The last hardwood hope for the Scioto Valley Conference this season will take the Convo floor Saturday evening as the Zane Trace Pioneers will battle Chesapeake. The match-up of the Scioto Valley Conference champion and the Ohio Valley Conference champion will be for a district title and a spot in this year’s Division III Sweet 16.
As SVC fans found out last week, Chesapeake loves to play offense in transition. The purple and white will run the numbered break with great athleticism in the post and with guards that can really slash off the dribble and shoot it from deep. Zane Trace will counter this with plenty of offensive punch. Obviously, the Pioneers have the district’s best player in Kirk Maxwell. The SVC’s 24th best scorer of all-time is complemented by an incredible athlete in Gabe Haynes, a sharp-shooter in Drew Davis, and a solid all-around guard in Joel Tripp.
I feel a huge key in this game will be Rick Chamberlin’s ability to stay on the floor. The Pioneers were able to overcome his foul trouble in their last game, but this opponent provides a more difficult task on the defensive end.
Northwest was a team that was centered around a great player and some solid stand-still shooters. The ‘Peake is a team that has great size and skill in the middle, a 1,000-point perimeter guy who can really score it, and an explosive ability to score it in transition. Chamberlin allows Zane Trace to stay home everywhere. He can guard talented players one-on-one and force them to hit tough shots. With him off the floor, Zane Trace is forced to send help in more places, and this can sometimes lead to tough match-ups, open perimeter looks, and poor defensive rebounding.
Zane Trace has shown the ability to play in a variety of games this season so tempo shouldn’t be a huge issue in this game. The Pioneers have beaten good teams in games played in the 70’s as well as the 40’s. Zane Trace is so athletic, rarely will they ever have trouble matching up with a team, and if a game does get fast, the red, white, and blue has more than enough offensive punch to score a lot of points.
This should be a good one. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. as the day will consist of the D-III girls’ regional championship, a D-IV district championship for the guys, and then three D-III district title games with the ZT game being the middle of that trio. |
