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A physical game played into Unioto's favor in a 38-36 struggle between unbeaten teams in SVC boys basketball, Saturday. Shermans' Coach Matt Hoops reflected that when he said in his post-game interview on WKKJ- "We felt the uglier it was, the better it was for us, just from a match-up standpoint, in limiting them to one shot".
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Zane Trace held their biggest lead of the game at 22-15 late in the second quarter, before Unioto closed that margin to 22-21 at halftime. Unioto took their first lead of the contest at 26-24 late in the third period. Their biggest lead was four points at 32-28, 36-32 and 38-34. The Shermans led 30-28 after three quarters.
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With the game within four points in the closing 30 seconds of the contest, a controversial moment saw a stoppage of play on a foul, but the clock failed to stop, going from 29 seconds down to 23.7 before it was stopped. Zane Trace coaches contested the matter, but time was not added to the clock.
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Only one player made it to double figures as Isaac Little led the Shermans with 13 points. Cameron Debord added 9, Carson Debord and Reece Wheeler each with 5, Josh Lambert scored 5 and Gunnar Greenwalt 2. Wheeler led the Tanks in rebounding with 7 and had 2 blocked shots.
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Zane Trace was led by Colby Swain, Nick Nesser and Triton Davidson with 8 points each, Carmeron Evans had 7, 3 from Luke Johnson and 2 from Bryce Johnson. Davidson had 9 boards and 1 block.
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Unioto shot 15/38 from the field for 39%- including 5/13 from the arc and 3/5 from the charity stripe. The Tanks had 9 turnovers and 18 rebounds.
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Zane Trace shot 15/35 for 43%- including 1/8 from the arc and were 5/8 from the foul line. ZT had only 6 turnovers and 22 rebounds.
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(4-0/6-0) Unioto remains in a first place tie with Adena, who beat Piketon 47-39, while the (3-1/7-1) Pioneers are one game back.
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Following the holiday break, Unioto travels to Adena on January 3rd in a battle for sole possession of the SVC lead, then the Warriors travel to Zane Trace January 4th. Both games will be broadcast on 94 Country WKKJ.
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