CHESAPEAKE – The 400th win for Norm Persin finally arrived.

Wednesday, January 17, 2001

CHESAPEAKE – The 400th win for Norm Persin finally arrived. Persin is ready to move on.

The Chesapeake Panthers beat the Coal Grove Hornets 51-31 Tuesday night to give Persin his 400th career win. Persin is 400-121 in 24 seasons and 276-57 in 16 years at Chesapeake.

"I’m glad it’s over," Persin said. "I feel better about the 120 losses than the 400 wins. A lot of people can win a lot of games by just coaching a long time. That’s not many losses. I’ve been pretty fortunate."

Persin’s 400th win means Chesapeake is now 12-0 on the season and 3-0 in the Ohio Valley Conference. The Panthers play at South Point Friday in a battle for first place.

The Panthers were coming off a 59-41 win over Toronto, Canada, power Runny Mede. Persin said the team responded well.

"We didn’t now how we’d react coming off the win Saturday, but we came out with some intensity and did okay," Persin said.

Doing "okay" for the Panthers were Anthony Delimpo with 16 points and eight rebounds and Bobby Barbour with 15 points. Josh Waugh had three steals and turned in a solid defensive effort against the Hornets leading scorer Ryan Young.

Another key factor for Chesapeake was 19-of-39 shooting from the field for 48.7 percent.

‘We shot the ball pretty well, and we played pretty good defense. Waugh did a nice job on Young. Coal Grove was going to be in a deliberate offense and we didn’t give them too many good looks," Persin said.

Young led Coal Grove (6-5, 1-2) with 11 points, but he had just three until the fourth quarter.

Chesapeake led just 8-7 after the first quarter, then took off the second quarter and outscored the Hornets 17-4 to take a 25-11 halftime lead.

The cushion grew to 39-18 after three quarters and Persin emptied his bench the fourth quarter.

Chesapeake seniors made presentations to Persin after the game.

"They said some nice things, but I told them they could be a little more honest. They said too many nice things about me," Persin said with a chuckle.

"This is a pretty good bunch of kids. If you work hard, kids will work hard. Kids appreciate when you work hard for them."

South Point 50, Fairland 35

SOUTH POINT – It’s not how you start, but rather how you finish.

The first half wasn’t very promising for the South Point Pointers Tuesday night, but the second half was a different story as they pulled away from the Fairland Dragons for a 50-35 Ohio Valley Conference win.

"We played sluggish the first half. Fairland does a good job controlling the tempo of the game. We got caught in it the first half, but we finally picked it up the second half," Pointers coach Mark Lafon said.

Leading just 20-18 at the half, the Pointers Jarred Perdue scored eight points the third quarter as the spread went to 34-27.

"We saw some mismatches and we took advantage of it with Jarred," said Lafon.

Perdue finished with a game-high 21 points. Shane Holsinger had 15 points and seven assists, and Bryan Maggard grabbed nine rebounds.

"Our team is playing well right now. We’ve won seven straight and this is a fun team for people to come and see. If they come out, they’ll see a good team that’s working hard," Lafon said.

Fans will get to see a showdown for first place Friday if they come to the Pointers gym. The unbeaten Chesapeake Panthers visit South Point and both teams are 3-0 in the OVC.

Fairland (1-10, 0-4) was paced by Glen Chapman with 11 points. Josh Dunfee chipped in eight points.

Green 51, Ports. Notre Dame 36

FRANKLIN FURNACE – Just who are the Green Bobcats?

Judging by Tuesday night’s Southern Ohio Conference game, they’re defensive wizards.

Green turned in a stellar defensive effort in beating the Portsmouth Notre Dame Titans 51-36.

"We struggled a little offensively the first half, but we’re starting to form an identity. We’re playing good defense and we’re looking to play defense. To hold a team to 35 points, I’m pleased with our defensive effort," Green coach Kevin Lewis said.

"Kyle Dyer did a tremendous job on (Nick) Rutman. When we’re successful, it starts with our defense and the kids are starting to realize that,"

Green, 6-5 overall and 6-1 in the SOC, got a balanced effort on offense. Jacob Yarnell had 14 points, Ben Dyer got 10 points and four assists, and Alex Poe had nine points and six rebounds.

Nick Rutman scored 11 points and Mike Glockner nine to pace Notre Dame.

The game was tied 13-13 after the first quarter. Poe scored six points to offset five by Glockner.

Neither team could put much offense together the second quarter. Jacob Bowman had four points as Notre Dame outscored Green 6-2 to lead 19-15 at the break.

The Bobcats rallied to take the lead the third quarter as Ben Dyer and Brad Bainer scored five points each to go up 33-30.

Yarnell had 10 points the fourth quarter as Green outscored Notre Dame 18-6. The Bobcats were 8-of-12 from the foul line the last four minutes of the game.

"We got a 10-point lead and our kids did real good job with our delay game and our kids did a good job going up there and knocking down the free throws," said Lewis.

"Jacob gave us a big-time lift at the beginning of the fourth quarter. He had four field goals in the fourth quarter and they all came one right after another that gave us some momentum."

Green hosts Portsmouth Clay in a key SOC game.

Eastern 68, Symmes Valley 53

BEAVER – The first half was rated "G." The second half was rated "X."

The Symmes Valley Vikings play Tuesday night went from a Disney classic to "Nightmare On Elm Street" in a 68-53 loss to the Eastern Eagles in a Southern Ohio Conference game.

The Vikings had taken a nine-point halftime lead, then struggled the second half as Eastern rallied to remain tied for first place in the SOC with Green at 6-1.

The loss left the Vikings 6-4 overall and 3-3 in the SOC after starting the season 3-0.

"We’re a Jekyll and Hyde team. We’ve been Mr. Hyde too long. I’m waiting for Dr. Jekyll to come back," said Vikings coach Alvin Carpenter.

Justin Myers scored 13 points the first half as Symmes Valley took a 34-25 halftime lead. But Myers had only two points the second half and Eastern rallied behind Robbie Day who scored all 17 of his points including 11 the fourth quarter.

"We just quit shooting," Carpenter said. "And Day got hot the fourth quarter," Carpenter said.

"We played our best half of the year the first half, then we came out and committed a couple of fouls, quit shooting, didn’t rebound, and got a little timid. We’re not playing to win. We’re playing not to lose."

Symmes Valley was up 17-10 at the end of the first quarter, then outscored the Eagles 17-15 the second quarter.

Eastern came back to take a 42-41 lead after three quarters and then pulled away the fourth quarter by outscoring the Vikings 26-11 behind Day.

A crippling area for the Vikings the second half came in the turnover department. Symmes Valley had 22 turnovers for the game, but 16 the second half.

Myers had nine rebounds to go along with his 15 points. Adam Corn added nine points, and Brad Carpenter had eight pints, five rebounds, two assists, and four steals.

Matt Hines led the Eagles with a game-high 24 points.