Holden Dailey fills up stat sheet, Waterford defeats Belpre
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WATERFORD -- Holden Dailey filled up the stat sheet for Waterford here Tuesday night inside the Harry Cooper Annex as the host Wildcats had a successful senior night thanks to handing Belpre a 70-52 setback in Tri-Valley Conference Hocking Division action.
Back on Jan. 7, the visiting Wildcats (13-5) had a big lead at Belpre only to watch the Golden Eagles claw back and fall 61-55.
Prior to the tip, Dailey was honored alongside fellow seniors Dylan Hartline, Grant McCutcheon, Jacob Huffman, Bailey Clarida and Peyton Powers.
Things appeared to be all but over when Clarida opened the fourth with a 3 for a 54-33 bulge. However, the Golden Eagles stormed back to cut it to 56-46 with five minutes remaining thanks in part to Tucker Liston scoring six of his team-high 17 points in the spurt. Blake Church had a three-point play and head coach Tyler Leasure also received deuces by Matthew Deems and Jake Alkire.
However, it was all WHS after that. Powers capped the scoring with 1:07 to go with a bucket as the Wildcats improved to 13-5 with a road game Saturday afternoon at Miller.
"We came out to a good start at Belpre and we got up to a 20-point lead and I don't know what happened," admitted Dailey, who finished with game-highs of 26 points, 17 rebounds, seven assists and six steals. "It's up and down. It's a rollercoaster with us. We're up and down always."
Dailey added of securing the victory "it was big. These seniors are a bunch of brothers. I love them like brothers. That's for sure and the underclassmen stepped up too, definitely."
Huffman and McCutcheon finished with 11 points apiece for head coach Tom Simms' club, which also received eight counters from Gaibe Ponchak and seven by Jarrett Armstrong.
The two teams combined to go just 5 of 21 from the floor in the opening eight minutes as the game was even at eight apiece after one.
Belpre, now 4-16 and losers of eight straight with a home game tonight versus Eastern, led 12-9 early in the second when Derek Liston scored inside. The hosts took the lead for good at 14-12 when McCutcheon drained a 3. Huffman followed with a deuce and then Armstrong knocked down a corner 3 for a 19-12 lead.
Alkire, who finished with eight points, converted with 21 seconds left before intermission to close the deficit to 30-24 at the the break. The Golden Eagles almost made it a two-possession game in the third after Derek Liston scored and Chris Copen hit a 3 to make it 38-31 with 2:54 to go. WHS, though, closed the stanza on a 13-2 run.
Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com