SoutheasternOhioPreps.com

Marietta 50
Vinton County 43 a final

... Playing in McArthur has ALWAYS been a tough venue for opposing teams over the years ... quality teams at Vinton County, in the 2023 season -quality football team as well ... wow ... last nights game was a cross between football, rugby and a "little" bit of basketball ... one of the most physical games I have ever watched or endured ... so physical that players could not do basketball moves - 2 of the best PGs in SEO with the ability to get to the rim (Elyjah Lieras-Kelley for Marietta & Cobra Sharp for Vinton County) - couldn't ... there was no such thing as being able to penetrate and dish - very few opportunities for the spot up perimeter shooters to face up to the bucket ... inside the paint? sumo wrestling might be the closest comparison ... survival of the fittest , the winner was going to be THE team that could "pull off" the most basketball type moves - this narrowed it down to players with the bulk and/or quickness to beat the defender or withstand the physical contact and finish ...

... Marietta never trailed in the game, as Seth Britton hit 1/2 FTs to take the lid off for the Tigers while Ashton Allman forged a tie at 1 - 1 as he hit on 1/2 charity stripe attempts ... Free Throws - the reward for getting fouled by an opponent while attempting a shot or the reward after the opposing team cumulates 5+ fouls in a given quarter ... the Charity Stripe would be visited often by both teams and yet "not enough" based on the way the game was officiated ... Vinton County was led by the 6-5 big man Ashton Allman in the 1st as he got the first Viking points on the 1/2 FTs, came back to get a fg down low on the blocks (3pts) ... uncharacteristic for THIS game - VC's next 2 fgs came on drives to the rim - one each by Owen Hire for 2pts and Cobra Sharp (2pts) - the Vikings would get to the rim on drives only 2 more times in the final 3 quarters of play ... the Tigers of Coach Gardner answered with 6-2 soph swing forward Zaiden Wittekind going back to back with a midrange jumper for 2 and 3 pointer from behind the arc on the left wing (5pts) ... 6-8 sr. Alex Kendall followed suit from deep by knocking down a 3 ball from the top of the key, the Findley University bound post player picked up 2 pts with a drive to the rim (5pts) - Marietta would finish on drives to the rim only 2 more times the rest of the game ... Marietta 11 Vinton County 7 after 1 ... the officials had set the tone for the game - "no blood no foul" was the agreed upon mantra for the game - to their credit, for the majority of the game they stuck to how they called this one from the outset ... and to the teams/players/coaches credit only 1 technical foul was called, no fans ejected, no fights between players - this one COULD HAVE gotten outta hand but for the maturity of the players ON the court ... with the physicality levels set @ Spinal Tap 11 levels - each team adjusted to the play on the court , the Marietta D held the Vinton County offense to 2 fgs - a 3 pointer by Cobra Sharp and one of the few transition buckets by VC - a Hayden Reynolds 2 pter after a Tiger turnover , the only other points in the quarter were from the line with Garrett Brown hitting 3/4 from the line with 1/2 technical FTs - the high scoring swing forward for the Vikings was held to 0 fgs in the first half as Brown played with his back to the bucket the entire half ... the Vikings usually potent offense was held to 5 fgs in the half ... 1/5 from beyond the arc with the eye opener being that the Tigers gave them no looks at the bucket from downtown to even put up the 3 ball ... Free Throw shooting was a factor early to say the least and the difference in the game to say the most , the Vikings of Coach Kight were 4/10 from the line in the opening 2 quarters ... VC with the physical play turned the ball over 9 times in the half ... Marietta continued to bang in the half court on offense, the Viking D gave Kendall no room to operate in the paint as the 6-8 big man showed but 1 point in the 2nd qtr ... Elyjah Leiras-Kelley got rare transition points for MHS (2pts), Seth Britton with the even more rare drive to rim for 2pts leaving Zaiden Wittekind to be THE guy as he was able to adjust not being able to get to the rim by dropping his 2nd trey of the game to go with a pull up jumper from 6 ft (5pts/10 pts in the half) ... Marietta had 8 turnovers in the half/ 2/4 from the line ... 3 for 8 from behind the arc ... Marietta 21 Vinton County 15 as both teams went in for ice at intermission ... the team that could pull off the most basketball like plays was going to win this one AND THAT came down to players with strength of body & basketball talent and those who could get "close to the rim" with quickness & the talent to finish with body control - for Marietta it fell on HIM - Alex Kendall & Zaiden Wittekind ... in the 3rd coming out of the locker rooms - both teams KNEW exactly how the game was being called - the hope being that the officials continued swallowing their whistles - adjustments ... Vinton County got only their 3rd drive to the rim that ended in points - Garrett Brown used his size to back his way down and finish at the rim 2 pts, the only other fg for VC in the qtr was a putback bucket by Ashton Allman 2pts , Cobra Sharp add 3/4 from the FT line - VC with 7 points in the period ... Marietta went to their next level player in Kendall ... the big man in the middle opened the 3rd with his 2nd three pointer of the game ... Kendall showed us his entire skill set - hit the 3 ball, pulled up for a midrange jumper 2pts and took the body blows getting to the rim for 2pts on a drive into the paint to go with 2/2 from the FT line (9pts/15 pts thru 3) ... what I was most impressed with was Kendall's ability/maturity to not pick up his 2nd technical - the senior was pounded on, took body blows for 32 minutes - he handled it well - adjusted ... Marietta 32 Vinton County 22 after 3 rounds ... the 4th round showed Vinton County getting the win for points scored 21-18 Vikings ... Garrett Brown at 6-3 with a big frame was able to carry the Vikings with 15 fourth qtr points - 3/4 from the line, a midrange jumper 2pts/2pts on a transition bucket/2 pts on a drive into the bodies down low in the paint/ 2 treys including a circus 3 pter with 1.4 seconds to play to draw the Vikings within 5 pts at 43-48 ... Cobra Sharp added 4 pts , Matt Hembree & Allman each went 1/2 from the line to close out the Vikings scoring on the night ... Marietta held serve taking the blows literally and figuratively putting up 18 points in the period - Izak Knighten 4pts in the lane (I know right! who even ventured in there on purpose!) ... Wittekind added 7 pts to bring his game total to 17pts for the night ... Alex Kendall with a putback bucket and 4/6 from the charity stripe for a hard earned 21 pts to lead all scorers for the game ... the Tigers with the W, got some hard earned RPI points with wins over Meigs (14-3) & Vinton County (14-4) .... Marietta 50 Vinton County 43 a final ...

