A trio of Clinton County boys basketball teams will play in the 3rd annual Ohio Valley Hoops Classic at Southern State Community College’s Hillsboro campus.
Wilmington will open against New Albany 9 p.m. Friday night while Blanchester meets Kentucky Country Day at 1:45 p.m. Saturday. East Clinton plays on the event’s third day, facing Fayetteville in the closing game 5 p.m. Sunday.
Check out the game preview for Wilmington in today’s News Journal. Previews on the Blanchester and East Clinton games will appear in Friday and Saturday News Journals.
The remainder of the OVHC schedule is:
• 5:30 p.m. Friday: Lynchburg-Clay vs New Richmond
• 7:15 p.m. Friday: Moeller vs Pickerington Central
• Noon Saturday: Mason vs Cooper (Ky.)
• 3:30 p.m. Saturday: Chaminade-Julienne vs Louisville Fern Creek
• 5:15 p.m. Saturday: Paint Valley vs Centerburg
• 7 p.m. Saturday: Lakota East vs Hamilton Southeastern (Ind.)
• 8:45 p.m. Saturday: McClain vs Upper Arlington
• 1:30 p.m. Sunday: Whiteoak vs Gamble Montessori
• 3:15 p.m. Sunday: Oak Hills vs Hilliard Bradley
BASKETBALL FAMILIES … Clinton County Sports Hall of Famer Butch Hooper remembers driving to Indianapolis back in 1969 to watch the American Basketball Association championship series between the Indiana Pacers and the Oakland Oaks.
Hooper went to the game with Gayle Bradds. Both had brothers playing in the ABA at the time — Bob Hooper with the Pacers and Gary Bradds with the Oaks.
The Pacers won that game, Hooper recalled, but lost the series to the Oaks 4-1. Rick Barry led the Oakland team and eventually landed in the Basketball Hall of Fame. Hooper said Barry — noted as much as anything else for shooting his free throws underhanded — was the only player to lead college basketball, the ABA and the NBA in scoring in a season.
Fast forward to 2016 and a recent college basketball game between the University of Florida and Belmont University that Hooper was watching.
Gayle Bradds, Hooper’s road trip companion back in the day, has a great nephew playing for Belmont, a college in Tennessee. Evan Bradds, a Greeneview High School graduate, is the defending Ohio Valley Conference Player of the Year. His status in upcoming games is questionable because of a concussion he received in the game against the Gators.
Hooper noticed a player enter the game for Florida with the last name of Barry. It was Canyon Barry, son of Rick Barry. Ironically, Hooper said, Canyon Barry shoots free throws underhanded just like his father and was 4-for-4 at the line against Belmont. This season, Canyon is 26-for-31 at the line.
“The old saying that the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree is true in these families,” Hooper said.
STATE FOOTBALL … Here are a few notes from the Ohio High School Athletic Association regarding this week’s state football championship games.
Trotwood-Madison (Div. III) is attempting to become the third No. 7 seed to win a state title since the OHSAA expanded the playoff field to eight teams per region in 1999.
Coldwater (Div. V) is attempting to win its fifth-straight championship and 25th-consecutive playoff game, both of which would be state records.
The 2016 state championships include four of the state’s all-time playoff wins leaders, including No. 2 Cleveland Ignatius (70), No. 3 Coldwater (69), No. 4 Maria Stein Marion Local (66) and Steubenville (61). Newark Catholic leads the state with 72 playoff wins, but was knocked off in the state semifinals by Cuyahoga Heights, which is now in the state championship game for the first time in school history.
For the third-straight season, the Midwest Athletic Conference has sent three teams to the state championship games, including Coldwater in Div. V, Marion Local in Div. VI and Minster in Div. VII. Those three schools all won state titles in 2014, marking the first time a conference produced three state champions in the same season. A straight line spanning 19 miles could connect Minster, Marion Local and Coldwater high schools. Those three schools own a combined 16 state football championships.
Just five miles separates La Salle and St. Xavier along North Bend Road in Cincinnati. La Salle is in Green Township (Cincinnati’s West Side) and St. Xavier is considered Springfield Township (more central part of city).
Canton Central Catholic and Massillon Perry have different street addresses, but both of their football stadiums sit on 13th Street and are located 1.9 miles apart.
