Gallia Academy 38 McClain 32 a final

[pfloyd]

Gallia Academy 38
McClain 32 a final

... The first post season game on the Road to the Convo for the Pfloyd Tour! made the afternoon trip to the French City, Gallipolis, to catch the matchup of the 6-15 Blue Devils vs the 5-17 Tigers of Greenfield McClain ... I had caught GAHS in December 3 times as they dropped games to Marietta,Warren, & Fairland, I wanted to see the Blue Devils 1) vs a team not named Ironton,Chesapeake, South Point, Portsmouth or Fairland (the OVC teams on gauntlet row) 2) wanted to see if GAHS had improved - Cade Mock was a "player" in the Blue Devil offense back in December BUT NOT YET a focal point of the GAHS offense and 3) I met Coach Harrison back in December for the 1st time, we had a good discussion about his team and the OVC ... Coach Harrison is one of the good guys in the SEO Coaching fraternity ... Coach came up the Cheap Seats for another good discussion about where his team is, will be in the coming years, what he has coming up through the ranks - thanks Coach Harrison for the "cheap seat chat" ! ...

... in attendance as you would guess were the coaches for Marietta High School ( Marietta gets the winner of the GAHS vs MHS game) - Coach Gardner/Coach Warner do their homework! obviously with so much livestreaming, exchanging of video feeds there ARE a lot of coaching staffs who never "scout" the opposition anymore relying on what they see "on tape" ... the "good" staffs - get out on the road, still want to see the opposition - the "eye test" ... Coach Warner, as well stopped over for a chat during intermission - Coach Warner has been in the game "awhile", has forgotten more than I will ever know about basketball LOL ... Coach Warner still has passion for the game, enjoys being courtside and teaching the game of basketball again - thank you Coach Warner for the hoops discussion in the cheap seats!