... Pfloyd's official "UN-official" Napkin Stats - Vinton County ...

Scoring ... Garrett Brown 20, Cobra Sharp 12, Ashton Allman 6, Hayden Reynolds 2, Owen Hire 2, Matt Hembree 1
3 Pointers ... 3/11 ... Garrett Brown 2, Cobra Sharp 1
FTs ... 14/26
TOs ... 14
PnP ... 9 fgs/ 18 points in the paint
PnT ... 2 fgs/ 4 points in transition
Pbk ... 1 fg/ 2 points on putback buckets

... easy to say that FT's was the story of the game 14/26 BUT the fact that VC wasn't able to play basketball due to how this one was called was imo the key factor ... free throw shooting was equally "not good" as Marietta said "hold my koolaid" going 14/22 from the line ... Sharp unable to be a factor not getting to the rim and/or able to kick the ball out for 3's by Reynolds/Brown/Tritipo/Hembree - a bigger factor imo ... the physical play inside (inside defined as anywhere from the FT line to the foul line - the paint) took away "game" from both teams ...

...Pfloyd's official "UN-official" Napkin Stats - Marietta ...

Scoring ... Alex Kendall 21, Zaiden Wittekind 17, Elyjah Lieras-Kelley 5, Izak Knighten 4, Seth Britton 3
3 Pointers ... 4/12 ... Zaiden Wittekind 2, Alex Kendall 2
FTs ... 14/22
TOs ... 17
PnP ... 10 fgs/ 20 points in the paint
PnT ... 1 fg/ 2 points in transition
Pbk ... 2 fgs/ 4 points on putback buckets

So when you say “physical” play took away from the game do you mean refs were not calling anything and the bodies were hitting the floor or the refs were calling everything and no flow could be had ? Just interested to know. 48 FTs tells me there were a fair share of fouls.

