On Saturday, ScoresBroadcast.com will cover Anna’s girls basketball team’s first tournament game. The Shelby County Athletic League club which is currently playing “red hot” basketball.
On Friday, the free online service features two leaders atop the SCAL boys standings in what should be a “hotly” contested game that helps decide the league championship.
“The boys race has heated up big time over the last few weeks,” said SCORES’ Chuck McBee, Jack Kramer’s sidekick for Fort Loramie at Russia online webcast, which will start at 7:40 p.m. “The Redskins-Raiders tussle renews a highly competitive, but healthy rivalry.”
Speaking of “health,” Fort Loramie hopes its starting five is fully restored for this crucial battle. In last Saturday’s loss at home to Anna, the Redskins were without Tyler Siegel, who was down with the flu. Evan Berning played, although he was noticeably under the weather.
“Of course, the added significance of this game is reflected by league records,” continued McBee, noting that Russia at 10-1 has one less loss than Anna and Fort Loramie. “Russia takes its fifth straight outright title by winning at home on Friday. A Fort Loramie triumph throws three teams into a season-ending deadlock, if Anna beats Fairlawn at home.”
The last three-way tie for the SCAL boys title occurred in 1976 when these same three schools finished at 10-2.
The Russia-Fort Loramie series over the last seven years is virtually a stand-off. Russia has won eight times; Fort Loramie, seven. Incredibly, the two clubs have scored exactly the same number of points over this span dating back to the 2011-12 season.
In addition, the road team has won seven of the last 15 head-to-head clashes. However, Fort Loramie has not won at Russia since a decisive victory in December 2011. Two of Fort Loramie’s last three triumphs over Russia took place in sectional finals in 2016 and 2017, after the Raiders thumped the Redskins twice each year while earning league championships.
Fort Loramie was last rewarded with a share of the SCAL title in the 2010-11 season when it finished tied with Houston.
Meanwhile, the Anna girls, featuring six seniors and three juniors, tangle with Arcanum to kick-off SCORES’ 40-game tourney coverage on Saturday afternoon. The Rockets are winners of 10 of 11. They have lost only once in 2018 and have posted recent, well-earned triumphs over Russia, 17-5, and Minster, which was 18-3 heading into play on Thursday.
Anna, which finished third in the SCAL two games behind champ Fort Loramie, outscored its opponents by more than 16 points per outing over the final seven weeks of the regular season.
“Now 16-6, the Rockets have rallied since opening 5-5 and are playing superb basketball right now,” SCORES announcer McBee pointed out. “First-year head coach Jeff Maurer has the Rockets peaking at crunch time.”
Unfortunately, the Anna squad may have lost its outstanding freshman point guard for a game or two. Freshman starter Ella Doseck suffered a knee injury at home on Wednesday.
SCORES, the Shelby County Online Radio Entertainment System, will webcast the Division III girls contest on Saturday at 1:10 p.m. from Covington. Arcanum concluded its schedule 12-10 overall and 8-4 in the Cross-County Conference.
The fifth most-listened-to-game of SCORES 2017-18 webcast year took place this past Tuesday at Vandalia-Butler when more than 1100 IP addresses “connected” for the final minutes of Sidney’s thrilling victory. Andre Gordon’s great assist led to Ratez Roberts’ game-winning hoop with 2.5 seconds left in the GWOC North thriller.