... yesterday's game was a game in the opening quarter that I could actually keep my napkin stats ON A NAPKIN ! as neither team "displayed" much offensively as McClain settled for 3 fgs as sr. Seth Weller backed himself into the paint for a pair of 2 pointers (4pts) & Andrew Potts added a 2 pointer on the blocks to account for the Tigers scoring ... the most significant "stat" was starting junior forward Owen Sykes picking up 2 quick fouls and spending the 1st qtr. on the bench ... Gallia Academy struggled as well from the floor as the Blue Devils matched the 3 fgs with sr. PG Wesley Saunders getting into the paint for 2pts/ 6-6 jr. big man Cade Mock got a putback bucket for 2pts/ 6-5 freshman forward Gabe Hammons went 1/2 from the FT line/ Alex Blair rounded out the scoring for GAHS as the 6-1 soph got to the rim for 2pts ... Sr. forward/shooting guard Kenyon Franklin took himself out of play/& on the bench picking up his 2nd foul the opening period ... Gallia Academy 7 McClain 6 after 1 ... the opening period was a "feeling out" quarter, Gallia Academy being used to teams in the OVC having speed at all positions/teams pushing the ball, getting out in transition was probably in shock playing a McClain team that "worked the ball around the perimeter" , walked the ball up the court, looked for shots in the paint/on the block as evidence by McClain taking 'zero" shots from beyond the arc ... McClain looked to be thin on the bench, with Sykes on the bench the flow of the offense wasn't - "smooth" ... neither team shot the ball well or looked to put it up quickly ... somewhere about the 5 minute mark of the 2nd period someone flipped a switch as BOTH teams began "pushing the ball, putting up the perimeter shot" McClain put up 5 three balls knocking down 2 of the attempts as Weller drained a trey from the top of the key , followed by a Jordan Bell triple from deep (3pts) ... Seth Weller got to the rim where he was fouled adding 2/2 from the line (5pts in the qtr/9pts in the half) ... Gallia Academy went 0 for 3 from downtown/ 0 for 5 in the half from three ... with the deep ball not falling the Blue Devils continued to attack the paint and pick up the "on ball" defense forcing 4 Tiger turnovers in the quarter/8 for the half ... soph Beckett Camden took a drive to the rim for 2pts/ Franklin was able to score on drive to the bucket 2pts and added 1/2 from the line (3pts) ... Alex Blair took a Tiger miscue the length of the court for a 2pt transition bucket (2pts) and sr. PG Wesley Saunders pulled up for a midrange jumper to tie the score following a Tiger bucket on the blocks by Andrew Potts ... McClain finished the half 2/5 from downtown while Gallia Academy 0/5 ... the GAHS defense turned MHS over 8 times in the half ... the big stat still was the 3 fouls picked up by starting forward Owen Sykes for McClain - with a limited bench , the flow of the McClain offense wasn't good in his absence ... Franklin for Gallia spent a big share of the half on the bench as well - his absence too was noticeable in both the Devils offensive flow and defense efforts ... Gallia Academy 16 McClain 16 at the half ... When I came to Gallia Academy High School back in December, even in losses to Fairland/Marietta/Warren I was impressed with the length/size/potential of the 6-6 Cade Mock, the junior reminded me of a younger Trent Taylor the 6-7 post player for Warren ... in the 3rd period Mock put his mark on the game getting 3 fgs - one on his 2nd putback bucket off of an offensive rebound to go with a pair of baskets down in the paint (6pts) ... Saunders added the 4th bucket in the qtr for GAHS on another bucket in the paint for the Blue Devils ... McClain was held to a pair of fgs - after Weller went 1/2 from the charity stripe (1pt) freshman Michael Noszka Jr. drained his first and only triple of the game (3pts) and Potts with drive for 2pts ... Gallia Academy 24 McClain 22 after 3 ... the final quarter saw McClain get only 2 fgs, 9pts from sr. Seth Weller 19pts for the game ... Weller went 4/6 from the line and added a 3 pter and 2 pt drive to the rim ... the only other points for McClain in the qtr was 1/2 from the FT line for Noszka Jr. ... at 5:38 on the clock GAHS had a 28-22 lead with a 4-0 start to the qtr. on a Cade Mock drive to the rim & a Gabe Hammons 2pts in the paint ... a big spark off the bench was provided by sophomore Beckett Camden - Camden gave the Blue Devils a big lift defensively with solid on ball D, to go with a big block of a Jordan Bell 3 pt attempt ... Camden added a big assist down low to Mock (6pts/14 pts for the night) ... at 1:25 to play Gallia was up 32-30 after the Mock bucket in the paint and an & 1 attempt ... :26.4 the score stood at 34-32 following Mock's 2/2 from the line ... Gallia Academy went 8/9 from the foul line in the 4th with Wesley Saunders 4/4 to make the score 36-32 ... fittingly, the spark off the bench Camden Beckett put the game away with 3.1 on the clock - the sophomore went 2/2 to give the Blue Devils the W ... surviving and advancing to take on the #1 seed/20-2 Marietta Tigers Tuesday night at Marietta ... Gallia Academy 38 McClain 32 a final ...

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

Scoring ... Seth Weller 19, Andrew Potts 4, Michael Noszka Jr. 4, Jordan Bell 3, Jayden Allison 2
3 Pointers ... 4/14 ... Seth Weller 2, Michael Noszka Jr 1, Jordan Bell 1
FTs ... 8/12
TOs ... 11
PnP ... 6 fgs/ 12 points in the paint
PnT .. 0
Pbk ... 0

... Pfloyd's official "UN-official" Napkin Stats - Gallia Academy ...

Scoring ... Cade Mock 14, Wesley Saunders 10, Alex Blair 4, Beckett Camden 4, Gabe Hammons 3, Kenyon Franklin 3
3 Pointers ... 0/7
FTs ... 10/13
TOs ... 7
PnP ... 13 fgs/ 26 points in the paint
PnT ... 1 fg/ 2 points in transition
Pbk ... 2 fgs/ 4 points on putback buckets

... Gallia Academy played Marietta to a 45-53 loss at GAHS back in early December ... a -8 loss is a GOOD point to reflect on/build on for the Blue Devils ... GAHS will need big nights across the board from Franklin/Mock/Saunders offensively to go with big time D from the entire rotation ... I wish the Blue Devils congratulations on getting a W in the post season ! From talking with Coach Harrison - good things are to come next season and beyond for the Gallia Academy faithful ...

