seohiopreps basketball

Recap

Huntington St.Joe defeated Portsmouth 71-66 at the Buckeye Elite Classic at PHS. The Trojans fell behind 12-0, obviously showing some effects of a tough OT loss to South Point the night before. Still, Portsmouth battled back and cut the Irish lead to 30-26 in the 2nd quarter. HSJ ended the half with a 34-26 lead. At the end of the 3rd quarter, HSJ extended their lead to 59-44, but in the 4th period the Trojan press created quite a few turnovers which helped them get to within 70-66 with about 30 seconds to play. PHS had possession of the ball to make it a one score game, but couldn’t capitalize, and HSJ finished the rally with a FT.

HSJ is a really good basketball team, clearly better than a good South Point squad. They have good size in the post (6-6), very good guard play, in particular, #00 (can’t remember his name) who is an absolute stud. He would start on any team in the SE district and would probably average 15-20 PPG. He had several behind the back passes for assists, and his dribble penetration was really tough to defend.

Got to give my Trojans a ton of credit for the way they fought back into the game. Matthew Fraulini led PHS with 20 points, but Miles Shipp and Daryionne Bryant had double figures also.

Portsmouth is 1-2, but a competitive 1-2. The Trojans’ full court press is absolutely tough. Offensively, they are much better than last year and are averaging 69 PPG through 3 games. Rebounding and turnovers have hurt the Trojans so far, but they have still played scrappy basketball even with those issues.

In the 2nd game, Gallia Academy trailed for virtually the entire game, but won with a 3 pointer with just 2 seconds to play.