WCAL 2022-23

Smithville bounced back with a convincing win over Chippewa. Smithies move on to a big game on Tuesday at Dalton. I am sure that win felt good for Smithville after the debacle in Creston earlier in the week. Corey Kaufman said in the paper that his players quit at Norwayne. They showed some fight tonight against Chippewa.

I watched the Dalton vs Norwayne stream late last night. Crazy game. Dalton had a dreadful shooting performance in the first half. They had 5 points in the 1st quarter and only 14 in the first half. This from a team that has averaged in the mid 70s since getting Braylon Wenger back. Norwayne pressured the Dalton guards effectively. Norwayne never really got rolling offensively all night either. I'm not sure anybody would have predicted a 45-44 final for this game, but that is what happened. Dalton kept chipping away at the lead in the second half, but just never got over the hump. They even had a wide open breakaway layup to take the lead late in the game but could not convert. Ethan Hann seems to be Norwayne's go to guy in the clutch. I'm pretty sure he was the only Norwayne player to score a basket in the 4th quarter. If I remember correctly, he made the big plays down the stretch against Chippewa and Hiland earlier in the year as well. I think both of these teams are down considerably compared to last year, but it was still a wildly entertaining game.
 
Dreadful shooting performance by both teams, but especially Dalton. Norwayne D was strong as usual, but wenger, Steiner, mcfarren still got a lot of open looks and just couldn’t get them to drop. Was entertaining though
 
Norwayne/Dalton was a fantastic game in the 2nd half. 1st half was a little shocking, and boring tbh. 26-14 halftime score left me a little disappointed. Ended up being everything I wanted in a game though. And the environment in that gym was next level - there were points of that game that you could not hear the person sitting next to you it was so loud!
 
CasualFan24 said:
Norwayne/Dalton was a fantastic game in the 2nd half. 1st half was a little shocking, and boring tbh. 26-14 halftime score left me a little disappointed. Ended up being everything I wanted in a game though. And the environment in that gym was next level - there were points of that game that you could not hear the person sitting next to you it was so loud!
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Both teams have so many players who were in an environment like that for the first time. I was not that surprised that the first half looked kind of ragged. Both teams should be better going forward. Both teams also lost major pieces from last year. Even most of the returning players are in roles they have never played before this season.......especially for Dalton.
 
CasualFan24 said:
Pretty easy pick'em tonight
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Chippewa vs Hillsdale might be the best game tonight. Northwestern could give Norwayne a run in the first half but don’t see that being very close by the end. Norwayne firmly in the drivers seat for the league unless something crazy happens with a 2 game lead on Dalton and Smithville.
 
CasualFan24 said:
Pretty easy pick'em tonight
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Picks in order from most confidence to least confidence.

Smithville over Rittman......poor Rittman is going to want this game to be over at halftime
Dalton over Waynedale......Waynedale was completely overwhelmed against Norwayne the other night.
Norwayne over Northwestern..........Northwestern is a dangerous team, especially at home, but Norwayne is rolling right now.
Chippewa over Hillsdale..........This one could come down to the wire. Chipps are a complete wildcard. One night they have a 19 point lead against Norwayne. The next night they get beat going away by a Barkman less Waynedale squad. Hillsdale is trending upwards and could pull the upset tonight.
 
Bobcatsfan2016 said:
Man Norwayne the last few games have hit there stride
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I agree. They have 30+ point wins against Smithville, Waynedale, and Northwestern in the last 2 weeks. Most of these games have been decided well before halftime. Norwayne appears poised to win their first league title since 2014.

Norwayne should have a top seed for the tournament, and they have a choice to get into a district that heads west for regionals this year. I am assuming they will make that choice to avoid another matchup against Lutheran East in the Canton regional. Ottawa Glandorf is really good and will be the favorite in that region out west. OG is about the same as Lutheran East talent wise, but I’m sure Norwayne will be eager to go against somebody different than Lutheran East. Lutheran East is a bad matchup for Norwayne as they do not play against any team close to that style of play during the season. Obviously, all of these teams have to win their district before this means anything, but I think the chances are pretty strong that they all advance to the Sweet 16.
 