[Hookshot]

Gallia Academy 38
McClain 32 a final

... The first post season game on the Road to the Convo for the Pfloyd Tour! made the afternoon trip to the French City, Gallipolis, to catch the matchup of the 6-15 Blue Devils vs the 5-17 Tigers of Greenfield McClain ... I had caught GAHS in December 3 times as they dropped games to Marietta,Warren, & Fairland, I wanted to see the Blue Devils 1) vs a team not named Ironton,Chesapeake, South Point, Portsmouth or Fairland (the OVC teams on gauntlet row) 2) wanted to see if GAHS had improved - Cade Mock was a "player" in the Blue Devil offense back in December BUT NOT YET a focal point of the GAHS offense and 3) I met Coach Harrison back in December for the 1st time, we had a good discussion about his team and the OVC ... Coach Harrison is one of the good guys in the SEO Coaching fraternity ... Coach came up the Cheap Seats for another good discussion about where his team is, will be in the coming years, what he has coming up through the ranks - thanks Coach Harrison for the "cheap seat chat" ! ...

... in attendance as you would guess were the coaches for Marietta High School ( Marietta gets the winner of the GAHS vs MHS game) - Coach Gardner/Coach Warner do their homework! obviously with so much livestreaming, exchanging of video feeds there ARE a lot of coaching staffs who never "scout" the opposition anymore relying on what they see "on tape" ... the "good" staffs - get out on the road, still want to see the opposition - the "eye test" ... Coach Warner, as well stopped over for a chat during intermission - Coach Warner has been in the game "awhile", has forgotten more than I will ever know about basketball LOL ... Coach Warner still has passion for the game, enjoys being courtside and teaching the game of basketball again - thank you Coach Warner for the hoops discussion in the cheap seats!

... yesterday's game was a game in the opening quarter that I could actually keep my napkin stats ON A NAPKIN ! as neither team "displayed" much offensively as McClain settled for 3 fgs as sr. Seth Weller backed himself into the paint for a pair of 2 pointers (4pts) & Andrew Potts added a 2 pointer on the blocks to account for the Tigers scoring ... the most significant "stat" was starting junior forward Owen Sykes picking up 2 quick fouls and spending the 1st qtr. on the bench ... Gallia Academy struggled as well from the floor as the Blue Devils matched the 3 fgs with sr. PG Wesley Saunders getting into the paint for 2pts/ 6-6 jr. big man Cade Mock got a putback bucket for 2pts/ 6-5 freshman forward Gabe Hammons went 1/2 from the FT line/ Alex Blair rounded out the scoring for GAHS as the 6-1 soph got to the rim for 2pts ... Sr. forward/shooting guard Kenyon Franklin took himself out of play/& on the bench picking up his 2nd foul the opening period ... Gallia Academy 7 McClain 6 after 1 ... the opening period was a "feeling out" quarter, Gallia Academy being used to teams in the OVC having speed at all positions/teams pushing the ball, getting out in transition was probably in shock playing a McClain team that "worked the ball around the perimeter" , walked the ball up the court, looked for shots in the paint/on the block as evidence by McClain taking 'zero" shots from beyond the arc ... McClain looked to be thin on the bench, with Sykes on the bench the flow of the offense wasn't - "smooth" ... neither team shot the ball well or looked to put it up quickly ... somewhere about the 5 minute mark of the 2nd period someone flipped a switch as BOTH teams began "pushing the ball, putting up the perimeter shot" McClain put up 5 three balls knocking down 2 of the attempts as Weller drained a trey from the top of the key , followed by a Jordan Bell triple from deep (3pts) ... Seth Weller got to the rim where he was fouled adding 2/2 from the line (5pts in the qtr/9pts in the half) ... Gallia Academy went 0 for 3 from downtown/ 0 for 5 in the half from three ... with the deep ball not falling the Blue Devils continued to attack the paint and pick up the "on ball" defense forcing 4 Tiger turnovers in the quarter/8 for the half ... soph Beckett Camden took a drive to the rim for 2pts/ Franklin was able to score on drive to the bucket 2pts and added 1/2 from the line (3pts) ... Alex Blair took a Tiger miscue the length of the court for a 2pt transition bucket (2pts) and sr. PG Wesley Saunders pulled up for a midrange jumper to tie the score following a Tiger bucket on the blocks by Andrew Potts ... McClain finished the half 2/5 from downtown while Gallia Academy 0/5 ... the GAHS defense turned MHS over 8 times in the half ... the big stat still was the 3 fouls picked up by starting forward Owen Sykes for McClain - with a limited bench , the flow of the McClain offense wasn't good in his absence ... Franklin for Gallia spent a big share of the half on the bench as well - his absence too was noticeable in both the Devils offensive flow and defense efforts ... Gallia Academy 16 McClain 16 at the half ... When I came to Gallia Academy High School back in December, even in losses to Fairland/Marietta/Warren I was impressed with the length/size/potential of the 6-6 Cade Mock, the junior reminded me of a younger Trent Taylor the 6-7 post player for Warren ... in the 3rd period Mock put his mark on the game getting 3 fgs - one on his 2nd putback bucket off of an offensive rebound to go with a pair of baskets down in the paint (6pts) ... Saunders added the 4th bucket in the qtr for GAHS on another bucket in the paint for the Blue Devils ... McClain was held to a pair of fgs - after Weller went 1/2 from the charity stripe (1pt) freshman Michael Noszka Jr. drained his first and only triple of the game (3pts) and Potts with drive for 2pts ... Gallia Academy 24 McClain 22 after 3 ... the final quarter saw McClain get only 2 fgs, 9pts from sr. Seth Weller 19pts for the game ... Weller went 4/6 from the line and added a 3 pter and 2 pt drive to the rim ... the only other points for McClain in the qtr was 1/2 from the FT line for Noszka Jr. ... at 5:38 on the clock GAHS had a 28-22 lead with a 4-0 start to the qtr. on a Cade Mock drive to the rim & a Gabe Hammons 2pts in the paint ... a big spark off the bench was provided by sophomore Beckett Camden - Camden gave the Blue Devils a big lift defensively with solid on ball D, to go with a big block of a Jordan Bell 3 pt attempt ... Camden added a big assist down low to Mock (6pts/14 pts for the night) ... at 1:25 to play Gallia was up 32-30 after the Mock bucket in the paint and an & 1 attempt ... :26.4 the score stood at 34-32 following Mock's 2/2 from the line ... Gallia Academy went 8/9 from the foul line in the 4th with Wesley Saunders 4/4 to make the score 36-32 ... fittingly, the spark off the bench Camden Beckett put the game away with 3.1 on the clock - the sophomore went 2/2 to give the Blue Devils the W ... surviving and advancing to take on the #1 seed/20-2 Marietta Tigers Tuesday night at Marietta ... Gallia Academy 38 McClain 32 a final ...

