SPORTS

Pioneers’ Mowery making mark in record books

Derrick Webb
Reporter

KINNIKINNICK – While Zane Trace may have ended their postseason on a premature note, let the record show that Pioneers’ guard Pierce Mowery put together a season for the ages.

Speaking of records, Mowery broke several school marks during his 2014-15 campaign.

On January 24, the 6-foot, 160 pound junior lit up Huntington High School’s scoreboards, hitting eight threes — tying Jeran Cox’s previous mark — and, for good measure, surpassed 1,000 career points with a 37 point effort in a 66-54 win.

On February 16, Mowery hit 15 of 16 from the free trow line and put together a string of 12 straight — both tying school records — in a 58-45 win over Southeastern.

Over the entire course of this past season, Mowery broke the school record for three point field goals in a career (186) — surpassing Cox who had 135 — three point field goals in a season (81) —once again overtaking Cox who had 64 in 2000-2001 — and steals in a career (157).

What’s the most notable thing about all of those accomplishments? Mowery is just a junior and he is as humble as they come.

“Pierce makes it so easy to be a head coach because sometimes guys with his ability can be a little arrogant and Pierce isn’t that way at all,” said Zane Trace coach Allen Koker. “It means a lot to have a player like Pierce to our guys. But he would be the first to tell you that if it wasn’t for his teammates, he wouldn’t be able to accomplish the things that he has.”

For his accomplishments this season, Mowery was named as the 2014-15 Scioto Valley Conference Co-Player of the Year — along with Nick Corcoran of Unioto.

Along the way, Mowery posted a 21.9 scoring average — tops in the league — while grabbing 4.1 rebounds per game and 2.2 assists — both good enough for second on his team — trailing junior Kristian Boltenhouse and senior Nathan Nesser.

He also averaged a total of 22.6 points per game during SVC play this season, scoring 20 or more in 10 of his 14 contests.

As Mowery’s junior year is in the history books, he now owns career averages of 17.5 points per game, 5.3 rebounds and 3.6 assists as well as career shooting percentages of 35 beyond the three point arc, 83 from the free throw line and 47 in total from the floor.

“This year, especially, he’s become more of a leader,” Koker said. “Not just from his play but from his actions and he continued to develop those skills as the year went on. We definitely needed that. On the floor, he’s such a good offensive player. But this year, he really improved on being able to drive to the basket and that helped make him even more of a complete player.”

Most of those attributes may have come from Mowery dad, Jerry; who serves as the superintendent of Zane Trace Local School District but at one time suited up in a uniform himself. Jerry scored a total of 1,135 points at Westfall High School (1978-1981) and went on to play basketball at Rio Grande University.

As far as his pops goes, Mowery has already surpassed his scoring total. If he’s anything like his dad, he’ll continue to let his play do the talking for him.

“I think his dad, who I call Mr. Mowery, really instilled good values in him,” Koker said. “He raised him the right way. That’s one thing I love about Pierce: his demeaonor. Very few times did he get upset with a call or a play during the season. And when does get upset, I’m the only one who knows because he’ll only tell me. He doesn’t want fans to see that side of him and that’s a respectable trait.”

Mowery will enter the 2015-16 season as a senior, sitting on 1,193 career points — 27th all-time in the SVC — just 533 away from breaking the school record of 1,726 (Jeff Reisinger) and 560 away from the Ross County record of 1,753 (Anthony “Humpty” Hitchens).

“With Pierce being our leader, not one time did our coaching staff dread going to practice,” Koker said. “With Pierce leading our bunch next year, the guys really work hard at it but they also have fun. The really cool thing about Pierce is he’s such a competitor but he still has fun and enjoys what he does. He never gets too high or low when he’s on the court.”

Just one question remains when it comes to Pierce Mowery. What in the world can you follow up such a great year with?

“I just hope he continues to get better,” Koker said. “I think he wants to do that. He needs to get a bit bigger and add some weight to him. If he can do that, I think he’s going to be able to finish at the basket better, getting through that contact. Teams will have an even tougher time at stopping him if he can do those things. But there’s always room for improvement.”

It seems like there’s an early candidate for next year’s Player of the Year. Only time will tell if Mowery can live up to the hype.

Derrick Webb is a Gazette sportswriter and can be reached at dwebb@chillicothegazette.com. Follow him on Twitter at @dw1509.