Unioto Completes SVC Gold Ball Season

(Above photo: Cade McKee was one of the Shermans that got the chance to cut down nets for a perfect SVC season.)

69 straight SVC wins. That impressive run of victories over five years by the Unioto Shermans comes with a fourth consecutive SVC Gold Basketball, as the Tanks whipped the Zane Trace Pioneers 57-44 in front of a jammed-pack Unioto crowd to conclude the regular season, Saturday night.

Zane Trace scored first, then never led again in the game as the high-octane Shermans rolled to a 9-2 lead. The Pioneers cut that to 12-9 to finish the first quarter, but the second period saw Unioto explode to a 23-4 run and a halftime lead of 35-13. That deficit closed to 14- twice in the second half, but never was any closer.

Logan Swackhammer had a huge milestone night, surpassing the 1,000 career point mark on his way to 24 points, 20 of which came in the first half. Branden Kennedy connected on five three-point goals, one of those making him the all-time leader at Unioto.

Unioto shot 20/39 for the game for 51%- including 8/17 from the arc. They were also 9/16 from the charity stripe.

Zane Trace got 20 from Cameron Evans, all but two in the second half. Isaac Beam had 17. The Pioneers were 16/34 from the field for 47%- including 3/11 from the arc and were 9/14 at the foul line.

The Pioneers had an uncharacteristic 17 turnovers in the game, several of which were unforced errors.

Unioto finishes the regular season at (14-0/19-2) as Zane Trace drops to (11-3/15-7). The Shermans play for the Division 2 Sectional Championship at Southeastern High School at 3pm Saturday, while the Pioneers meet Gallia Academy in the other bracket at 8:30pm Friday night. 94 Country WKKJ will broadcast both games.

To hear the play-by-play call from Mike Smith and Tom Beard, go to our podcast link below...