CJ stays unbeaten after Eagles overcome depleted rival Alter
In his 34th season as the Chaminade Julienne High School boys basketball coach, Joe Staley long ago separated himself from the rest of his coaching brethren. But that longevity isn’t the only reason.
“I like being in Division II,” Staley said after Sunday’s 63-58 defeat of rival Alter in Centerville. “Those two years we were in Division III, it just didn’t feel right. Our kids felt that way, too.”
CJ is among many statewide private-school programs to be bumped up a division in basketball due to the Ohio High School Athletic Association’s competitive balance formula. That hasn’t gone over well with most affected coaches, but it’s just fine with Staley, who has his best team since advancing to the D-III state final four in 2015.
Jack Nauseef had a trio of 3-pointers for 13 points and Milton Gage, a rare CJ fouryear starter, added 12 as the Eagles boosted their perfect start to 5-0 overall and 3-0 in the Greater Catholic League Co-Ed North.
Alter (2-3, 1-2) still is without returning starters Connor Bazelak and Derek Willits, both of whom are recovering from assorted injuries suffered in Alter’s loss to Chagrin Falls Kenston in the D-III state football championship on Nov. 30. Bazelak (16.1) led the Knights in scoring last season.
“We’re definitely a team of muskets, not machine guns right now,” Alter coach Eric Coulter said. “The positive thing is a lot of young guys are getting court experience in big games. We just have to roll with it.”
Brady Uhl led the Knights with 20 points and Conor Stolly added 14.
■ Morgan Haney of Miami East and Milton-Union’s Kristen Dickison both surpassed 1,000 career points last Saturday.
A senior, Haney tallied 16 points in a 54-41 defeat of Arcanum. She signed with the University of Albany last month to play basketball. Miami East (6-1) is tied for the Cross Country Conference lead with Covington and Tri-Village, all at 4-0.
Dickison had 20 points in Milton-Union’s 42-27 defeat of Madison. She’s also the Bulldogs’ all-time leader in goals scored in girls soccer with 98.
■ Guard Kendall Moore has made Belmont an early contender for the Dayton City League boys championship. The senior put 40 points on Meadowdale, hasn’t yet gone for less than 21 points and is averaging 27.1 for coach Art Winston’s Bison. Belmont (3-2) plays at Middletown (3-3) on Tuesday and hosts CJ on Saturday.
■ Graham had nine individual winners and easily won the 10-team Fairmont wrestling invitational, 444264 over runner-up Upper Arlington on Saturday. Fairmont senior Nevan Snodgrass won at 170 pounds and was named Most Outstanding for the event. He’s 15-1 with six pins. Fairmont’s Ali Salih (182) also won. He’s 11-0 with eight pins.
■ David Davis (120), Eli Strubler (145), Jarret Winner (195) and Caleb Snyder (285) all won individual titles in leading Miami East to the 15-team Tipp Red Devil wrestling invitational championship, 306.5-179 over runner-up Valley View.
■ Greenon had just one champion in Evan Davis (132), but placed high enough in most other weights to win the 19-team Xenia wrestling invitational, 196-185.5 over runner-up Norwayne. Thirdplace Northmont (175.5) had firsts from Andrew Knick (152), Phillp Tracey (195) and Bryan Heyward (220).
■ The Greater Miami Valley Wrestling Association holiday tournament will be held at the Vandalia-Butler Student Activity Center on Dec. 27-28. Fifty teams are committed to the event.
■ Fairborn and Greenville will make their football debuts in the revised Miami Valley League next season with new head coaches. Chris Roark resigned at Fairborn after three seasons. The Skyhawks were 2-8 this year and 8-22 overall under the former Jefferson and Alter head coach.
Aaron Shaffer resigned as Greenville’s coach to become the Green Wave athletic director. Greenville was 3-7 this season and hasn’t won a GWOC game since 2015. Fairborn and Greenville will join eight current GWOC American Conference teams in revising the MVL next fall.
