A weekend full of high school basketball at Hillsboro High School, which hosted the fourth edition of the Ohio Valley Hoops Classic, went off without a hitch according to organizer Bennie Carroll.
“I thought it went pretty well. Friday night with the local games seemed to be a good turnout,” said Carroll. “Saturday I saw a good number of local fans and then the teams brought people. I think everything went pretty well. All the teams seemed to enjoy it and things like that. I was pretty pleased.”
Some of the games were not as close as Carroll would have liked, “I don’t know if we didn’t do a great job of matching some teams up, there was a couple of teams that had some players that were injured and they kind of hurt them.”
The quality of competition was top notch at the event especially on Saturday when the OVHC team and individual scoring records were broken.
The local Hillsboro Indians would have broken the team scoring record with their 89 point performance against St. Patrick (Ky.) if not for a 91 point showing by Beechwood (Ky.) in their matchup against Blanchester.
The individual record looked like it would be broken in the first game on Saturday when Xenia’s Samari Curtis put up 35 points in a loss to Walton Verona.
Then, Beechwood’s Scotty Draud threatened the record when he scored 35 points in a win over the Blanchester Wildcats.
The record finally went down when Walnut Ridge’s Von Cameron Davis exploded for 46 points in the Scots’ win over Cambell County (Ky.).
“We had several scoring records broken on the weekend. The team scoring record got broken twice. The previous record was 87 from last year when Princeton did it. There was a lot of points,” said Carroll.
Carroll was also happy to see that the players that were built up as being good heading into the OVHC showed up and displayed their talent effectively.
“Most of the marquee players that were supposed to be good, were good,” Carroll said. “I believe all of those guys had 20 plus. That part was really fun.”
Carroll also took the time to thank the athletic staff at Hillsboro High School for the work they put in to help the event be successful, “I want to really thank the Hillsboro High School staff they did a really good job of working the event and making it successful.”
Lastly Carroll took the time to thank all the sponsors for the event which includes: Sherwood Auto and Campers, Beford Ford Lincoln, Southern State Community College, JK Precast. Big Ernie’s Pizza, LaRosa’s Pizzeria, G & J Pepsi, Great Oaks Career Campuses, Wright State University, Highland District Hospital, CMH Regional Health Systems, Hillsboro Bible Baptist Church. Chad Abbott Signs, The Highland County Press, The Times Gazette, Five Points Implement, KFC, Quali-Tee Design Sportswear, Southern Hills Community Bank, H & R Block, Lowe’s, Hobart, Ponderosa Steakhouse, 24 Deli, Family Farm and Home, Roger Williams Auto. Snow Hill Country Club, Save a Lot, Community Markets, Harsha Monument Company, Kibler Lumber, ATSG, the Union Stock Yards, Merchant’s National Bank, The Laurels of Hillsboro, NCB, Alley 21, Carrie Zeigler-State Farm Insurance and BDK Lumber.
Ryan Applegate is the sports editor for The Times-Gazette. Reach Ryan Applegate at 937-402-2572, or on Twitter @RCApplegate89.