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

Scoring ... Seth Weller 19, Andrew Potts 4, Michael Noszka Jr. 4, Jordan Bell 3, Jayden Allison 2
3 Pointers ... 4/14 ... Seth Weller 2, Michael Noszka Jr 1, Jordan Bell 1
FTs ... 8/12
TOs ... 11
PnP ... 6 fgs/ 12 points in the paint
PnT .. 0
Pbk ... 0

... Pfloyd's official "UN-official" Napkin Stats - Gallia Academy ...

Scoring ... Cade Mock 14, Wesley Saunders 10, Alex Blair 4, Beckett Camden 4, Gabe Hammons 3, Kenyon Franklin 3
3 Pointers ... 0/7
FTs ... 10/13
TOs ... 7
PnP ... 13 fgs/ 26 points in the paint
PnT ... 1 fg/ 2 points in transition
Pbk ... 2 fgs/ 4 points on putback buckets

... Gallia Academy played Marietta to a 45-53 loss at GAHS back in early December ... a -8 loss is a GOOD point to reflect on/build on for the Blue Devils ... GAHS will need big nights across the board from Franklin/Mock/Saunders offensively to go with big time D from the entire rotation ... I wish the Blue Devils congratulations on getting a W in the post season ! From talking with Coach Harrison - good things are to come next season and beyond for the Gallia Academy faithful ...

Thanks for the your usual thorough report. Is it true neither Blair or Franklin scored in the 2nd half? Did either even attempt a field goal attempt? Any insights into why that might have been. I'm thinking this game should not have been this close.

