A Shelby County Athletic League (SCAL) boys hoops rivalry featured by ScoresBroadcast.com on Tuesday has been very tight over the last decade.
Meanwhile, the two girls teams highlighted in Monday’s coverage have experienced a rather lopsided series of results.
Free online play-by-play of the Botkins-Russia girls game and the Anna-Jackson Center boys contest begins at 7 p.m both nights. WMVR, 105.5 TAM FM, simulcasts each evening.
The Botkins girls (6-2, 3-2) topped Russia (5-3, 3-2) by nine points last year at the Trojans gym, but have won decisions from the Raiders only three times since the 2010-11 season. During this span, Russia has knocked Botkins out of the tournament on four occasions. Botkins pulled off a 55-51 upset in early February 2017.
Tuesday’s boys tilt in the SCAL matches the Rockets (6-1, 3-1) and Tigers (6-2, 3-2). In their last twenty head-to-head meetings, the two clubs have played a dozen contests decided by seven points or less and ten determined by five or fewer.
The Rockets hold a slight 11-9 lead in this series since 2010-11 and have won five of the last six by an average of 21 points. The Tigers own an earlier stretch of dominance during which they snatched seven of nine. Jackson Center has consistently eked out those games separated by only a couple possessions.
A Tigers’ road triumph on Tuesday would vault them ahead of Anna in the SCAL standings. The unbeaten Botkins boys have thumped both Anna and Jackson Center and are on top of the SCAL at 4-0 and 6-0 overall. The Fairlawn Jets, who postponed two league games recently, have lost only once in league play, like Anna.
The Botkins girls are currently deadlocked with Russia for third place. Both clubs dropped contests to Anna and Fort Loramie. The Raiders were nipped by Anna on December 19, 40-37.
Botkins travels to Russia for a second round SCAL girls encounter on February 4. The Anna boys away game with Jackson Center is set for February 12 and finishes league action for both schools.
ScoresBroadcast.com or SCORES — the Shelby County Online Radio Entertainment System — has attracted nearly 1.5-million users to its site for high school sports play-by-play since 2006-2007. Its audience has skyrocketed further during the health crisis that limits attendance in gymnasiums.
SCORES recently welcomed new underwriting sponsors: Osgood Bank, SecurCom, Grand Lake Health System, Weigandt Real Estate Development, and Jackson Center Pro Hardware. Lacal Equipment in Jackson Center is the founding anchor sponsor.
January marks the 15th calendar year for the unique service, which provides free live audio streams of high school games and offers archived presentations of most all webcasts as well.