Mike Brown also has resigned as Carlisle’s head football coach after four seasons (21-21 overall). The Indians qualified for the playoffs in his first season and were 7-3 in 2017, but winless this year.
■ Beavercreek girls soccer coach Steve Popp has been named the United Soccer Coaches High School/ Youth national coach of the year for large schools. The veteran coach guided Beavercreek to a perfect 24-0-0 record last season. The Beavers defeated Strongsville 4-2 to win the Division I state championship, their first.
A 1972 Carroll grad, Popp was inducted into the Beavercreek athletic hall of fame last August along with current Beavers coaches John Guliano (boys soccer) and Gary Wise (wrestling). Other inductees were Don Board, Eric Gartz and Daniel Lee McClue.
Guliano led Beavercreek’s boys soccer team to the D-I state title in 2017.
■ Wednesday through Friday is the early NCAA D-I football signing period. Email information and signing ceremony photos to sports@ coxohio.com. The regular signing period for D-I football is Feb. 6 through April 1 and Feb. 6 through Aug. 1 for D-II. Contact this reporter at 937-225-2381 or email Marc. Pendleton@coxinc.com. Twitter: @MarcPendleton
TODAY’S GAME PREVIEW MOREHEAD STATE AT WRIGHT STATE
■ Who: Morehead State (3-7) at Wright State (5-6) ■ When: 7 p.m. today
■ TV: ESPN+
■ Radio: 106.5-FM
■ Series: Morehead State leads 5-7
■ Coaches: Scott Nagy is 50-28 in his third year at Wright State and 460-268 in 24 years overall. Preston Spradlin is 11-28 in his second year at Morehead State. Mark Hughes Cole Gentry Alan Vest Bill Wampler Loudon Love, 6-9, So., C, 13.5 Jordan Walker Lamontray Harris A.J. Hicks De’von Cooper James Baker ■ 6-4 5-10 6-3 6-6 6-0 6-7 6-0 6-4 6-6 Sr. Jr. Sr. Jr. Jr. Sr. Sr. So. So. G G G F POS. G G G G F 9.5 13.2 4.6 14.4 15.5 12.1 12.0 7.8 4.6
The Raiders continued their pattern of slow starts in a 91-52 win over Northwestern Ohio last week, trailing 25-21 with 4:31 left in the first half before catching fire. They’ve played well in the first half of four games this season, leading at halftime against Western Carolina (52-26), Toledo (40-32), North Florida (44-33) and SMU (39-33), but they trailed at the midway point in their other Division-I games against Murray State (35-29), Penn State (45-28), Indiana State (31-27), Miami (30-21) and Kent State (39-34), losing all five of those games as well their outing against SMU. They also were losing by seven in the first half against Cedarville before taking a 27-25 halftime. “I don’t want to say we haven’t played with good energy, but we’re just not playing very well in the first half of games. And in some of those games, we’ve been out of it at halftime,” Nagy said.
■ The Eagles are coming off a 77-72 overtime loss at home to Samford. A.J. Hicks had two free throws with one second left in regulation with his team trailing by a point, and he missed the first and made the second. They have only one win against a Division-I team, beating Missouri-Kansas City. They’ve faced two Horizon League teams, losing to Northern Kentucky, 93-71, at home and Green Bay, 87-70, at a neutral site . ... In the Ohio Valley Conference preseason poll, they were picked in a tie for 10th out of 12 teams . ... Harris was named to the 12-player preseason all-league team. He averaged 11 points and 6.8 rebounds last year while shooting 86 percent from the foul line . ... The Eagles have a nine-player rotation with sub forward Malek Green averaging 8.7 points and 5.0 rebounds.
■ The Raiders finish the non-league season at 9-1 Mississippi State at 7 p.m. Saturday on the SEC Network. They open conference play with home games against UIC on Dec. 28 and IUPUI on Dec. 30.
— Doug Harris, contributing writer