Lady Warriors Advance to District Finals

Chillicothe - Warren cruised past Washington Court House 53-36 in Friday’s Division II district semifinal to win its 22nd straight game.

The Warriors, ranked fourth in the state and now 23-1 overall, led 11-5 after a quarter before really turning it on, outscoring the Blue Lions 17-2 in the second to take a 28-7 halftime lead. By the end of the third quarter, the Warriors led 45-16 and were in cruise control.

Washington Court House fought hard in the final period, led by Shawna Conger’s 16 fourth-quarter points, and cut the deficit to 17 by the final buzzer. Conger had just two points at halftime but finished with a game-high 23. Her deep 3-pointer midway through the fourth gave her 1,000 points for her career. The game was stopped to honor the Blue Lions senior.

Holding a six-point lead after eight minutes, Warren stretched its advantage to 10, 17-7, midway through the second. Molly Grayson made a 3-pointer before Sommer Saboley scored five straight points to make it 26-7.

Millie Ryan made two free-throws just before halftime to give Warren a 21-point edge.

Savannah Banks made a layup and then drained a 3 to make it 33-9 early in the third. Back-to-back buckets by Olivia Alloway made it 37-11 before Caspen Ford’s jumped extended the lead to 28.

Washington Court House outscored Warren 20-8 in the fourth quarter, but a bucket by Elizabeth Burdiss and a 3-pointer by Emme Bowe helped the Warriors hold off the Lions.

Student Athlete of the Week (Feb 10)

Junior Cole Coleman earned Athlete of the Week honors for his efforts during our Senior Night Tri and at the ECOL Championships.  Wrestling in the 113 lb. weight class, Coleman put together an impressive week finishing 5-0 with 3 pins, and an ECOL title in his weight class with his three victories.  He was instrumental in leading the Warriors to a tightly-contested runner-up finish in their first ever appearance in the ECOL Championships.Junior Cole Coleman earned Athlete of the Week honors for his efforts during our Senior Night Tri and at the ECOL Championships.  Wrestling in the 113 lb. weight class,
Coleman put together an impressive week finishing 5-0 with 3 pins, and an ECOL title in his weight class with his three victories.  He was instrumental in leading the Warriors to a tightly-contested runner-up finish in their first ever appearance in the ECOL Championships.

Snyder State Bound

Vincent - 

Hayley Snyder will accomplish a mat-first at Warren High.

The Warrior freshman (19-14) is scheduled to compete in the inaugural OHSWCA (Ohio High School Wrestling Coaches Association) Girls State Wrestling Tournament Saturday and Sunday at Hilliard Davidson High.

“I’m really nervous, and I’m excited,” said the 15-year-old Snyder, who describes herself as a technical wrestler. “I’ve wrestled the No. 1 seed (Elyria’s Riley Banyas) before and won. It should be a good match.”

Added first-year Warren head wrestling coach Jeff Parsons, “Right now, Hayley is currently ranked fourth in the state at 101 in the girls division but has a win over the second-ranked girl already. So we are excited to be taking her to this event.

“She is currently the number two pre-seed in the tournament. We are looking at big things for her this weekend and the following weekend in sectionals. She is expected to be a district qualifier (in the sectional) at 106.”

Last Friday, Snyder wrestled and placed third in the ECOL Championships at River View High in Warsaw. She decisioned River View junior Jeremy Gano, 8-2 in the third-place bout, and helped the Warrior team (125-43) finish runner-up to Dover High, 156.5-152.5 in a nine-team field.

Boys Basketball Routs Vinton County

Logan - Any high school basketball coach will tell you that their top goal is to have their team playing at its best as the regular season comes to a close and tournament time rolls around.

After an inconsistent first half that saw them play well in the opening quarter and not-so-well in the second, the Warren Warriors played their best basketball of the season in an explosive third quarter and went on to down the Vinton County Vikings 64-44 in a Division II sectional semifinal Wednesday evening at Jim Myers Gymnasium.

Leading by just three at the intermission, the eighth-seeded Warriors out-pointed the nine-seed Vikings 29-7 to turn a nail-biter into a laugher in a matter of eight minutes.

“I told them that’s one of the best quarters we’ve played in this program for a long time,” said Warren head coach Blane Maddox of the pivotal third period that featured runs of 11-0 and 10-0. “I was proud of them the way they came out that third quarter and that shows what we are capable of.”

