Chillicothe (6-3, 2-1) hits the floor for the first time in 2012 with two tough opponents, Warren (8-0, 3-0) which sits atop the SEOAL and the OCC’s Dublin Coffman (7-1).

Last season, the Chillicothe’s Jalen Ragland delivered a dagger on the Warriors home floor for a 44-43 Cavs win. You can bet that’ll be in the back of the minds of the Warren players coming to Hatton Memorial Gymnasium Friday.

Warren presents a patient, deliberate attack. However, they can push the ball up the floor, too. In a halftime appearance on WBEX over the holidays, Warriors coach Blaine Maddox says “We shoot the ball well at times and that keeps us in some games.”

In their last outing, Warren was a disappointing 5-of-18 from three point range, but managed to hang on for a 54-50 victory over Fort Frye.

In facing Chillicothe, one of the concerns for coach Maddox will not be a factor in this meeting defending Zach Johnson, who will be serving the final game of a two game suspension.

Maddox knows his team is not “in the clear” with Johnson off the floor. “You press and MaLik is down there ready to jam it on ya... but everybody else is playing their roll, playing hard, and always looking for those two (Johnson and London) is always a good idea.”

Graduation took two mainstays from the Warren lineup, Grant Venham and Austin Cunningham and deciding to focus on football, the Warriors lost Dylan Leffingwell from their lineup. However, the cupboard is not bare. “We’ve got some sophomores (Evan) French and Reece Patton, and we’ve got a lot of seniors who’ve been waiting, Tyler Ward, Jace Knost and Jason Winland has played well in the post for us…”

Cavs coach Gary Kellough says Warren will play that slow-down-style of game “… “They’re gonna look to Ward and Hastie to do a lot of their outside scoring, then kinda just bang and beat around a bit.” In other words, bring your lunch pail for the Warriors blue collar approach.

Jeremy Hastie has always delivered some big shots from behind the arc at inopportune times for Cavaliers fans. “We call him Big Shot Hastie” Maddox said. “He really likes to wait till that fourth quarter. The team moves the basketball well and plays hard, and that’s all I can ask for.”  

Coach K says “You’re gonna have to run a lot more of your sets and be able to execute in the half-court.” Which means taking care of the basketball, too. The Cavs are averaging 19.3 turnovers per ballgame. Kellough knows why “At times (in practice) our kids are very unselfish… sometimes we look too much (for opportunities) and by that time there’s a turnover.”

Coverage of the game begins around 7:30pm on 1490 WBEX.