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Waterford wins easily over Lancers in season opener

TOM PERRY The Marietta Times Waterford’s Riley Burns goes up for a layup between Federal Hocking’s Bryce Gates (25) and Walker Church (23). Burns scored eight points as the Wildcats easily won 76-15.

WATERFORD — After an extended run in the football postseason, Waterford’s basketball season started a little later than normal.

Despite less time on the court, the Wildcats looked in midseason form as they opened with a bruising 76-15 victory over Federal Hocking in a Tri-Valley Conference game.

“We’re coming off of an outstanding football season, and we postponed the start of the season so we could get some practices in,” said Waterford coach Tom Simms. “We still have a few guys who aren’t back because of injuries they got in football, but we had to play a game before going to Portsmouth.”

The Wildcats (1-0) travel to Portsmouth for a 6 p.m. showdown Saturday.

“We still need more time in practice because we’re not quite clicking right yet,” Simms said. “We hope to use the Christmas break to work on some things and hopefully by January we’ll be back to normal. We don’t have all of our horses back together, but we have such great chemistry and that will help us right now.”

Waterford didn’t seem to be lacking for much in Friday’s opener, though. The Wildcats jumped out to an 18-2 first quarter lead and the rout was on. Senior Jordan Welch had a big night as he led the Wildcats with 16 points and 10 rebounds.

It’s the type of performance that Simms has come to expect from Welch, who has played on the varsity squad for four seasons.

“We have high hopes for Jordan, and we expect him to lead this team,” Simms said.

“But once we get all of the horses back we won’t have enough basketballs to go around. However, this team will adjust.”

There wasn’t much need for any adjustments against Federal Hocking, which dropped to 0-4 on the season. In the second period, Waterford’s defense created 12 turnovers as the Wildcats rolled to a 25-2 advantage and led 43-4 at halftime.

“We’ve been having good practices and really working hard,” Welch said. “We were trying to be fundamentally sound tonight because we know we have a big game (Saturday).”

It was more of the same in the second half as Waterford outpaced the Lancers 33-11 – and all 13 players got into the game. Tyler McCutcheon had nine points, while Isaac Huffman added eight points and four assists. Travis Pottmeyer and Riley Burns also had eight points each.

Deakin Hatfield led Federal Hocking with five points, while Dillon Wilfong and Walker Church each had three points.

Simms said he spoke with the Federal Hocking coaches after the game and tried to offer some encouraging words.

“When I took over at Waterford we were coming off an 0-21 season,” Simms said. “I told them to just keep working with them and they will turn the corner. If you have coached long enough you know at some point graduation will have an impact on you.”

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