Teammates in the regular season, opponents here, as Peebles’ Kenzie Morrison, right, goes up for a shot attempt over fellow Lady Indians’ senior Marisa Moore in last weekend’s C-103 Senior All-Star game. (Photo by Tim Daulton)
NAHS hosts annual Senior All Star Game
Ten student/athletes from Southern Hills Athletic Conference schools were honored with $1,000 scholarships, awarded by C-103 Radio. The winners are pictured above. Front row, from left, Bailey Dotson (Eastern Brown), Alexa Rowe (West Union), Adelyn Shupert (West Union), Myla Toole (North Adams) and Sierra Kendall (North Adams); Back row, from left, Don Bowles, President Dreamcatcher Communications, Reese Teeters (Fairfield), Daulton McDonald (Manchester), Cameron Campbell (North Adams), Isaiah Scott (Manchester) and Trent Hundley (Eastern Brown). (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
North Adams senior Avery Anderson, right, lines up a three-point goal as classmate Cameron Campbell closes out in action from the March 25 Senior All-Star Game, held at NAHS. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
West Union’s Alexa Rowe competes in the Three-Point Hot Shot competition at last weekend’s Senior All-Star game. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
The excitement returned after a two-year hiatus on Friday, March 25. A jam-packed gymnasium at North Adams High School played host to the C-103 Senior All Star Game, which returned to the county after COVID forced cancellation in 2020 and 2021. A tremendous amount of hard work is put in by the employees at the radio station to give the senior basketball players from the Southern Hills Athletic Conference one more local opportunity to showcase their skills before fans, family, and friends.
Like most All Star games, the atmosphere is more relaxed with less pressure, just a chance for the athletes to compete with players from other squads in the conference. The festivities began with the All Star girls game, players decked out in red and white shirts. As far as the basketball action went, the girls contest was the most exciting of the evening.
The Red Team, coached by Fairfield’s Jeremy McGraw and Peebles’ Sidney Pell, took an early lead when a three-pointer by Eastern Brown’s Bailey Dotson gave them a 14-12 lead after one quarter. The second period totally belonged to the Red squad as they, aided by a pair of three-pointers from West Union’s Alexa Rowe, outscored the White 18-3 to lead 32-15 at the halftime intermission.
After a halftime performance by West Union Winter Percussion, the girls action resumed and the White Team, coached by Eastern Brown’s Kevin Pickerill and Fayetteville’s Tory Rummel, began to chip away at their big deficit, getting three-point goals from Ripley’s Reggie Taylor, Eastern’s Kirsten Bailey and Peebles’ Kenzie Morrison. The comeback continued in the fourth stanza, mostly from the efforts at the free throw line from Fayetteville’s Olivia Crawford and North Adams’ Sierra Kendall, who combined to go 8 for 10.
The Red Team only managed a single field goal in the final period and in the final minute a basket by Eastern Brown’s MacKenzie Gloff provided the winning margin as the White Team completed the comeback and claimed a 43-42 victory.
After the girls action, the attention turned to the Three-Point Hot Shot competition. On the girls side, the competitors were Fairfield’s Emma Fouch, West Union’s Alexa Rowe, Eastern Brown’s Emma Prine, West Union’s Madison Taylor, Eastern Brown’s Kirsten Bailey and Eastern Brown’s Torie Utter. The contest ended in a tie between Fouch and Rowe, with Fouch winning 14-8 in a shootout.
The boys’ contestants in the Three-Point contest were Whiteoak’s Bradley Ashbaugh, Ripley’s Gabe Fyffe, Eastern Brown’s Trent Hundley, Fairfield’s Reese Teeters, Fayetteville’s’s Tyler Tipis and Fairfield’s Brayden Zimmerman, with Hundley coming out on top, setting up the showdown with the girls winner. On this night, it was a shootout for the ladies as Fouch topped Hundley 12-11.
After some warm up time and an auction led by local auctioneer Sam Bolender, the Red and White boys teams took the court and at halftime of their contest, attention turned to what might be the most important part of the All Star evening, the awarding of the C-103 scholarships. Since 1996, the station has used the proceeds from the All Star Game to fund $190,000 of scholarships given to student/athletes of the SHAC. This year’s winners of $1,000 scholarships were: Trent Hundley (Eastern Brown), Alexa Rowe (West Union), Isaiah Scott (Manchester), Bailey Dotson (Eastern Brown). Cameron Campbell (North Adams), Adelyn Shupert (West Union), Daulton McDonald (Manchester), Myla Toole (North Adams), Reese Teeters (Fairfield) and Sierra Kendall (North Adams).
Following the scholarships, six young men competed in the Slam Dunk Contest- Blake Coffman (Fayetteville), Trent Hundley (Eastern Brown), Jayden Bradshaw (Fayetteville), Christian Amburgey (Eastern brown), Braiden Bennington (Ripley) and Levi Wiederhold (Fayetteville). Bradshaw was the heavy favorite coming in, but in the end it was his teammate Coffman who took the Slam Dunk crown.
Thj evening concluded with the second half of the boys game, with the Red Team, coached by Eastern’s Rob Beucler, pulling off the 72-58 triumph.
