Panthers Look to Pounce in Final 4 Trip
Muskingum County- We are steps away from the finish line in high school hoops and we still have one local team in the mix.
March Madness may start this week, but for the Maysville Panthers, they’ve already overcome the odds. After coming back from double digits the past two games these Panthers look to pounce on the first state championship in the schools history.
“It’s special to be where we are, not very many teams get to do that ever. So just enjoying that, just believing in ourselves and having the confidence to go out there and win these next 2 games,” said Maysville Senior Alex Bobb.
Maysville Sophomore Gator Nichols added, “We’re not here to participate as Coach Brown said the last 2 games we played in. So we’re gonna do the same thing in Dayton. We’re not gonna go in participate. We’re gonna win that thing.”
And when you rewrite history you get a blast from the past.
“Well it’s been 53 years so it’s about time,” Steve Galloway a member of the Panthers last Final 4 team. “I’ve been following these boys now for the last couple years and it’s just so much fun to see their energy and how aggressive they are and how unselfish they are and I’ve just enjoyed their last couple years especially this year.”
What people may not know is that Maysville has been preparing for these intense games since there were no fans in the stands.
Jordyn Watson a sophomore on the team said, “Our coach gets us ready for these moments. All the work we put in prepared us for this.”
“Our practices I feel like are way harder than our games,” added Nichols. “Our intensity is really high so it makes our games a lot easier.”
What has fueled this season you may ask?
Nichols had this to say. “We always hang out after school and everything and do a lot of stuff together.”
Bobb chimed in, “Just the love we have for each other on this team you can’t really ask for a group of guys to love each other as much as we do. Before every game we say a prayer together. We look at each other and say we’re gonna go out and give it everything we got and like the outcome at the end of the game.”
Watson added, “We never give up on each other and always trust each other in hard moments.”
The current All-Time Leading Scorer for Maysville Bobb had one last message for his team heading into Saturday.
“It’s special to be where we are, not very many teams get to do that ever. So just enjoying that, just believing in ourselves and having the confidence to go out there and win these next 2 games.”
The Maysville Panthers will look to make more history this weekend in their Final 4 matchup this Saturday at 2pm in Dayton against Shelby High School. If you can’t make it to the game be sure to tune in to Z92 for coverage of the game starting at 1:00pm.