Some really challenging non league games on the schedule for Smithville and Dalton this week.

Smithville is coming off arguably the best win of the Corey Kaufman era against a solid D1 Fitch team over the weekend. Now they are taking on Emmanuel Christian out of Toledo on Saturday night in the feature game of the Battle at the Berkey. Emmanuel Christian is led by guard Jerry Easter. Easter holds numerous D1 offers, including an offer from UCLA.

Dalton plays at home against Ohio powerhouse Lutheran East on Saturday as well. Lutheran East players Cody Head, Jesse McCulloch, and TJ Crumble all have numerous D1 offers. McCulloch (Ohio State, Michigan State) and Crumble (Ole Miss, Missouri) have multiple Power 5 conference offers. Lutheran East also has 6'8'' forwards Icare Bakadisula and Nelson Johnson who will play college basketball as well.

The talent level on the Wayne County hardwood will be about as high as its ever been on Saturday night. These games should serve Dalton and Smithville well as they head into tournament play. The Dalton game tips off around 5:45 pm and the Smithville game should tip off shortly after 7. Not sure if that leaves enough time to watch both games live, but I think some people might try. Hopefully they stream the games from Smithville. I am pretty sure Dalton has a free stream of their games.
 
CasualFan24 said:
Chippewa is so inconsistent it's sickening. I don't get it.
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I have seen every team in the league play this year. Chippewa has as much or more talent than any other team in the league. That locker room has to be a mess with all of the things that plague inconsistent teams. I think they have more issues than normal teams do with defining roles within the team. They struggle with players thinking they need more shots than they are getting. It will be good for the league if they can put it all together before the end of the season.
 
Hiland girls beat Wayndale tonight. That game was awesome and really didn't think Hiland would be able to hang with them coming into the game. Refs definetly helped Hiland in the second half as fouls were 7-1 before Waynedale had to start fouling end game. Fouls ended 10-1 in the second. I was really impressed with Waynedale's players though. They got a nice team and seem like they could beat anyone
 
Good win by Waynedale over Triway. Did not expect Hillsdale to get blown out by Mapleton. Looks like Jack Steiner had a huge night for Dalton against Northwestern. Wenger also continued his steady production. Norwayne over Wellington big not a surprise.
 
smhBrownsFan said:
Good win by Waynedale over Triway. Did not expect Hillsdale to get blown out by Mapleton. Looks like Jack Steiner had a huge night for Dalton against Northwestern. Wenger also continued his steady production. Norwayne over Wellington big not a surprise.
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Waynedale is sitting in 5th or 6th place in the WCAL and beats Triway who is 2nd place in the PAC. The PAC must be the worst it has ever been this year. Triway has won many of their games by comfortable margins in the PAC too. I think Norwayne started their game against Waynedale last week on a 25-0 run or something similar to that. Dalton had a running clock on Waynedale in the 2nd half as well. A win like that for Waynedale makes the WCAL look strong. The same can be said about Smithville's non conference win against Fitch last weekend. The opportunities for upsets still exist, but it seems like the top three teams in the league have separated themselves from the rest of the pack lately. Norwayne vs Smithville seems to be the next big game on the league slate.
 
According to Arbiter... the Lutheran East is not appearing on the schedule anymore. Anybody know whats up?
 
I saw something that Alex Tichenor tweeted about Jack Steiner splits. Jack is shooting at such a high level. So happy for Jack.
 
CasualFan24 said:
Norwayne @ Smithville tomorrow night.....gotta think it's a much closer game than the first meeting
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Agreed. Smithville is playing great right now. They hung with a very tough Emmanuel Christian team at the Berkey Classic and almost pulled off the huge upset. Quinn Maibach is hurt right now, but Colt Zollinger is back. Either way Kauffman has this group playing great defense. Norwayne hasn't won at Smithville since the 2018/2019 season.
 
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