High-powered Potters too much for Edison
Trending
EAST LIVERPOOL -- With a big road test at New Philadelphia to look forward to Saturday, East Liverpool took care of business against Edison at home Friday.
The Potters (9-1) outscored the Wildcats by 37 in the first half and never looked back in a 79-17 win.
Cole Dailey had a game-high 19 points and fellow Potter Zavea Green added 17 of his own.
East Liverpool forced Edison (1-11) to turn the ball over routinely and only Tremendous West was close to scoring in double figures for the Wildcats as he recorded nine points.
With hopes of putting a strong effort against New Philadelphia, Potters' head coach Nate Conley wanted his team to prepare by working the ball in the paint with his big guys.
"We need to start using our size to our advantage, pound the ball inside. I know Edison doesn't have a lot of size and New Philly does. New Philly can probably matchup with us size for size," Conley said.
The East Liverpool coach noted that even though his team loves to play powerful half-court offense, it won't be easy against the Quakers.
"New Philly is probably the best team we're going to play all year in the half-court defense. They don't give up a whole lot of points. Nothing comes easy. They like to keep the game in the 40s and 50s. That's not how we like to play, but we need to be able to play that game, because that's a district championship type of game tomorrow night," Conley added.
The Potters utilized Mason Ludwig and the junior tallied a dozen points in the blowout win. The 6-5 center also showed his versatility which helped his teammates against the Wildcats and hopefully assists them against New Philly.
"Mason Ludwig makes us a better basketball team. He passes the ball well and takes up space. I thought that's why we played so good tonight, because he played. He played a lot of minutes and he played pretty good tonight," Conley explained.
With East Liverpool giving students a snow day, the Potters took advantage of the opportunity and got extra ready for the Edison game.
"We got in here about an hour before the game. It was optional of course, but you could come and get up shots," Green said. "It was a way to get out of the house and get moving before we play the game."
Conley said that since the Potters didn't have time to prepare for New Philly on Friday, they'll instead get ready for them today.
"It's tough playing back-to-back because today we weren't able to focus on New Philadelphia and what they do. But, when you have seniors that have done this before they learn on the fly and be ready to go," the coach said.
Another building block the Potters can use before its game with the Quakers is spreading the ball around. Green said his coaches were pleased with the team finding the open man instead of being consumed with scoring individually.
"It's a complete team aspect right now. Nobody played selfish today. We were all looking for each other, before we looked to get a bucket for ourselves," Green said.
Today's East Liverpool matchup with New Philly starts a two-game road trip. The Potters will also visit Beaver Local on Tuesday.
Notes
* East Liverpool has won six straight games.
* Edison lost both matchups with the Potters this year. The Wildcats haven't beat East Liverpool since 2017 (0-8 since last win in series).
* In the Edison-Liverpool JV game, the Potters were victorious, 28-5.
* Before the Potters battled Edison, the "Kaden M. Davis Flag" was presented near mid-court of the Potter Field House as a tribute to Kaden Davis. Davis was a sophomore at East Liverpool High School who passed away on Nov. 4 due to muscular dystrophy. East Liverpool fans, players, and coaches wore T-shirts that read "Strength is more than muscle #Kaden Strong" to support Davis and muscular dystrophy awareness.
EDISON: 4-5-6-2-- 17
EAST LIVERPOOL: 24-22-19-14--79
EDISON SCORING: Tremendous West 4 0-0 9, Tyler Petrey 2 0-0 4, Braydon Moses 2 0-0 4. TOTALS: 8, 0-0 17.
EAST LIVERPOOL SCORING: Mason Ludwig 5 2-4 12, Jayen Kerr 1 2-4 5, Cole Dailey 9 1-3 19, Marquise Glenn 3 0-0 7, Zavea Green 8 0-0 17, Paxton Grimes 3 0-0 6, Trey Armstrong 4 0-0 9, Preston Kerr 1 0-2 2, Cohen Pease 1 0-0 2. TOTALS: 35, 5-13: 79.
Three-point goals: Edison 1 (West), East Liverpool 4 (Kerr, Glenn, Green, Armstrong).