Nelsonville-York (8-5)
Despite a weeklong break, a two-game losing spell, and the task of defending Nigel Courts at hand, the Nelsonville-York Buckeyes came out victorious against the Wellston Rockets Tuesday night in a meaningful Tri-Valley Conference Ohio Division matchup.
Courts scored 25 on the night, but was neutralized by Nelsonville-York’s own inside man, as power forward Daniel Kline led the Buckeyes with 24 points.
Twenty of Kline’s points came before intermission, leading to a 39-20 halftime lead for the Buckeyes (8-5). The game was never close, and ended with a final score of 69-49.
Nelsonville-York led by at least 20 for most of the second half, and now sits tied for second in the Tri-Valley Conference Ohio Division.
While Vinton County has held the TVC’s top spot all year, the positioning beneath the Vikings has been anything but consistent. Nelsonville-York looked to be the Vikings’ top competition after a win at Athens Jan. 6, but the Buckeyes lost to Alexander the next week.
The Buckeyes will host Meigs (0-13) on Friday.
— Nathan Cotton
nc606411@ohiou.edu
Alexander (4-8)
A two-game winning streak showed promise for the young Spartans, but after a 14-point loss to rival Athens, Alexander might be back to square one.
The Spartans pressured the Bulldogs for most of the game, but things started to fall apart late in the 52-38 loss Tuesday night.
“We came out and played pretty well the first quarter-and-a-half,” coach Blaine Gabriel said. “Athens is a good team, and you can’t have little mental mistakes (against them).”
The Spartans were up by 12 at one point but could not hang on to that edge. As the game went on the Bulldogs built an insurmountable advantage.
“They got a weak-side rebound and we fouled them, and it just kind of snowballed from there,” Gabriel said.
Alexander will face Wellston on Friday. The Golden Rockets are the second of four straight opponents that the Spartans will face on the road. Alexander lost to Wellston by two points earlier in the season.
— Paul Meara
pm312207@ohiou.edu
Athens (6-7)
After spending almost an entire month winless, the Athens High School boys basketball team found its way out of the loss column — against its biggest rival.
The Bulldogs defeated Alexander 52-38 Tuesday night behind a strong performance by senior Nick Stanley, who scored a team-high 13 points to go along with five rebounds and four steals. The win raises Athens’ record to 3-2 in the TVC-Ohio and puts the team only two games out of first place.
“Nick Stanley has been big for us all year with his defense and rebounding,” coach Jeff Skinner said. “Tonight his defense put him in a position to score some points for us as well.”
Though Athens was struggling heading into the Alexander contest, Skinner kept the team together on a consistent philosophy.
“We’re just on a journey,” Skinner said. “We lost our starting point guard (senior DeVon Sharp), and we had to find ourselves a little.”
The Bulldogs defense stepped up and held their opponent to less than 60 points for the first time since their last win against Jackson on Dec. 27.
But the relief of that win might not last very long, as a home contest against TVC-Ohio leader Vinton County awaits Athens on Friday. The Bulldogs will need to cut down on their turnover rate, which is 12.6 per game in January, if they want to have any chance of beating the Vikings and making a run at the division title.
— Christian Hoppe
ch203310@ohiou.edu
