Wheelersburg explodes, sends Fairland packing

Published 12:00 am Monday, April 3, 2006

ATHENS — If they’re still looking for weapons of mass destruction, the Fairland Dragons have found them. They are called the Wheelersburg Pirates’ offense.

Four Pirates were in double figures that included eight 3-pointers as Wheelersburg rolled past the Fairland Dragons 82-42 Saturday to win the Division III district championship.

“We tried to take away their inside and

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they hit 3s from the outside,” Fairland coach Chad Belville said. “Wheelersburg is a good team. They don’t have too many weaknesses. They’re solid.”

Drew Spradlin led the Pirates with 19 points followed by Camden Miller with 17 points, Seth Cowgill 16 — he had four 3-pointers — and Nick Carrington added 11.

Fairland was led by Adam Fuller and Cole Hatfield with nine points each. Josh Johnson added eight points as the Dragons finished 12-11.

“We have six seniors and they were told since junior high they’d never win anything,” Belville said. “They had a winning season and no one ever expected them to get this far. We made a lot of progress. We’re headed in the right direction and you have to give the seniors a lot of credit for getting this started.”

Wheelersburg got off to an 18-7 start before baskets by Hatfield and Michael Lamb cut the deficit to 18-11 to end the first quarter.

But Spradlin scored nine points as Wheelersburg opened up a 32-17 halftime lead.

A 3-pointer by Cowgill and a layup by Alex Prater extended the Pirates lead to 55-25 with 34 seconds left in the third quarter and it was 57-27 heading into the final stanza.

Fairland got a short burst of energy with a 15-footer by Hatfield and a steal by Hatfield who fed Lamb for a layup and it was 5-31 with seven minutes to go.

But the thoughts of cutting into the lead any more were dashed as Miller and Spradlin made layups and it was 63-33.

Wheelersburg opened up a 42-point lead on a layup by Matt Jenkins that put the scored at 70-38.

Despite the loss, Belville said the future is bright.

“If you can believe it, we’re going to be even younger next year. We have to get in the weight room and work and get better. We have to develop an inside game,” Belville said.

Wheelersburg (21-2) will play Chesapeake at 6:15 p.m. Wednesday in the regional semifinals. Chesapeake routed Adena 78-45 in a district final.