor is in good hands ...

After losing their top 6 players from a year ago, Fairland has had another outstanding season. They proved me wrong as I picked them for 5th in the OVC this season. It looks very much like the Dragons will win their 4th straight OVC title. Congratulations to Coach Speed and his kids for surprising a lot of people, including me.

Trojan Dave I thought we could be pretty good but they have exceeded my expectations.As well as alot of others.

Jmo ! Coach of the year !

I told my buddies I could have coached last years final 4 team to the sweet 16 if not the elite 8 and I'm no coach. BUT this year is 75% coaching and players buying in and playing as a team. Amazing job this year for coach speed and staff. I went to Huntington Prep game thinking we would get beat by 20 and we almost won by 20. Major overachievers (and I don't mean that in a bad way).

I am not putting Fairland down with this, but the Huntington Prep team was their B team or regional team not their main prep team.

peake71 wrote: Mon Feb 11, 2019 8:54 am I am not putting Fairland down with this, but the Huntington Prep team was their B team or regional team not their main prep team.

to @DragonDad's defense, I'm sure he is aware it was the Regional team. Fairland played the Huntington Prep Regional team 2 seasons ago in Ironton. The Regional team was much better compared to this year's HP Regional team. I am going to assume the previous version is what he was expecting as was I.

Like I said not trying to start anything. Fairland has a good team this year and they beat us twice. They are some who think Huntington Prep only has one team.