A hard-fought season came to a hard-fought end when Nelsonville-York was eliminated from the Ohio Division III District Basketball Tournament, losing to Lucasville Valley 61-40.
At least one Athens-area team will move on to the next round of the Division III sectional tournament, as Nelsonville-York defeated River Valley 51-32 Friday night.
Athens (9-9)
Both Alexander and Athens have senior-laden rosters, but it was a pair of freshman that decided the course of the game on Friday night.
Early in the season, when hopes were fleeting for Alexander, it was a two-game winning streak that kept its season alive. Then Athens began to crush those hopes once again.
When Athens and Alexander played on the football field last fall, the game determined which team would stay in the division race and which team would fall behind. Now the two schools meet on the hardwood, each team fighting to stay above .500 in league play.
Losing their last four contests by an average of more than 23 points a game, Alexander was hoping to get back on the right track against Vinton Country Friday night. But the Vikings had other plans as they added to the Spartans’ woes by winning 67-44.
With the beginning of the new year, each game grows in importance as the season grows older for local high-school boys basketball teams.
As a 6-0 start slipped to an 0-3 slide through October, a Week 10 win was not enough to save the Spartans’ season as they finished 7-3 and missed out on the playoffs.
Editor's Note: This article has been updated to reflect a clarification.
Solutions by The State News
