Eastern Pike 59 Valley 40 D6 District final ...

[pfloyd]

Eastern Pike 59
Valley 40 a final

... D6 District Finale' between a couple of SOC teams the Eastern Pike Eagles winners of the SOCII and the Lucasville Valley Indians finishers behind Minford and South Webster in the tough SOCIII division of the Southern Ohio Conference ... Valley I have on my "teams to watch for the 2025-26 season" as the Indians entered Sunday's game starting AND having but 1 senior on the roster - sr. guard Chase Davis - Coach Tackett starts 1 sr. C. Davis ... 1 jr. Christian Copen and 3 sophs Jaxsyn Bender/Blake Lundy/Braxten Conaway off the VHS bench 2 freshmen/1 soph and 1 jr - youngsters ... youngsters who imo will be making more appearances at the Convo in the next couple years ... Coach Leist brings it with 2 solid seniors - Tucker Leist & DeClan Davis both high motor, guards who pull and drag the team across the line every game ... the supporting cast who will be coming back next season - jr. Aiden Werner / soph Boston Webb/ soph Cade Leist off the Eagles bench sr. size and leadership with Wyatt Richardson/ & juniors Carson Peters/Isaac Weaver ... so the cupboard "ain't" bare after the current campaign comes to an end for either team ...

... ANY team making their first appearance to the Convo struggles to get comfortable - the excitement of "making it TO the Convo for Basketball :30" - a factor ... no fans at floor level ... the double three point lines - college/high school (although high school shooters have gone further and further away from the high school 3 point line) - less of a factor ... the possibility of a bigger floor, the Convo is 94x50 vs many high school courts which are 84x50 - might be a factor ... Sunday, whatever the "factor" both teams took awhile in the opening quarter to "settle in" Eastern with 4 turnovers vs Valley's 6 turnovers ... Eastern 6/16 (37.5%) from the floor vs Valley's 4/10 (40%) ... the Eagles went 0/3 from behind the arc to Valley's 1/1 shooting - a knockdown three by Braxten Conaway for VHS ... Valley's 6-2 soph Jaxsyn Bender took an Eastern turnover coast to coast for 2pts to start the Valley quarter... Chase Davis on a transition drive fouled make/make 2pts...a second EHS miscue allowed Braxten Conaway to get to the rim - fouled 1/2 from the line ... Valley defensively blocked 3 Eastern shots on goal that they took to the rack the other way ... Conaway with a 3 pointer - good ... 6-2 jr Christian Copen with the steal & score in transition for VHS 2pts ... Bender fouled in the act of shooting 1/2 from the FT line ... Copen closed out the Indian scoring getting into the paint for 2pts ...for Eastern after sr. DeClan Davis got into the lane for 2 pts it was the Leist Show - Tucker and Cade as the duo rang up the next 9 pts for the EHS sr PG/SG Tucker Leist with a strong drive to the rim for 2pts ... 6-1 soph Cade Leist with a shot on the block for 2pts & a foul - make ... 3pts ... Tucker followed with a a pullup 15 footer 2pts ... the 6-1 sr. took a Valley turnover the length of the court ... tough make 2pt. hard foul miss at the line ... 6-1 soph Boston Webb with a drive to the rim & score 2pts to end the Eagle scoring in the 1st frame ... what WAS noticed in the opening quarter was the decided rebounding advantage for Valley - seemingly Eastern was "one and done" if the ball didn't go in the basket at their offensive end while Valley was able to get boards at both ends ... also what established itself in the opening quarter was Valley struggling at the FT line... the early misses didn't reflect how big of a factor the "Free Throw Line" was going to be in the later quarters... Eastern 13 Valley 13 after 1 ... 2 very competitive teams as the opening quarter reflected, the 2nd was just as much a battle as nothing came easy for either team ... both teams went 4/11 from the floor in the 2nd ... both teams forced 4 turnovers each in the period ... Valley got points from Chase Davis 3/Jaxsyn Bender with an offensive board and stickback for 2pts/Christian Copen & Blake Lundy got into the paint for buckets 2pts each in the qtr ... a key napkin stat for Valley was that the Indians got to the FT line but struggled to convert the freebies going 1 for 5 from the stripe ... for Eastern, Cade Leist picked up where he left off after one, the 6-1 post player drove the ball to the rim off the dribble for 2pts ... Aiden Werner & Tucker Leist each with a trey for 3pts each ...Werner added a 2pt floater going baseline 5pts in the qtr ... DeClan Davis fouled on the dribble drive converted 2/2 ... EHS 2/4 from beyond the arc while VHS was 0-3 ... Eastern 2/2 from the line vs Valley's 1/5 in the quarter ... Eastern 25 Valley 22 at the half ... sitting courtside watching the game unfold, the "noticeables" of the opening quarter were "this is what IS" after the 2nd - Valley was killing Eastern on the boards - for the game Valley out rebounded Eastern 46-33 ... I told Lou Horvath ,the legendary voice of high school sports, sitting beside me that the best offensive strategy for Valley would be to "just put the ball up on the boards" get points on off of the rebounding putbacks ... on the Eastern side I also mentioned that the best defense was putting Valley on the line ... in the 3rd period Valley could muster only 3 fg makes in the period ... Chase Davis with 1 fg in the paint/Christian Copen with an offensive board & putback 2pts /Blake Lundy added a late in the quarter 3 pointer ... Valley was 3/11 from the floor ... 1/5 for three pointers in the period ... 2/7 from the FT line ... defense travels as they say ... Eastern turned Valley over 5 times in the 3rd quarter (16 turnovers thru 3 periods) ... Tucker Leist with a putback bucket/Werner, Webb, Cade Leist each found the bottom of the net from inside the paint , Werner added a transition bucket after a strip/steal & finish 2pts ... the Eagles were 6/14 from the floor ... 3/6 from the line ... 1/4 from 3 ... the biggest napkin stat was Eastern being aggressive, forcing Valley to the line instead of giving up fg attempts ... 10 points separation ... Eastern 41 Valley 31 after 3 ...the Eagles blew the game open in the 4th as Valley had 4 early turnovers ... all were converted into Eastern points & more ... Boston Webb with a transition bucket 2pts &1 on the FT ...answering for Valley Bender on a putback 2pts and Lundy drive to the rim/score &1 ... 5:40 to play 44-35 Eastern ... DeClan Davis with 2 pts in transition ... Copen putback 2pts for VHS ... Webb scored in transition 2pts completed his 2nd old fashion 3 in the quarter with the &1 ... Lundy inside the paint fouled on the shot 1/2 from the line ... Eastern 49-38 with 2:54 to play ... Eastern finished off the game going 10/12 from the line in the final 2:54 with the only fg between the 2 teams was a DeClan Davis transition bucket to make the score 56-38 ... both teams emptied the benches ... freshman Jehu Howard ironically knocked down 2/2 from the FT line to end the scoring for both teams ... Valley with 19 turnovers ... 2/17 for 3 Pters on the game ... 14/51 from the floor for the game 27.5% ... 10/26 from the FT line ... Eastern 14 turnovers ... 3/11 from 3 ... 20/49 from the floor for the game (4/8 in the 4th) 40.8% ... 16/24 from the FT line ... Eastern Pike 59 Valley 40 a final ...




