Elsewhere around the area, Franklin (13-1, 7-0 Southwestern Buckeye League Southwestern Division) and Ross (15-2, 7-0 Southwest Ohio Conference) also remain in position to claim titles. Franklin is the only team with less than two losses in its division with five games left to be played, and Ross maintains a two-game lead over Northwest with three SWOC games to play.
“We’ve had three weeks of practice uninterrupted now and that’s typically November, so I feel like we’re in the beginning stages of December, where you’ve gotten a month together and are seeing some things starting to click,” East coach Clint Adkins said. “It’s been a weird year. We had I think 23 days (from December to early January), where we didn’t have a game, so we were basically starting from scratch because of quarantine or guys testing positive. Now we’re getting into a rhythm, but we just need to keep trying to improve.”
Fairfield (8-4, 7-1 GMC) currently sits in first in the GMC with East (10-3, 8-2 GMC) and West (10-5, 7-2 GMC) following, but a full 16-game conference slate will be tough for a lot of teams to complete ahead of the postseason. The Indians had to postpone games this week and won’t play again until Feb. 5. They currently have just six GMC games listed on their remaining schedule.
The Thunderhawks are the two-time defending champions but Adkins said they aren’t even thinking about a title right now. He’s not even sure how the GMC will determine a champion if teams have played an uneven number of games; however, that’s the least of his concerns. East’s two GMC losses were to Fairfield and West, and the conference has much more parity this season.
“We set goals at the beginning of the year and two or three weeks ago, we said, ‘Let’s scrap them. Let’s just focus on getting better every day,’” Adkins said. “I think the process was not as important as it should have been, and we did a little soul searching. We’re not thinking about a championship, just trying to get better every game. I think good things happen that way.”
East returned just one player who contributed major minutes last year, with guard Nate Johnson continuing as the leading scorer with 16.6 points per game. The team added St. Xavier transfer Jack Kronauge (12.5 points per game), and although several guys who played supporting roles a year ago seemed ready to step up, Adkins knew it would take some time to develop chemistry.
Ideally, that would have happened in November and December, but he’s starting to see it now. The main thing Adkins needs to see is fewer turnovers. East is efficient shooting and leads the conference in assists, but taking care of the ball has been an issue at times.
“Things aren’t perfect, but they’re playing harder, playing together, and they know they can’t dwell on things they can’t control,” Adkins said.
Much can happen over a six-game stretch for East. The Hawks play host to Hamilton on Friday, then travel to Newark on Saturday for the final non-league game before finishing with five games between Feb. 2 and Feb. 13.
Franklin is in much the same boat with five of its last eight games coming in SWBL division play, starting with a road game against Valley View on Friday and a home game against Bellbrook on Saturday. The final six games after that occur within a 10-day span.
The Wildcats are seeking their ninth title in 10 years and are led by Nate Paarlberg’s 19.5 points per game. Noah Rich adds 17.8 points and Tez Lattimore 10.5 points and a league-leading 7.2 assists per game.
“Only two of our starters played legit varsity minutes last year, so I’m really proud of what they’ve done up to this point,” coach Brian Bales said last week.
In the six-team SWOC, Ross has a quicker route to a title with five games left and just three of them in-conference, including a home game against Edgewood on Friday and the finale at home against Talawanda on Feb. 12. The Rams can clinch a share of the title with a win Friday, but could also achieve that with a Northwest loss to Harrison.
Ross, led by Max Stepaniak (15.8 ppg) and Sam Nunn (14.3 ppg), is seeking its first SWOC title and it’s first league crown since 1994.
About the Author