Photo Provided Pictured is the Martins Ferry boys basketball team after it clinched the Ohio Division V Eastern District championship Saturday at Harrison Central High School with a 70-54 victory over St. Clairsville. Front row, from left, are Alexis Edwards, Derek Edwards’ niece, his nephew Carter Edwards, Ball Boy Asher Reese, Edwards daughter Emma Edwards, Jermale Thompson, Maurice Barnett, Tev’n Williams, Walkquem Cox and Matt Cost. Back row, from left, are head coach Derek Edwards holding his son Brady Edwards, assistant coach Mike Beck, assistant coach Shane Gasmire, assistant coach Kim Appolloni, Anthony Booth, Alex Reese, Elijah Smith, Gavin Little; Kent Beery, Jayden Clark, Eli Maine, Nate Wasemann, Elijah Roby and assistant coach Ron Hill. Martins Ferry making Return Trip To Regional Tourney 11 Years Later Purple Riders Meet Chesapeake Friday In Athens

ATHENS — It’s been just over a decade since Martins Ferry advanced to the boys basketball regional tournament. It was 2014 to be exact.

Now they’re back.

Following a pair of upset victories in the Ohio Division V East 2 District Tournament over rivals Union Local and St. Clairsville, the Purple Riders (14-11) are headed to the Convocation Center on the campus of Ohio University where they will meet Chesapeake (22-3) in a Region 19 semi final Friday at 8 p.m.

The finals are set for 4:30 p.m. Sunday at the same site.

The Panthers have lost twice to Proctorville Fairland 68-62 and 55-49 defeated Wheelersburg 49-45 for the Southeast 2 District title.

“Any time you are playing into March, that’s the goal of every team going into the season, it’s a good feeling,” Martins Ferry head coach Derek Edwards said Tuesday following practice. “Here we are.

“I’ve seen them early in the season and I’ve seen them a lot the past couple of days,” Edwards said of Chesapeake. “Obviously, they are a very good team. They are well-coached and have an established program. We’ve got our work cut out for us.

“They go about 6-5, 6-3 and 6-2 across the front so they’ve got good size like we do,” Edwards added. “Honestly, we like our matchups. They play very well together and they play tenacious defense which makes them really tough.

“They aren’t in the regional by mistake. They’re a very good team.”

A trip to the regionals didn’t seem a possibility as the Purple Riders struggled out of the gate at 3-8 and saw two players — one being starter Anthony Booth — lost for an extended time with injuries. However, they persevered and never got down.

“I think our schedule is a major reason why we have 11 losses. A lot of people don’t realize what we went through early with injuries and our schedule, but these kids have stayed the course,” the head coach said.

Martins Ferry has lost twice to West Virginia-ranked Wheeling Central and three times to Division VI regional semifinalist Monroe Central. It has avenged losses to Cambridge, Union Local and St. Clairsville, and also fell to a very good Coshocton squad that was upset in the East 1 District finals by Garaway.

“I’m excited about this week. We’ve got four days to get better in practice,” Edwards noted. “We’re going to put a lot of hard work in during these four days. I don’t think we’ve played our best game yet. I really don’t because I think we can continue to get better by doing some little things here and there.

“I think it is our job as coaches to keep the guys level-headed, both during the good stretches and the bad stretches,” he stressed. “We like to practice. It’s a time to evaluate our team and where we are at. Typically, you don’t have time at the end of the season to do those things. This little break gives us that opportunity. I feel that we are going to have a stronger performance than we’ve had so far.”

The Purple Riders are led by 6-6 Youngstown State University football recruit Alex Reese who averages a double-double with 22.1 points and 10.2 rebounds a night. He had 19 points and 11 boards in the 58-48 win over Union Local and then poured in 23 points and snagged 14 rebounds against St. Clairsville.

“He battled an injury early. I don’t think a lot of people knew that he was, basically, playing on one wheel,” Edwards admitted. “I’ll be honest with you, there for a while we were afraid it might be a season-ending injury, but mentally and physically he has worked through those things and now he is 100 percent and playing extremely well at both ends of the floor.

“He is a four-year starter. He has grown up in this gym and grew up with us as coaches,” Edwards praised. “He does his studies. He goes home and watches film and dissects it. It’s something that he takes very seriously, and, at practice he coordinates a lot of things and tells the other players where they should be.”

The only other senior is 6-0 Tev’n Williams who is the ideal role player, averaging around 5 points and a like number of rebounds.

“Tev’n has been an outstanding leader for us. I’ve always called him the ‘Swiss Army Knife’ because of all the things he does,” Edwards said. “You look at his stats sometimes and nothing jumps out at you, but then you watch the film and he does so many things that don’t show up in the box score that a common basketball fan doesn’t notice.”

Junior Maurice Barnett is only listed at 5-10, but he plays a lot bigger than that. He scores around 7 points and pulls down 4 rebounds a game. He scored 17 points against Union Local and 12 against St. Clairsville.

“He’s our spark plug. He can really go. He makes a lot of good plays,” Edwards noted. “He has blocked some shots in the tournament. He’s gotten some steals and he’s made some three’s, so it’s hard for the opposing teams to figure out what to do with him. He’s a tough cover.”

Sophomores Gavin Little (6-2) and Eli Smith (6-3) have really come into their own this season, especially during tournament time.

Little came up huge against the Red Devils with 14 points, all but two of those came on four triples on four tries.

“Gavin gets up about 70,000 shots a summer, and that really helps,” Edwards noted. “He gets in the gym every day. He is an elite shooter. He really is, but he doesn’t take a ton of shots. But, once again, like Tev’n, he makes the right plays.

“That’s why I think we’ve been playing as well as we have lately,” Edwards continued. “We have a lot of unselfish players just trying to make the right plays.”

Smith had 11 rebounds against Union Local and scored 16 big points against St. Clairsville, including a couple of bonus goals.

“We knew he had all the tools to be a good player,” Edwards said. “He’s very calm and collected, but he’s got a lot of fire. He’s a competitor. He loves to compete.”

Edwards doesn’t go to his bench much, but when he does, 5-11 freshman Walkquem Cox is who he calls on.

“He’s had a strong month for us,” Edwards pointed out. “He really has and he’s only a freshman. He doesn’t look like a freshman and, sometimes, he fools us as coaches because of his play. He’s learned a lot this past month as far as what he can do and what he can’t do.

“It hasn’t been our individual play, it’s been the collective play of all five starters,” Edwards praised. “It’s been each other playing for each other.”

Also on the roster are juniors Kent Beery, Jermale Thompson and Nate Wasemann, along with sophomores Matt Cost, Eli Maine and Jayden Clark; and promising freshman Elijah Roby.

Edwards also thanked the students and community for their support this season.

“We have a great community. We have a great school support system. I’m from here and I’m very proud of the community and students for supporting the team,” he stressed. “This is going to be a lot of fun for the kids and our fans.”

The Martins Ferry-Chesapeake winner plays the Minford-Garaway semifinal winner at 4:30 Sunday, also in Athens.