3/15/12 Regional Semi Chillicothe vs St.Clairesville

[ohbuckeye2]

Congrats to ST Clairsville on the win and to Chillicothe on a great season.


Thanks for the updates skidaddy.

[Rabeanos0512]

Chillicothe should be very disappointing with their effort tonight. First off I don't want to take an anything away from St.Clairesville. Congrats on a great win tonight and I hope you make a strong showing Saturday and make it to state.
But back to the game. I was not there, however, on paper this is a 20 point win. I guess that's why you play the game but come on mannnnn! Their tallest kid was 6'3"!!!! We should have BLOWN them out! Now I have said all year that this team is not as good as years past but this urks me! Granted we have had a cake walk to get to this point but to lose to a team that just won its first district in school history and doesn't have a player over 6'3"!? Uhhh! I though this was our year to get back to state!(due to our cake walk that has been)...... I am a mad Cavalier fan tonight....over and out from the 614

[Skiisme]

The cavs did not put the ball in the post in this game. Hard to see a team with a big man that does not take advantage of it.

[StCRedDevils]

The cavs did not put the ball in the post in this game. Hard to see a team with a big man that does not take advantage of it.

That is the exact thing that I said to my dad on our drive home--I was surprised that they did not feed London the ball more, he definitely had the advantage in the paint.

Congrats on a nice season.

[smack]

The cavs did not put the ball in the post in this game. Hard to see a team with a big man that does not take advantage of it.

That is the exact thing that I said to my dad on our drive home--I was surprised that they did not feed London the ball more, he definitely had the advantage in the paint.

Congrats on a nice season.

i agree.but st.clairesville had a really nice team.and monterosa is a beast he reminds me of kretzer.

[buckcraze]

Tough luck CAVS. I believe a regional semi-final is an over achievement for this years team. I think Coach K and the boys ought to hold their heads high and be proud of what they accomplished this year. Sometimes we fans can get used to winning a lot and expect it even when there is a slight reduction in talent from year to year. I am not taking anything away from the boys on this years team. I am proud of what they have accomplished this year and in my opinion so should the rest of the the Cavalier fans. Time for track, baseball, and football conditioning and weightlifting fellas.

[ztpioneers1]

Rabeano, you are right. You were not at the game last night and I tried to tell ppl it isn't easy to win regional games. The cavs were definitely not 20 pt favorites. Maybe in your mind and some others but I knew it was going to be a dog fight. Yes the cavs could have won but that is why they plsy the games, correct? If that is the case we wouldn't have won a state champship because on paper Toledo libbey was supposed to beat us. Great yr for the cavs and frankly I was surprised cavs won a district title again!

[datchillicav]

This year's team to me is one that underachieved despite several flaws. They had their moments and I would like to thank all of the players, especially the 4-year seniors. You boys have done excellent things for the program and hopefully those lessons learned will help you later in life.

With that said, this was probably the worst or second worst team of the Kellough era. That's not a knock on the kids. As I said, they have some flaws personnel wise and none of that is on anyone. The thing that upsets me is this. This team had an opportunity to do something that NO ONE expected of them. That is win a regional championship. Despite being undermanned in recent Cavaliers basketball terms, they were still in my opinion the most talented team in that region. On a normal year this team would not have advanced past a district semi game but the bracket broke down perfectly for the Cavs to make it all the way to Columbus. That would have been a great testament to the grit and determination of this year's team to overcome a lot.

In the end, they ended up succombing to a night of bad shooting and, IMO poor composure. St. C wanted it more and kept their cool when the situation got stressful. The defense was phenomenal for the Cavs and kept us in it when offensively we were struggling. We stopped feeding the post inexplicably even though Malik was dominating whenever he got the ball and we didn't make smart decision late. Also, the token full court press was frustrating to watch as we were playing excellent half-court defense and either weren't fast enough, didn't want it enough, or simply weren't bring enough people forward to effectively stay in front of people and make the press effective. To me this team was a joy to watch and a pain to watch. Dissapointing in the end though as they had a chance to make a good season into something special.

Again, thank you to the players, coaches, and support staff. To the younger players, let's keep this special time in Cavalier basketball history going. Many, including myself, have worried for a while that this season would be the last season on this magical run we have been on for the last 6 or 7 years. Please try to prove us wrong. I can't speak for all, but a lot of us will be here to support you in the future regardless of results.

[Dshanton3]

This game was tough to watch as a Chilli fan. The talent discrepancy was evident, but also was the amount of discipline each team played with. St. Clairsville valued every possession and shot the lights out of the ball, a few of Chilli's players played as if they were at open gym or playing at the local YMCA. This is the regional, this is a chance to go to state, and the composure was not there for Chilli to make the most of the opportunity.

I won't even go into how you get T'd up in a 1 point game with 3 minutes to go.

