-Boys’ Basketball: Tuesday night the Garaway Pirates demonstrated why coaches always say that defense is the key to a championship. Taking on Martins Ferry in a Div. III district semi-final, the Pirates came out of the locker room without a lot of sharpness on offense. Actually it was worse than that. Garaway looked pretty bad on most of their possessions. They turned the ball over almost as many times as they shot it in the first half and scored just 17 points. But there they were…in a halftime tie with the Purple Riders. Making up for the 12 miscues was a stingy defense which held Martins Ferry to single digits in each period. The Riders took slim leads on a couple of occasions in the third quarter until Garaway sophomore “Jake” Troyer changed the game. After burying a 3 pointer from the left wing, Troyer made a steal and a breakaway layup. On the ensuing inbounds play he stole the ball from the Riders’ point guard right under the basket and made another layup. The next possession resulted in a foul on Martins Ferry. Troyer split the free throws before managing to get the ball again on the next trip down the floor and converting a bucket to give him 10 straight points in the game. The Riders never got closer than 5 points after that as Garaway pulled out for a 51-35 victory. Troyer would finish with 14 and be named the TUZ-MVP. Paul Honigford led Garaway scorers and rebounders and threw down a couple of breakaway dunks to accent the effort. Garaway will play Barnesville for the district title on Friday night beginning at 6:45 on WTUZ.
At Meadowbrook, Zanesville Rosecrans eliminated Malvern 49-44. The Bishops won by scoring 6 of the last 7 points in the game. Malvern’s season ends with a 15-8 record.
Wednesday night on WTUZ the top seeds in the Coshocton Division II sectional/district bracket meet for a berth in the Sweet 16 as 20-2 Dover takes on 14-6 Zanesville. The Tornadoes are coming off a thrilling, one point win over John Glenn last Thursday, while the Blue Devils ended Claymont’s post season with a 54-39 victory on Saturday. It will be the task of the Tornadoes to control Zanesville’s athletes with a very sound defense and limit the number of times they are even able to shoot the ball. Dover has not had any recent success against Zanesville, but will be in the same conference with the Devils when Zanesville plays a full East Central Ohio League basketball schedule in the 2011-12 school year. A district final win would be a good way to begin a new trend. Jared Hall joins me for all the action beginning at 6:45 Wednesday on line and on 99.9FM.
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