The Warriors got off to an excellent start as they jumped out to a 14-6 lead at the end of the first quarter, largely due to the strong post play of 6-foot-5 junior Jake Baumgard, who scored half of Warren’s points.

The Vikes fought back strong in the second period and actually took a one-point lead with 1:25 to play in the half on a pair of free throws by Braylon Damron before the Warriors finished the half with a bucket by sophomore Brayden Sallee and two freebies by senior Brandon Simoniette.

Lady Warriors Roll to Sectional Title

Logan - Millie Ryan and Abbie Smith wore out Hillsboro High in the paint.

Warren High’s two post players scored 13 points apiece as the third-seeded Warriors defeated the 14th-seeded Indians, 50-17, Saturday afternoon, in an OHSAA Division II Southeast girls sectional basketball final at Jim Myers Gymnasium.

“Hillsboro was playing a box-and-one on Abbie,” said WHS head coach Amy Colgrove. “So, when a team does that, the other post player should be getting the benefit of that.

“I thought Millie moved without the basketball better, and we were able to find her on the weak side a lot.”

Olivia Alloway added 10 points while Molly Grayson and Caspen Ford chipped in with five and five markers, respectively.

Warren, No. 4-ranked in D2 with a 22-1 record, extended its winning streak to 21. The Warriors are scheduled to play either sixth-seeded Lancaster Fairfield Union or 11th-seeded Washington Court House Washington in a district semifinal game at 8 p.m. Friday at Southeastern High.

Hillsboro exited tournament play with a 6-17 mark. The JR Moberly-coached Indians were paced by Karleigh Hopkins and Josie Hopkins, who tallied six and five points, respectively. Christine Page netted four coming off the bench.

Lady Warriors Having a Season to Remember

Vincent -Quietly the Warren girls basketball team wrapped up a spectacular regular season Monday evening with a 17-point victory over a 17-win team in the Unioto Shermans.

The win was the 20th in a row for the Warriors and closed out their regular season with a phenomenal 21-1 record.

What makes the Warriors’ record even more impressive is the fact that they have played a very tough schedule including the final two games of the year against 15-plus win teams in Fairfield Union and Unioto, which Warren won by 18 and 17 points, respectively.

Warrior head coach Amy Colgrove knew that she had a talented team heading into the season but winning 21 times may have even exceeded her expectations.

“I knew in the summer that this team was going to be pretty special and each game has been kind of different and provided different challenges but they have really responded,” said Colgrove. “We are such a balanced group and we are fortunate to have so many different weapons. It’s just a solid group from top to bottom.”

The only blemish on the Warriors’ record was a 63-58 loss to Vinton County way back in the second game of the season.

South Takes Down Warriors

Vincent - Say a prayer for Bill Camp and his family.

The Parkersburg South statistician’s mom had a medical emergency in the bleachers at the Rod Oldham Athletic Facility Friday night and was transported by ambulance to a local hospital.

Play was halted with 1:08 remaining in the contest and the Patriots leading the visiting Warren Warriors, 45-34, so that Camp’s mother could be attended to on the court.

After a few minutes, Warren head coach Blane Maddox, South boss Brett Rector, and the officials agreed that there was no reason to resume play due to the situation.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Rector said. “After the game, I told the guys in the locker room that I didn’t have much to say, except to say a prayer for Billy and his family, and that we’ll deal with the basketball stuff later. So, that was kind of how we ended it.”

Rector paused.

“Again, it just shows you how fragile life is,” the Parkersburg South coach continued.

Warren senior guard Brandon Simoniette agreed and added, “It’s just scary. It makes you really appreciate every second. You never know when life can be taken from you.”

Tom Neill Retiring from Officiating at the End of the Season

Warrior Wrestling program honors veteran official Tom Neill for his 35 years of officiating the sport of wrestling. He plans to retire at the conclusion of the State Tournament. Thanks Tom for your commitment to the sport and best of luck in your retirement!

Senior Night for Warren Wrestling

Vincent - The Warren Wrestling team held senior night on Wednesday Feb 12th.  The Warriors recognized three seniors: Brady Oberdier, John Shoup, and KalebTait

Student Athlete of the Week (Feb 3)

Senior Brady Oberdier earned Athlete of the Week honors for his efforts at Parkersburg South and the State Duals.  On Thursday evening, Oberdier finished 2-0 wrestling in the 170 lb. weight class at the South Tri.  Wrestling up a class at the State Duals on Saturday, Brady pinned Sheridan’s 182 pounder to cap off a  3-0 week on the mat.  For his career, Oberdier now has recorded 133 victories to move into the school’s top ten for wins.