I’ve been reading this site for about 20 years and I’ve never heard both Pfloyd and Danicalifornia complain in such manner about the way a game was officiated. They’ve closely watched hundreds of games.

That’s all I need to hear.

baseball16 wrote: ↑Sun Feb 04, 2024 6:21 pm So when you say “physical” play took away from the game do you mean refs were not calling anything and the bodies were hitting the floor or the refs were calling everything and no flow could be had ? Just interested to know. 48 FTs tells me there were a fair share of fouls.

I was surprised with the number that were ACTUALLY called - as it felt like nothing was being called due to the overall physicality of the play allowed ... all of the above as bodies did hit the floor, and had they called the physical play inside - not sure how many players would have been around at the end of the game ... fair share of fouls called - yes - both ways - yes ... that was not a factor as both shot horribly from the line ... maybe it's ME not used to the pounding down low , in the paint that kept the game from being a basketball game ... physical play on both sides as each side adjusted to how it was being called ... it was survival of the fittest -the strong survived ... the strong with basketball skills won ... easily the most physical game I have seen all season and I've seen going on game number 63 in my books kept ... it was the same for both teams so I suppose it makes it a "fair game" ...

baseball16 wrote: ↑Sun Feb 04, 2024 6:21 pm So when you say “physical” play took away from the game do you mean refs were not calling anything and the bodies were hitting the floor or the refs were calling everything and no flow could be had ? Just interested to know. 48 FTs tells me there were a fair share of fouls.

There were more non-calls (fouls committed under the rule but not called) than in any game I've seen, ever. For some reason, the officials decided to allow a non-basketball event to occur. It proved to be awful to watch as it was a complete distortion of what the game is supposed to be. Almost every possession multiple fouls could have been called. It was remarkable how the players and coaches from both teams did not allow it to impact their respect for their opponents. Did not even appear to get moderately "chippy". I'll stop here.

pfloyd wrote: ↑Sun Feb 04, 2024 6:53 pm

baseball16 wrote: ↑Sun Feb 04, 2024 6:21 pm So when you say “physical” play took away from the game do you mean refs were not calling anything and the bodies were hitting the floor or the refs were calling everything and no flow could be had ? Just interested to know. 48 FTs tells me there were a fair share of fouls.

I was surprised with the number that were ACTUALLY called - as it felt like nothing was being called due to the overall physicality of the play allowed ... all of the above as bodies did hit the floor, and had they called the physical play inside - not sure how many players would have been around at the end of the game ... fair share of fouls called - yes - both ways - yes ... that was not a factor as both shot horribly from the line ... maybe it's ME not used to the pounding down low , in the paint that kept the game from being a basketball game ... physical play on both sides as each side adjusted to how it was being called ... it was survival of the fittest -the strong survived ... the strong with basketball skills won ... easily the most physical game I have seen all season and I've seen going on game number 63 in my books kept ... it was the same for both teams so I suppose it makes it a "fair game" ...

I'm with you 90%+ of your analysis of this game, especially in your summary recap when you credit the players and coaches from both teams for not allowing the officiating to allow the game to get out of hand. Coaches and players seemed to respect each other throughout. Good for them.

Something to think about. When the defense is allowed to do things against the rules to grab, shove, arm bar, two hands, etc., it has the greatest negative impact on the most skilled players who are otherwise very difficult to stop when the rule book is adhered to. I think Sharp for VC is one of the best attackers and versatile guards in the Southeast, and he was stymied by overly aggressive Marietta guards who adjusted to what the officials gave them. Even more impactful was the treatment against Kendall which was brutal. A completely different game if he wasn't gang-fouled all night.

Marietta doesn't mind playing games in 40s and 50s, but VC was averaging 68 points a game and was below 60 only one time this season (first game of the year scoring 55 but winning by 29). And they struggled to get to 40? Tigers defense is good but not that good.