Early Christmas present: Portsmouth vs Wheelersburg

[Proud_Pirate63]

Thoughts?

[QB SNEAK]

They didn’t play in football this year so it’s up to basketball to keep this traditional rivalry going. This is usually a good game.

[Basketballfan40]

Although Tanner played big last night I don’t think it will roll into tonight where he will be sharing the paint with Gabe Gambill and company. (Portsmouth by double digits)

[HamPorter]

Wheelersburg wins by a handful of points

[Pa Trojan]

so many memories, this should be a whole lot of fun.. Go Trojans

[trojandave]

Portsmouth leads the series 23-17, and have won 11 of the last 12 games. The tournament series standing is 5-4 in favor of Portsmouth. The two schools last met in the tournament in the 2013 sectional final, won by Wheelersburg 45-42 on a Dylan Miller 3 pointer at the buzzer. Only once have the Trojans and Pirates met past the district championship game, that being in 2011, when the Trojans beat the Burg 45-39 in the regional semifinal.

The series started in 1974, when Portsmouth beat Wheelersburg 77-55 at PHS. The Trojans followed that up with a 67-58 win the following year. The Pirates secured their first victory in the rivalry with a convincing 68-53 win at Portsmouth in 1976. That Pirate team finished with an undefeated regular season. Wheelersburg beat the Trojans 54-52 in the final game of the 1978 regular season, but the Trojans won in the sectional final that year by the same 54-52 score. The undefeated 18-0 Trojans of 1979 won at Wheelersburg 56-43, and in 1980, Portsmouth beat WHS 80-69 and later that season the Trojans would finish state runnerup in Class AA. In 1987, Portsmouth and Wheelersburg met in the opening round of the sectional at Ironton despite the Trojans having an 18-2 record and the Pirates coming into the game 16-4. Portsmouth won the game 59-54. A memorable finish in the series came in the 2002 game, when Wheelersburg's Andrew Burleson dunked with just seconds remaining to give the Pirates a 52-51 win.

Regular season results since 2014:

2013-2014: Portsmouth 42, Wheelersburg 38
2014-2015: Portsmouth 67, Wheelersburg 49
2015-2016: Portsmouth 56, Wheelersburg 55
2016-2017: Portsmouth 77, Wheelersburg 75 OT

TOURNAMENT RESULTS:

Portsmouth wins: 1978, 1983, 1987, 2011, 2012
Wheelersburg wins: 1984, 2006, 2007, 2013

One interesting fact is that 6 times the winner of the tournament game went on to win the state title or advance to the Final 4. In 1978, PHS won the state beating Wheelersburg in the sectional 54-52, in 1984 WHS beat PHS in the district championship and then finished state runnerup to Akron St.Vincent St.Mary, in 2006 and 2007, the Pirates advanced to back to back Final 4's beating the Trojans in the sectional each year, and in 2011 and 2012 Portsmouth advanced to the state after beating Wheelersburg in the regional semifinal and sectional final, respectively.

The two schools have split district championship games, with Portsmouth winning in 1983 in OT 66-59, and then Wheelersburg winning in OT in 1984 73-66.

GO TROJANS!!!

[QB SNEAK]

Awesome stats! Thanks for taking the time to post all that. I was happy to see the Burg win this one tonight!

[trojandave]

Congratulations to the Wheelersburg Pirates on the win........they took advantage of turnovers and poor free throw shooting by the Trojans to get the win. I still have confidence that the Trojans will get the turnover problem figured out, but until they do, they will struggle against the better teams on their schedule. PHS needs another consistent scoring threat as DJ Eley and Matthew Fraulini have done the bulk of the scoring to this point of the season. The Trojans are still capable of a 15-16 win season if there is improvement in these areas.

For Wheelersburg, they were due to beat the Trojans after a good run in the series by PHS. I thought that the Burg Freshman JJ Truitt played very well, and #14 really stepped up with some key 3 pointers. Tanner Holden played well overall, and his ball handling had a settling influence on the rest of the team.

Great atmosphere as usual with a Portsmouth--Wheelersburg game. Hopefully the series will continue.

GO TROJANS!!!






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[victor creed]

Really suprised there isn't more discussion on this game and the rivalry since basketball is all we have now. This was a big win by the pirates considering it was just their fourth game and really are about 4 weeks or more behind in practice time with success of the football season. Great job by coach Ater getting them ready and good job to coach Holden and Massie. Portsmouth is really good team and to play well enough to get this win early especially with 2 kids out with injury shows what a good job this coaching staff is doing and they deserve more support from the community IMO Reserve team is also undefeated with just 2 sophomores and a bunch of freshmen.

[callie15]

Basketball is a little different than football any more. People go to the games and that's good , but there seems to be very little following from the rest of the communitys . Take PHS for instance they usual have a decent team , check and see how much following they have on this site , very little.

[biggdowgg]

I stopped posting to much s long time ago because it only turns into a pissing match,but I don't miss a game.

Good win by the pirates, Portsmouth will struggle. With anyone until they fix the turnover problems, we have had over 20 turnovers in the last time three out of four games I believe, including 27 against south point ,St least we got out of there with a win.

I still have a lot of confidence in this team,this staff will fix the problem and have them ready by tournament time,one of the best staffs around