by JOHN HOWLEY / sportingpumpkin.com
ASHVILLE — After seeing its lead disappear, Logan Elm put the ball in the hands of its leading scorer and Tanner Holbert came through with the game-winning shot Saturday night in a 42-40 win against Teays Valley.
“We told them at halftime it doesn’t have to be pretty, just find a way. I felt like that’s what we did tonight was find a way,” LE coach Doug Stiverson said. “Luckily we had the ball last. We had a big defensive stop and Tanner made a really clutch shot there at the end.”
The Vikings had overcome a sizeable deficit and held a 40-37 lead as the game was winding down. LE tied the game on a three-pointer from Holbert in the final minute.
After a defensive stop, LE had a chance to win the game in regulation. The Braves got the ball to Holbert who got away from one defender and shot around another to sink the game-winner and cap a 27-point performance.
With only .4 seconds on the clock coming out of a timeout, TV’s last-chance effort was thwarted when LE’s Braylen Baker got his hands on the inbounds pass.
“I thought they did a pretty good job defensively. Sometimes you just will it in,” Stiverson said. “You could tell when it left his hand that it looked good and he was willing it in. It wasn’t a perfect shot, he was off balance, he just wanted to win and found a way to get it to go through the basket.”
“We knew where it was going. We tried to deny him the ball inbounds and they’re going to get it to him some way or another,” TV coach Brian Barnett said. “They’re disciplined enough and strong enough to get him the basketball. Once he caught the basketball we had a direction we wanted him to go and we just weren’t able to get him that direction. You can tell he works at it, he’s strong enough and he can hit it. He played a great game.”
The Braves had a 16-11 lead after the first quarter, were up 23-19 at halftime and the lead stood at 34-26 entering the fourth quarter.
“We knew it was going to be a four-quarter game. We came in and played extremely well early and they just wear you out a little bit,” Stiverson said. “They put different pressures on you and I thought our guys did a really good job handling it compared to the first time we played.
“It was different guys handling it. Garret Summers did a really good job handling it, Drew Tomlinson tonight, Gavin Griffey rebounded the ball for us. It was a group effort. We had some guys come off the bench like Anthony Steele who hadn’t played a whole lot and gave us some good minutes and Landon Long as well. It was a team effort of just hanging in there and give yourself a chance at the end, and that’s just what we did.”
Barnett liked he way his team battled back.
“We were down 10 there in the third or fourth quarter and clawed our way back. We switched defenses on them – we went from a zone press to more of a man-to-man and I thought that caused them some problems,” Barnett said. “Defensively, we got our hands active a little bit better. We did a better job boxing out. We did give up one or two boards that were crucial late, but for the most part I thought we did a good job with the defensive pressure.”
Along with Holbert’s 27, LE got eight from Tomlinson.
Cameron Dyas-Rogers led TV with 14 with Peyton Weiler scoring seven and Reese Sauerbrun and Jackson Smith getting six each.
Up next
Logan Elm (9-4, 5-3) is at Athens Tuesday while Teays Valley (6-8, 5-3) will host Canal Winchester in non-league action.
“It’s a big bounce back game. Going into tonight had lost four or five by a total of 12 points and we lose tonight by two more. So now we’ve lost five or six by 14 points, so it’s one possession,” Barnett said. “Canal likes to push the pace up and down and that’s where we try to get it to. That’s what we like to do is get the pace up and down so who knows how many points will be scored Tuesday night.”
Logan Elm 42, Teays Valley 40
Logan Elm — Gavin Griffey 1-0-2, Drew Tomlinson 3-2-8, Braylen Baker 1-0-2, Garret Summers 0-3-3, Tanne Holbert 9-4-27. Three-point goals — Holbert (5). Total — 14-9-42.
Teays Valley — Kevin Scott 1-0-2, Cameron Dyas-Rogers 6-2-14, Reese Sauerbrun 2-2-6, Peyton Weiler 3-0-7, Jackson Smith 2-0-6, Sam Miller 2-1-5. Three-point goals — Weiler, Smith (2). Total — 16-5-40.
Quarter scores 1 2 3 4 F
Logan Elm 16 7 11 8 42
Teays Valley 11 8 7 14 40
