Queen City Superstars Recap

Isaiah Jones

Saturday’s scrimmage session at Woodward, for the Queen City Superstars Preview event, provided a great opportunity to get a closer look at some of the area’s top teams heading into next week’s start of the regular season……

Note: Games were only 16 minutes long, instead of normal 32 minute high school games. 

·         Walnut Hills 31 Withrow 22: Junior point guard Sterling Gilmore provided strong play on both ends of the court as the Eagles dominated the second period. Withrow got good perimeter scoring from senior guard Tim Coleman, but it wasn’t enough to counter the second period interior presence of Walnut Hills senior post Isaiah Johnson. Withrow is a talented team, but at this point in the season they are yet to show the discipline, structure, or guidance to be an elite club in the CMAC. 

·         Springboro 40 West High 25: Senior center Maverick Morgan, an Illinois commit, dominated the interior against a West High team that isn’t short on size. West High struggled offensively to find a rhythm. In his first varsity action, sophomore point guard DeJuan Sherman provided some solid offensive sparks for West High.

·         Winton Woods 34 Hughes 27: A strong offensive outing from the Warriors “Big 3” ended a CMAC winning streak, and actually started a three game losing streak. Senior forwards Kwan Cheatham and Trent Donald, as well as junior point guard Ronnie Rousseau, all scored the ball efficiently in a game were neither team got many defensive stops. Junior point guard Angel Rivera set the pace for Hughes, who went cold offensively in the second period.

·         Woodward 39 Trotwood Madison 37: After trailing for most of the second period the Bulldogs made a miracle comeback, culminating with a near buzzer beating layup to give them the lead as time expired; making the CMAC 3-0 against the challengers at the time. Transfer sophomore point guard Isaiah Jones did a great job of setting the scoring pace for Woodward, while senior forward Ryan Connell showed great toughness, and improvement from last season.

·         Fairfield 37 Dayton Meadowdale 15: The Indians absolutely dominated their opponent from up I-75, in a game that wasn’t as close as the score indicates. Fairfield got steady play from returning starter, and junior point guard, Tim Fleming. Freshman forward TC Wells and sophomore post Justin Johnson were also nice surprises for the Indians.

·         Aiken 34 Turpin 25: Senior wing Austin Grimes, senior guard DeMarcus Cook, and freshman power forward Kameron Moore all overpowered a smaller, and slower, Turpin team as the Falcons helped the CMAC improve to 2-0 to start the day on Saturday. In the loss, Turpin was led by a scoring barrage around the basket from athletic junior guard Zach McCormick.

·         Shroder 25 Talawanda 20: The Jaguars opened up the event with a win, to put the CMAC (at the time) 1-0 in the preview. Shroder was led by the all-around play, and aggressive slashing of senior guard Kenny Dukes in their victory.