[pfloyd]

Franklin was on the bench most of the first half due to foul trouble ... he struggled scoring the entire game offensively must have been 0/4 on his ball from downtown / being in foul trouble the entire game he never was able to use his strength to get inside the paint ... Blair was a non-factor offensively ... Blair nothing point wise the 2nd half ... Franklin shut out 3 quarters on the scoreboard as well ... the player of the game was Camden, the sophomore provided a spark at both ends of the floor ... had a block of a 3 point attempt, a couple big boards, big assist to Mock, and knocked down the pair of FTs to close it out with 3 seconds and change on the clock ... 8/9 at the FT line in the 4th was big for GAHS ... I too thought this one would be a bigger margin of victory by Gallia Academy ... survive and advance ...

[SouthEast Hoops Fan]

If I’ve got this right, Blair played 4 minutes in the first half, quite a bit of the 3rd quarter and no minutes in the 4th. Has he not been playing more recently? And no FG attempts for Franklin in the 2nd half? I agree Mock was especially important for GA. Just a way different look than this team showed many weeks ago.

[BlizzardMan]

If I’ve got this right, Blair played 4 minutes in the first half, quite a bit of the 3rd quarter and no minutes in the 4th. Has he not been playing more recently? And no FG attempts for Franklin in the 2nd half? I agree Mock was especially important for GA. Just a way different look than this team showed many weeks ago.

I don't think this team has really found there identity all season. Camden was in Blair's spot just a couple of weeks ago.

[Geronimo]

Next season a force Harrison is a good coach

[pfloyd]

Next season a force Harrison is a good coach

... I like what GAHS has returning next season (correct me if I'm wrong on the yrs for these guys - the roster in the program from Saturday was from last year! LOL - had Brody Fellure/ Isaac Clary listed ) :

Alex Blair (so) 6-1
Cade Mock (jr) 6-6
Gabe Hammons (fr) 6-5
Beckett Camden (so) 5-9
Braylon Rathburn (jr) 6-3
Reese Toler (fr)
Cory Mock (so) 6-5

... a good 8th grade group coming up, with a PG ... PG's - you like to have one that you can build around for 3-4 years on the varsity level ... sounds like that what GAHS has next season ... the group this season has had a lot of varsity experience vs the OVC powers ... I like Coach Harrison! give him the pieces to play in the OVC - good things will happen imo ... we'll be watching GAHS closely next season AND this Tuesday night vs Marietta!

[Geronimo]

One player off 8th grade is going back to RV he's there Best player They only live 1/2 mile from School.

[ZTPMM88]

Greenfield still playing that old Coach Rick VanMatre "stall ball" style. I can recall former teams under VanMatre darn near holding a the ball for an entire qtr. First team to 40 would usually always win in any game vs McClain. Miss seeing the old ball coach on the floor coaching some very good McClain teams. McClain used to make the Convo its home away from home. The Tigers were a perennial visitor to the "Roundhouse on Richland" every March and they seemingly always had the largest following of fans. I swear the entire town of Greenfield would show up.

[pfloyd]

Greenfield still playing that old Coach Rick VanMatre "stall ball" style. I can recall former teams under VanMatre darn near holding a the ball for an entire qtr. First team to 40 would usually always win in any game vs McClain. Miss seeing the old ball coach on the floor coaching some very good McClain teams. McClain used to make the Convo its home away from home. The Tigers were a perennial visitor to the "Roundhouse on Richland" every March and they seemingly always had the largest following of fans. I swear the entire town of Greenfield would show up.

... some of the largest crowds ever at the Convo back in the day of Greenfield McClain/D'ante Jackson & Co. vs Vinton County ... heck D'ante Jackson vs ANYBODY - great high school hoops atmosphere ... you're right ZTPM88, seems Greenfield McClain was there every year ... I loved going to the Convo to see teams coached by the best of the best - Coach VanMatre, Coach Persin with his Chesapeake teams at the time, Coach Caldwell , Coach Young of North Adams, Coach Beucler, Coach Barrett, so many greats in the coaching ranks of Southern/Southeast Ohio etc. - some great teams and coaches ... then the young guns arrived - Coach Stiverson, Coach Maddox, Coach Davis, Coach Speed, etc....

... off topic a tad, it used to be Greenfield McClain High School , now it seems the "Greenfield" has been dropped for using just "McClain" ?