There's a two-way tie for the SVC Boys Basketball lead with two games to play after the Adena Warriors handed the Unioto Shermans their first conference loss Saturday, 48-42. The Adena win avenged their only SVC loss at Unioto earlier this season.
Adena's defense gave Unioto different looks throughout the game, creating 18 Shermans' turnovers, compared to only 7 for the Warriors.
The Warriors never trailed in the game, jumping out to leads of 6-0, 8-2 and ended the first quarter with a 10-6 lead.
After Unioto closed an 18-13 deficit to 18-15, the Warriors closed the half on a 4-0 run including a Jarrett Garrison baseline runner for a 22-15 advantage at halftime.
In the third quarter, Adena looked as if they might run away with the game as they built their biggest lead at 33-22. However, the Shermans were far from being done, closing the gap to 35-29 after three quarters. The Tanks got to within 40-39 with just over one minute left in the game, but were stopped on three possession opportunities as the Warriors defense made big stops to get their lead back up to 44-39 with under 30 seconds left.
A Cameron Debord trey from the left corner cut it to 44-42 with 12.6 second left but Adena put the game away at the foul line, despite being only 1/7 until late in the game.
Adena's Preston Sykes led all players with 17 points and 6 rebounds, and defensively held Unioto freshman sensation Tayvion Galloway to only 4 points and 4 rebounds. Logan Bennett had 13 points and 7 rebounds along with two blocked shots. Jarrett Garrison played well as he repeatedly slashed into the Unioto defense on drives to the buckets, especially early in the game, to finish with 11 points. Dillon McDonald added 7 points for the Warriors.
Unioto was led by DeSean Branson's 11 points, followed by Isaac Little with 9, Carson Debord with 7, Cameron Debord with 6, Gunnar Greenwalt with 5 and 4 from Galloway.
The Warriors shot 20/36 from the field- including 1/6 from the arc for 55% while Unioto was 15/27 for 56%- including 4/5 from the arc. Adena finally started connecting on free throws at the end of the game, finishing 7/14 after starting 1/7. Unioto was 10/16.
Adena won the rebounding battle 20-18.
Adena and Unioto are now deadlocked at (11-1) in the SVC, with two games to play. The Warriors travel to Zane Trace in the second of a WKKJ broadcast doubleheader on Friday, February 5th with the Adena Lady Warriors playing Zane Trace at 6pm in place of the boys JV game. Airtime for the girls game will be 5:45pm.
Unioto's February 5th game with Southeastern is postponed until later with the Panthers back on quarantine.
In SVC girls basketball, the Adena Lady Warriors clinched a share of the SVC title Saturday with a double overtime 56-51 win over Huntington. Adena can win the girls title outright vs Piketon on Monday, February 1st. The podcast below includes a halftime interview with Adena Lady Warriors Coach Andrew Day as he talks about the title clinch win earlier in the day.
WKKJ will be at Huntington Monday as the Lady Huntsmen host Westfall.
To hear the podcast of the Unioto at Adena boys basketball game on WKKJ with Mike Smith and Tom Beard, go to our podcast link found below...