A 23 of 33 performance at the charity stripe was the big story in Adena's 60-44 win at Zane Trace Friday, placing the Warriors one win away from no worse than a share of the Scioto Valley Conference boys basketball championship.
The (12-1) Warriors are a half-game ahead of virtual co-leader (11-1) Unioto, who was idle Friday due to opponent Southeastern being on quarantine. That game will be made up on Monday, February 15th.
In the Adena-ZT game, both teams traded early leads in the first quarter, with the Pioneers leading 13-12 after the first quarter. That was the Pioneers last lead of the game, with the Warriors running up a 31-23 halftime lead.
Zane Trace made a couple of runs at Adena in the second half, getting to within 34-30 and 39-34, but could not get any closer.
Three Pioneers fouled out in the game, as ZT struggled with foul trouble throughout the game.
Adena had three players in double figures, led by Jacob Shipley's hot hand of treys with 21 points. Preston Sykes, despite early foul trouble, scored 16 points and grabbed 7 rebounds, while Logan Bennett had 11 points and 6 rebounds. Jarrett Garrison and Nate Throckmorton each had 6 points, with Garrison grabbing 6 boards with Dillon McDonald adding one point.
Zane Trace had two players with 12 points each, coming from Kyle Stonerock and Xzander Ream. Ben Nichols added 6, Nalin Robinson 4, 3 each from Trey Miller and Kanin Johnson and 2 from Trey Edler.
The Warriors shot 52% from the field on 16/31- including 5/13 from the arc and added 23/33 at the foul line. They had 14 turnovers.
The Pioneers shot well at 18/34 for 53%- including 5/14 from the arc, but could only get to the charity stripe 9 times- making only 3. ZT committed 13 turnovers.
Rebounding was even at 18-18.
Adena improves to (12-1/18-2) and can clinch at least a share of the SVC crown at Paint Valley in the WKKJ broadcast game Friday, February 12th. Unioto will try to keep pace at Westfall that night, then close at home with Southeastern Monday, February 15th in a WKKJ broadcast game.
Zane Trace falls to (4-5/5-9).
Listen to Mike Smith and Tom Beard's WKKJ podcast replay in our podcast link below...