A wild fourth quarter of play changed what looked to be a blowout turned into an instant classic on Saturday afternoon on Madison road.......
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| Thurgood Marshall's Joe Thomasson, Mark Alstork, Joe Ballard, and Edmond "Junior" Early |
Dayton Thurgood Marshall 58 Withrow 49: One of Dayton’s premier teams made the trip down to Cincinnati to play a talented Withrow squad. The Tiger’s struggled all first half as they were plagued with turnovers and sloppy play. Thurgood Marshalls top player senior wing Joe Thomasson took advantage of Withrow’s mistakes in the first half scoring 18 of his teams 36 points helping them to a 15 point halftime lead. At the start of the 4th quarter the Cougars lead stood at 46-32 and it seemed as if they would win with ease but the Tigers would claw back and make this one interesting. Withrow dominated the first five minutes of the final quarter, using a total team effort while putting together a furious 15-2 run and a score plus the foul by Withrow junior power forward Devin Williams put the score at 48-47 with 3:22 left. Numerous missed opportunities by Withrow and good free throw shooting from Thurgood to end the game proved to be the difference in this one as the Cougars managed to get the hard fought road victory. The Tigers were lead by Devin Williams 15 points and 8 rebounds while senior guard Damon Gooch finished with 14. Leading the Cougars was senior guard Joe Thomasson, finishing with a game high 23 points. Junior guards Mark Alstork and Edmond “Junior” Early also scored in double figures for Thurgood as they scored 12 and 11 respectively. CPHR was also impressed with the defensive efforts of Tim Coleman, Tyler Jordan, and Kendall Beamon who made critical plays for Withrow down the stretch as the Tigers got back in the game.
· Story by CPHR’s Daniel Watkins
Withrow will be just fine, you have to look at who they've lost games to. Taft, a top ten team nationally(6points), another good West Virgina team, and this close one to a very good Thurgood team. 4 losses and you are throwing them under the bus. It is not as if they have lost to some of the teams you have ranked ahead of them.
ReplyDeleteThey not being thrown under the bus, that team is loaded with talent and is under achieving for the level of basketball players they have. They play very indiscipline , their in game adjustments are poor, and the strategy to personnel is not good. With better coaching and player coach relationships this team could be making a lot of noise. I'm not pointing the finger at the coaching staff, but it's clearly obvious that the coaching does not match the level of talent. Withrow isn't the only team suffering from bad coaching, I personally feel that Cincinnati basketball could be a lot better than what it is if they had quality coaching like other states have. Some of these coaches get hired because they have first opportunity to the job because they teach, and they like basketball and could use a little extra pocket money. Meanwhile the coach who really has the knowledge to do the best job is left behind. This is one of my biggest problems with high school atletics in Ohio. In my opinion athletics earn kids scholarships and just like we want the best teachers for our students, we should want the best teaching for our student athletes after all this is a tool that is used to put kids in college, so it should be the best person for the job, and not looked upon as some glorified overtime for the teachers. This is just my view on this, however anyone who watches Withrow basketball can see that they are not a well coached team.
DeleteJoe Thomasson had 19points . Mark Alstork had 15point 8rebs. He got denied and doubled from the 1st quarter on and teams are really starting to double him cause one on one coverage is not enough . That kid is good he is the face of Thurgood Marshall.
ReplyDeleteThat was the first time I seen Alstork and he is really impressive. The best on ball defense I seen for a big guard in high-school. He does it all very well. Scores, plays great defense, rebounds, leads them, pass very well,being a coach on the court, plays point and is consistent the whole game. He can be the player of the year if people really recognize what he contributes day in and day out for Thurgood Marshall. His a gamer
ReplyDeleteAgain I stress, look at who Withrow has lost games against. Not saying they have the best coach around, but they lost one game to a team that supposed to have 9 D-l recruits by a mere 6 points. Their other losses were to what I think are pretty decent out of town teams, with the exception locally of Taft and Thurgood. I said 4 losses, but I forgot about the loss to a nothern Ohio team(5 losses). Thurgoods speed gave them fits in the lst half, but they battled back. They couldn't quite get the half court offense smoothly, as Devin Williams was at times triple teamed. On any given night Withrow could beat any of the teams you have ranked ahead of them, and several of those teams I think would get beat by at least 15. They are not as battle tested as Taft, but there is no shame to losing to the teams that they have lost to. No team in Cincy is going to have the team speed issues that Thurgood gave them, they therefor could beat any team here on any given night. Don't forget they won the tournament in Detroit. My point is the level of competition that they have played, versus the competion of some of your higher ranked teams. Same concept as the respect of the schedule that Taft has played. Some of these out of town teams are really all star teams, and there is no shame in losing by 10 points to them. Remember when Woodward went 10-0 in football a couple of years ago,and made the playoffs, yet the level of competion did not prepare them for what happened in the first round. Withrow will be just fine, I believe they would beat Thurgood if they played again. Thurgood was quite impressive. D-2 is going to be fun to watch come tournament time. I am going with Taft.
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