Malik scored almost every single time we threw him the ball down low and yet there are guys driving for out of control reverse layups, turning it over dribbling themselves into trouble trying to do too much, and shooting fall away 18 foot jumpers all night. It was crystal clear what was working in this game and that was feeding the post. To go away from that and do your own thing is disappointing.

After the first couple possessions i looked at my brother and said "i've seen Chillicothe miss 300 layups in this building over the years" and we missed about 5 or 6 costly ones last night.

I actually thought the defensive pressure in the second half was great, we got a lot of turnovers out of it, but we were so sloppy with the ball ourselves that we'd turn it right back over immediately.

I thought STC's coach made an excellent move in the second half taking #4 out of the game causing Malik to have to guard someone. The kid that he switched to proceeded to drain 3 or 4 huge trifecta's. #31 i believe it was. I though Chilli should have switched and put Malik on #3 so he could still help down more because #31 was obviously feeling it.

Monterroso (sp) is a heckuva player. He has a very smooth stroke and he plays efficiently. he's also a very underrated athlete because he showed he can get out on the break and finish! Nice dunk he had in the first half. He single handedly got them out to that great start by scoring 13 of their first 15 points.

I had a friend of mine who was sitting down at the scorers table, text me in the middle of the game and tell me the Chilli kids just looked disinterested. Asked me if there was some sort of angst among the team because they looked like they just didn't care. I thought the play reflected that.

I know i'm not spilling sunshine out in this post, but i was really really disappointed last night. I thought that there was a tremendous opportunity at hand and they had the talent to take advantage of it, but just didn't have the intangibles.

[Hitchbone64]

D3, The kids were 100% interested and invested in the game last night. Your friend didn't hear or feel the intensity that these kids played with on D. That I defend them on.

A's for the game, if others (not you) would read my previous post, I said how tough a matchup this would be. Teams don't go 22-2 and not be real good. There two losses were early with one being against Ironton at the Convo. That loss did two things. 1) It allowed them to play in the venue and get accustomed to the shooting backgrounds, etc. Obviously, they shot well from 3 even though we held them to 40% overall. 2). St Clairsville is young. All Juniors and a soph I believe. At the beginning of the year it is tough to gell. Ironton was bringing back an experienced loaded squad.

Overall, the Stats cavorts the Cavs except in a few key areas.

First, turnovers killed the Cavs. 14 of them with most unforced. St Clairsville does a solid job of denying penetration and than helping when needed. Jalen Jones finally made SC pay for their tough on ball defense. SC only had 9 turnovers despite our pressure which hurt them.

2) For the first time all year, we did not win the 50/50 ball battle. For some reason every tipped or lose ball found it's way back in SC hands. In fact on a few occasions, they hit big shots off these.

3). Offensive Glass. - 2nd half 2nd chance points hurt bad. SC had 7 offensive boards in the game with 6 in 2nd half. Two of those went back out for 3 ball makes. 4). Missed opportunities in the paint - Cavs miss 11 shots in the paint vs 7 for SC. Cavs dominated the points in the paint, but 5-6 missed lay ins hurt bad. SC gets a huge put back to end the 3rd qtr. An air balled miss 3 is caught and flipped in to extend lead to 3 going into 4th.

4) St Clairsville made a smart decision and ran spread to slow the game down and force the Cavs to defend for 30 plus seconds. SC hit 3 big shots out of this.

5) #4 replacement has the game of his life and drains 3-4 big 3 balls. This is huge A's they are unpected points that SC gets. Montessero got off strong, but we held a great player in check. He shot 6-23 from the field, but made big free throws. He also never forced anything and IMO was A's good A's advertised.

6). Malik Lindon needs to have 25 shots in this game. He was 10-14 and unstoppable. Combining both ends, he was the best player on the floor. 24pts, 16 boards and 7 blocks. Yes, George question is why only 14 shots.

Simply, the 2011-12 team could be summed up by lack of experience at the guard position and lack of a true 4 to supplement Malik. The loss of Madison Simmons was big A's he was a double/double kid. Our guards played their hearts out, but with the combined varsity experience of Jones, Elliott and Bixler, being zero (0) games, it definitely hurts. If this team gas a Caleb Knigts, they are playing in Columbus next year. However, this team overachieved and did what few others in the Stare get to do. With 5 District Championships in 7 year, I can say the Cavs have arrived. The final question is what commitments have to be made to stay there.

These kids, especially the Seniors are all Champions in my eyes. I!O, the Coaching Staff did a tremendous job and possible the best one in 7 years. In sum marry, I'm glad to be a Cavalier and glad I got to know these kids.

GO CAVS! ONE HEARTBEAT!

[Rabeanos0512]

I said earlier this year as well that this is not our best team in recent memory. However, the path for the Cavs was by far the easiest I have seen yet in there district ships. Once again not to take anything away from St.Cville. They are obviously worthy of being where they are. But the Cavs should have made it back to state with the resume they have had in the past 7 years (experience, swag, confidence..whatever you want to call it). Nothing to hang our heads about but yes I am very dissapointed in the way we ended the season.