By Kurt Snyder

January 19th, 2008

The Granville Sentinel

 NEWARK -- Lonnie Hill's main concern for the Granville sixth-grade boys basketball team is the future Blue Aces are ready for the middle school level next year.

Winning games and tournaments is just a nice side benefit.  Granville beat Newark by a close margin twice last weekend to win Ohio Youth Basketball's Newark Winter Classic at Jimmy Allen Gymnasium. "This gets the kids exposed to different styles," said Hill, whose son, Brock, plays on the team. "(These kids) are buddies, and they have played together for a couple of years. They end up knowing each other's strengths and weaknesses and play off that."  Granville's entry in the fourth-grade tournament placed second. Licking Valley finished second in the fifth-grade tournament after losing a two-point game to the Dublin Celtics in the finals.

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