Student Athlete of the Week (Jan 27)

Senior Guard Sommer Saboley earned Athlete of the Week honors for her consistent play in home victories over Linsly and Eastern.  In the win over Linsly, Sommer contributed 10 points and 3 assists, and followed that up with 15 points, including four 3 point FG’s, and 8 assists against Eastern.  For the week, she averaged 12.5 points and 5.5 assists in helping the #4 ranked Lady Warriors improve to 19-1 on the season.

Lady Warriors Win 20th in a Row Over Unioto

Vincent - The Warren Lady Warriors put an exclamation point on a spectacular regular season Monday night as they downed the Unioto Lady Shermans 55-38

The win was the 20th straight for the Warriors who find themselves ranked fourth in Division II and improved their season mark to 21-1.

The Warriors trailed by two points at the end of the first quarter and by two at the halftime break before limiting Unioto to just 12 second half points to win going away.

Sophomore Abbie Smith tossed in a game-high 17 points and senior Sommer Saboley added 14 to lead the way for home team.

The Shermans had the hot hand early on as they knocked down six 3-pointers in the opening half including four in the opening quarter before the Warriors made an adjustment at halftime that would stifle them in the second half.

“We had to switch our defense up a little bit and made some adjustments at halftime,” said Warren head coach Amy Colgrove. “We did a better job of getting out and guarding their shooters and stopping their penetration a little bit and then were able to capitalize on the other end.”

Six early points from Smith early in the third quarter gave the Warriors a four-point lead before a 3-pointer by Hallie Pinkerton cut the lead to one.

Boys Basketball Outlasts Catholic

Parkersburg - In a game that went down to the wire, the Warren Warriors escaped with a Saturday afternoon win. In the 64-62 road victory over Parkersburg Catholic, the Warriors fought through a back-and-forth battle to get the job done. Up with only 2.4 seconds on the clock, Warren had to make one last stop to secure the game. PC’s Jeb Boice got the inbound pass and fired up a shot from just past half court going right to left that bounced off the backboard to just miss out on a buzzer-beater.

A few lead changes spanning just over a minute set the tone for the finish, as Warren took a 51-50 edge with 5:15 to go off a pair of made free throws from Evan Byrd. On the following WHS possession, Boice got whistled for his fourth foul with 4:56 remaining. That resulted in two more makes from the charity stripe for the Warriors, and it pushed their lead up to 53-50. In a hurry, Patrick Copen, who finished with a game-high 28 points and seven boards, snuffed out the Warren momentum with a game-tying 3-ball on the other end. When the Warriors pushed ahead with a 7-1 spurt over the next two minutes, it was capped off by a close-range Josh Welch shot to give WHS its biggest lead (60-54) of the afternoon.

That came after Parkersburg Catholic jumped out to an early 9-3 lead with five minutes gone by to start the game. Both teams struggled to find open looks, as Crusader and Warrior defenders stifled almost every opportunity for the offenses to get in a rhythm.

Then, both teams got going from the floor and engaged in an affair that featured a half-dozen ties and almost as many lead changes.

Boys Fall to 6th Ranked Chillicothe

Vincent - Athletic. Strong. Quick. Long. Explosive. Defensively solid.

Any of these would have been acceptable ways to describe a Chillicothe Cavalier team that is ranked sixth in Division I.

For the first 20 minutes of Thursday night’s battle between visiting Chillicothe and Warren, the Warriors found a way to hang with the Cavs but in the end the visitors were just too much as they pulled away to a 62-40 win.

With a Chillicothe roster that features a pair of athletic bigs in 6-foot-8 Brandon Noel and 6-6 Jayvon Maughmer to go along with an outstanding senior point guard in Tre Beard, the Warriors had their work cut out for them and for two and half quarters they held their own.

With Warren trailing by just six points with four minutes to play in the third, the Cavs took things to a new level as they went on a 10-0 run that featured slam dunks by both Noel and Maughmer to open up a 16-point lead.

“We were able to keep it close for a half and a little bit of the third quarter but we just weren’t able to score,” said Warren head coach Blane Maddox. “They are a very hard team to score on and we needed to hit some more 3s to keep it close.”