Quarter Breaks:

Eastern....13...25...41...59
Valley......13...22...31...40

Pfloyd's official "UN-official" Napkin Stats - Valley

Scoring ... Christian Copen 10, Blake Lundy 9, Jaxsyn Bender 8, Chase Davis 7, Braxten Conaway 4, Jehu Howard 2
3 Pointers ... 2/17 … Blake Lundy 1, Braxten Conaway 1
FTs ... 10/26
TOs ... 19
PnP ... 12 fgs/ 24 points in the paint
PnT ... 3 fgs/ 6 points in transition
Pbk ... 4 fgs/ 8 points on putback buckets

Pfloyd's official "UN-official" Napkin Stats - Eastern Pike


Scoring ... DeClan Davis 16, Tucker Leist 12, Aiden Werner 11, Boston Webb 11, Cade Leist 7, Wyatt Richardson 1, Sherman Salisbury 1
3 Pointers ... 3/11 ... DeClan Davis 1, Aiden Werner 1, Tucker Leist 1
TOs ... 14
PnP ... 16 fgs/ 32 points in the paint
PnT ... 4 fgs/8 points in transition
Pbk ... 1 fg/2 points on putback buckets

[greygoose]

Yeah valley couldn’t throw it in the ocean, Sunday’s games were really bad nothing but blowouts. Couple decent 1st halves but that’s it