West Liberty boys turn it up for OHC play

West Liberty-Salem high has won 4 straight and sits in a 3-way tie atop the league standings.

WEST LIBERTY — When the West Liberty-Salem High School boys basketball team started the season 0-2, nobody panicked.

The Tigers (4-2) scheduled Graham and Shawnee, two of the better basketball teams in the area, specifically in preparation for the league and tournament schedule.

That decision has paid off with four straight wins in the Ohio Heritage Conference. The Tigers haven’t allowed more than 37 points against four league opponents and are in a three-way tie with Greeneview and Catholic Central at the top of the league. All are 4-0.

The Tigers allow 39.7 points per game, best in the OHC (Greeneview is second with 40.0) and second in the area to Graham (34.8).

That’s a good number on defense, but the Tigers have also scored as many points (238) as they’ve allowed.

“I still don’t think we’re playing as well as we can offensively,” said the Tigers head coach, Aaron Hollar. “Our offensive numbers aren’t exciting, by any stretch. But defensively, we’re making people earn everything they get.”

When a team isn’t scoring, it has to rely on its defense to win. The Tigers haven’t scored more than 46 points in any one win.

“We’ve got some kids who we have yet to see break out,” Hollar said. “It can be real exciting for us if we can find some offensive rhythm. ... I’m hoping we can get our slump out of the way and get better as the year goes on.”

While points per game are not huge, at least the Tigers are shooting better free throws. After three games, they made 22-of-49 (44.9 percent). In the next three, they made 24-of-32 (75 percent).

“I feel like we have a pretty good free-throw shooting team,” Hollar said.

Andy Daulton leads the team with 10.2 points per game, followed by Travis Mayse’s 8.5 and Ben Rutan’s 7.2.

Landon Hormann is the top rebounder (7.2), followed by Daulton (6.8), Micheal Mack (4.8) and Mayse (4.5).

The Tigers host Cedarville today. After that, they play Greeneview (Jan. 4) and Catholic Central (Jan. 7). That will complete the first half of the OHC schedule.

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