Jackets face tough task at Greenville

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After back-to-back wins last weekend, the Sidney Yellow Jackets head into a tough stretch of games, starting Friday night with a trip to Greenville.

The Jackets are 10-4 after defeating both Troy and Lehman last week, and now turn their attention to the Green Wave, who Sidney coach Andy Slaughter says has two of the top players in the Greater Western Ohio Conference.

“They are two of the best players we’ll see,” Slaughter said of Greenville’s 6-foot-3 scoring machine Clay Guillozet and 6-6 Isaiah Gable. “Both are outstanding. Both shoot the ball extremely well, they take care of the ball, and they get to the rim.

“Trying to contain those two will be the key, because you’re not going to stop them,” he added. “But you can limit what they do, and at the same time make sure none of their role guys go off on you. If we can do that, we have a chance to compete.”

Greenville is 7-4 on the season, and led by Guillozet, who averages a league-high 26.3 points per game. In his last four games, he scored 27, 30, 31 and 31 (29.8 average). He has played in only eight of the Green Wave’s 11 games so far, having missed three games right before Christmas with an injury.

Gable, meanwhile, isn’t far behind in scoring at 20.5. It gives Greenville two of the GWOC’s top three scorers, since Gable is third behind Piqua’s Colton Bachman. Aaron Rich scores 11 points per game for the Wave.

“I don’t really think we’ve played a team like this yet,” said Slaughter. “They will run a ton of ball screens and off-the-ball screens, so we will have to play smart defensively and communicate. This is a very, very good team we’re facing this week.”

The Jackets are off Saturday, but return home Tuesday for another challenge, against a Springfield team that takes a 9-3 record into this weekend’s action.

Meanwhile, the Jackets were impressive last weekend, with the wins over Troy and Lehman, both games highlighted by the high-flying act of freshman Andre Gordon, who continues to thrill Sidney fans with his variety of dunks. And he’s only six feet tall.

The Jackets rolled past Troy, but got more than they perhaps bargained for against Lehman Saturday (74-61).

“The kids from Lehman came out and played well and played really hard,” said Slaughter. “I thought we were a little flat and maybe thought they were going to lay down for us. But our guys did a good job of being resilient and fighting back.”

Cameron Galimore continues to lead the Jackets in scoring at 14.5, followed by Gordon at 12.5 and Lorenzo Taborn at 11.3.

“Cameron has played really well the last month or so and is really coming into his own shooting the ball,” said the coach. “And Andre has done a good job of distributing the ball, running the point, and finishing at the rim. Devon (Rogers) and Lorenzo have really played well inside. Allec Gordon has done a good job for us on the boards, and Isaiah Bowser hit a couple of big threes for us last week. He’s one of the best shooters I’ve ever see. We just have to get him comfortable in game situations. He gives us another deep-ball threat we need.”

He also heaped praise on six-foot senior guard Darryl McNeal.

“Darryl is our unsung hero,” Slaughter said. “He does so many things that don’t show up on the stat sheet. He averages five or six points, five rebounds, and he’s a vocal leader. We’re not a 10-4 team without him. He’s the glue guy, the guy you just have to have.”

McNeal
http://aimmedianetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/47/2016/01/web1_McNeal.jpgMcNeal
Two of GWOC’s top three scorers play for Green Wave

By Ken Barhorst

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Reach Ken Barhorst at 937-538-4818

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