Xavier Riley, Mikey Johnson send Zanesville past Watkins Memorial
ZANESVILLE — Xavier Riley and Mikey Johnson have a lot in common, most notably their struggles with eyesight.
Two of Zanesville’s most important players wear glasses on the court, something rarely seen in the days of contact lenses and Lasik surgery. But it’s done out of necessity.
Saturday, their lenses had super powers.
Riley and Johnson fueled a second-half turnaround with six 3-pointers, and the Blue Devils held on for a 57-56 win against visiting Watkins Memorial in a Licking County League-Buckeye Division clash at Winland Memorial Gymnasium.
It snapped a three-game losing streak to start the season, two of which were games that got away in the fourth quarter. Saturday was the team’s fourth game in eight days, three of which were on the road.
This was an early gut check for a veteran team desperately needing to get tracked. They let a late lead slip away in a 61-56 loss at Wheeling (West Virginia) Park on Friday.
“We’ve been knocking on the door,” Zanesville coach Cedric Harris said. “We’ve been playing good halves, just haven’t put together a whole game. We obviously had some miscues tonight, but we finished well.”
Watkins (1-2) led 31-22 at halftime, due largely to four Ethan Ryan 3s, effective inside-out play from Chase Massie and Cole Massie and dominance on the glass — the Warriors had 10 offensive rebounds that resulted in 11 points.
The Zanesville’s zone busters — and rebounders — came to life.
Snipers Riley and Johnson sandwiched 3s around a short jumper from Rashaud Hampton, then hit two more from long range during a 16-4 run to start the third quarter. It sent the Blue Devils to a 38-35 lead with 3:11 still left in the frame.
It was a fight to the finish from there, with neither team leading by more than four points until Johnson split two free throws to give Zanesville a 54-49 lead with :43.5 left.
That led to a pair of transition baskets from Chase Massie, the latter of which got the Warriors within 54-53 with 24.3 seconds still showing.
Zanesville (1-3, 1-1) missed another front end of a 1-and-1, but Watkins failed to secure the loose carom and the Blue Devils retained possession. This time, Hampton hit a free throw to extend the lead to two, but he missed the second.
Right on cue, the bruising, but nimble Riley secured a rebound in traffic, and he made both charity tossed after being fouled with 14.4 seconds left. Zanesville’s lead was 57-53, and the Massie’s 3 at the buzzer, after two misses on the interior, was merely cosmetic.
Riley, who finished with 18 points, and Johnson scored 26 second-half points, with the latter getting all 12 of his after halftime. They were part of a Blue Devil offense that was 11-of-18 from the field in the second half, which included a 6-of-9 showing on 3s.
Watkins coach Jamie Caudill said they were aware of Riley’s deft shooting skills, particularly from the corners, but said their backside defense struggled to recover after the Blue Devil guards found seams in the Warriors’ 2-3 zone.
Hampton, who had 14 points, Johnson and veteran point guard Drew Doyle, in his second game back from a broken leg, did much of the distributing.
“They came out in the second half and it was ‘bang, bang, bang,'” Caudill said. “We tried switching it up, but it didn’t matter at that point. We couldn’t contain them.”
Harris said his team leaned heavily on high ball screens to free up Doyle and others for penetration and kick-outs. Riley and Johnson were frequent beneficiaries.
“X, he loves the corners,” Harris said of Riley. “He can shoot it. When he is shooting with confidence, he can play. I challenged him (at halftime). He didn’t have any rebounds in the first half. I haven’t seen the stat line, but he came up with some big rebounds down the stretch.”
Watkins was down four players, including 6-2 senior Sam Johnson, last year’s leading scorer and a first-team All-LCL performer who is still recovering from football injuries to both shins. Two others were also down with injuries, while another sat with sickness.
Johnson will add another weapon on a team already blessed with Ryan, Cole Massie and others with long-range shooting skills.
Ryan finished with 14 points, but just two after halftime. Chase Massie scored 10 of his 17 in the fourth.
“He’ll be back after Christmas,” Caudill said. “(Ryan) had four 3s tonight and had 20-some points the last game, so people are getting to know him now. It’s a different role than he had last year. Last year it was Sam doing that, and he was the one being face guarded. When Sam comes back that’s going to take some pressure off of him, because we’ll have dual threats. It will open up some stuff for us, hopefully.”
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