By Brad Morris
SportingPumpkin.com
ASHVILLE — Despite being a month into the boys basketball season, a rare late December Mid-State League Buckeye Division game had the feel of a season-opener, especially considering the fact that both Bloom-Carroll and Teays Valley were playing for the first time in 23 days due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We’ve had two-and-a-half practices over the last 16 days and we were throwing the basketball all around during those practices,” Bloom-Carroll coach Joe Goodyear said. “This is probably the first time I’ve went into a game having no idea what it would look like and I’m sure (Teays Valley coach Brian Barnett) would say the same thing given the situation they’ve faced.
“There are a lot of things that we haven’t been able to control, so I talked to our kids about controlling what they can by hustling and playing hard.”
Bloom-Carroll did just that on Monday, hauling down 14 offensive rebounds and using a couple of critical fourth-quarter takeaways to hold off host Teays Valley 54-48.
“All we’ve talked about the last two days is that we have to rebound, because Teays Valley has a taller post than we do and they like to be physical and attack the boards,” Goodyear said. “We had to play with a lot of energy and attack the boards, especially being a couple of kids short in our rotation, and our kids stepped up to the challenge and did that.”
Evan Dozer paced the Bulldogs by scoring 11 of his game-high 19 points during the fourth-quarter, while adding nine rebounds and three steals. Ryan Williams followed with 12 points and five rebounds, and Joe Luckhaupt knocked down a trio of three-pointers.
“Dozer had a big fourth-quarter for Bloom-Carroll and really hurt us down the stretch by getting to the basket and knocking down free throws,” Barnett said.
The Bulldogs (3-1, 2-1) ran off six-straight points, led by Dozer scoring on a putback and then canning a jumper, to take a 39-30 lead early in the fourth quarter.
“Our spacing was a little better in the third quarter to where we were able to create some drives to the basket to score or get to the line,” Goodyear said.
Teays Valley (1-2, 1-2) responded by scoring 11 of the next 13 points.
Luke Sachs knocked down a three-pointer to open the surge and Cameron Dyas-Rogers had five points during the run, capped by a layup to tie the game at 41-41 with 5:35 left.
“We put down a couple of runs to get back into the game, but we couldn’t sustain that momentum,” Barnett said. “We played 16 minutes of pretty decent basketball and 16 minutes of basketball that we need to work on.”
A second-chance basket by Da’shan Clark and two free throws from Dozer gave the Bulldogs a 45-41 advantage, but the Vikings were able to cut their deficit down to a basket twice, the final time coming on a putback by Camden Primmer to make it 47-45 with 3:02 remaining.
Bloom-Carroll took advantage of back-to-back turnovers by Teays Valley to push its lead up to 51-45, following a floater from Dozer and a layup courtesy of Williams.
“Teays Valley went on a nice spurt there to start the fourth quarter, but then we regrouped and were able to get some stops,” Goodyear said.
A three-pointer by Jackson Smith trimmed the Bloom-Carroll lead to 51-48 with 39.9 seconds left, but that’s as close the Vikings were able to come the rest of the way.
Teays Valley actually made two more field goals (20-18) than Bloom-Carroll, but the Bulldogs were able to pull out the win by draining 14 of 22 (63.6 percent) free throws, compared to 5 of 7 (71.4 percent) by the Vikings.
“We were able to get the ball into the hands of our good free throw shooters and they knocked them down,” said Goodyear about the Bulldogs hitting 7 of 8 (87.5 percent) free throws in the fourth quarter.
Bloom-Carroll also held a 29-27 rebounding advantage. Each team committed 12 turnovers.
Dyas-Rogers tallied nine of his 13 points in the second half and also added five rebounds and two blocks for the Vikings. Camden Primmer scored all 12 of his points in the second half to go with five assists and four rebounds, and Smith chipped in 10 points.
“Cameron and Camden both had a nice second half and did a nice job of attacking the basket,” Barnett said. “Jackson also stepped up and hit some big shots.”
The Vikings host Hilliard Bradley, one of the top Division I teams in the Central District, on Wednesday for a non-league game and then resumes league play on Saturday at Circleville. The Bulldogs return to action on Jan. 4 when they host Granville for a non-league game.
Bloom-Carroll 54,
Teays Valley 48
BLOOM-CARROLL — Joe Luckhaupt 3-0-9, Ryan Williams 3-5-12, Chase Alwood 3-0-6, Evan Dozer 5-9-19, Jared Rose 2-0-4, Da’shan Clark 2-0-4. Three-point goals — Joe Luckhaupt (3) and Ryan Williams. Total — 18-39 14-22 54.
TEAYS VALLEY — Cameron Dyas-Rogers 6-1-13, Luke Sachs 2-0-5, Peyton Weiler 2-1-5, Jackson Smith 4-0-10, Camden Primmer 5-2-12, Liam Sachs 1-1-3. Three-point goals — Jackson Smith (2) and Luke Sachs. Total — 20-51 5-7 48.
Quarter scores 1 2 3 4 F
Bloom-Carroll 13 9 15 17 54
Teays Valley 9 10 11 18 48