by JOHN HOWLEY / sportingpumpkin.com
A 12-point run in the second quarter gave Circleville the advantage it needed to knock off Amanda-Clearcreek 56-41 Friday night.
With the score tied at 20-20 three minutes into the second, five different Tigers contributed to 12 straight points before the Aces added a basket to put the score at 32-22 in favor of Circleville at the half.
The game started out with the Aces hitting the first two baskets and, other than a brief tie, AC had the lead most of the quarter and was up 16-15 after the first eight minutes.
“They came out and played harder than us,” Circleville coach Cody Carpenter said. “We just haven’t had good starts. Luckily, we kept our composure and weathered the storm. I thought we had a fantastic second quarter.”
The Tigers’ defense was key in grabbing the lead.
“It started on the defensive side of the ball. Right now, we’re kind of struggling to defend. We’re a pretty good transition team but we’re good when we get stops defensively. We want to make every possession difficult on our opponent and we finally started to do that a little more in the second quarter,” Carpenter said.
“We got off to a fast start and got some shots to fall. Defensively, our effort and energy were great,” AC coach Jamie Justus said. “We got off to a fast start and a lot of that was dictated by our effort on the defensive end. I think we made them uncomfortable at times.
“In that stretch we were getting beat off the dribble,” he added about Circleville’s second-quarter run. “They’ve got a lot of good shooters. That’s the thing with them, there are weapons everywhere.”
Circleville took the lead to as many as 15 points twice in the third before the period ended with a 43-31 CHS edge.
The Aces got as close as eight points midway through the fourth, but Circleville scored nine of the last 11 points to put another one in the win column.
Circleville had seven players score with three in double figures with Slater Search putting in 15, Briley Cramer and Preston Hulse 11.
“Briley has been our main scorer, but we haven’t had that second and third guy as much as what we’d like,” Carpenter said. “Slater has been pretty consistent, but it was real nice to see Preston’s shots falling. He struggled the first couple of games. He has high confidence, and we trust him, so we told him to keep shooting.
“I think we’re a harder team to defend when we have that balanced scoring. The last couple of games it was our sophomore Riley Jenkins and tonight we got Ed (Kirk) back. He had seven points in his limited minutes.”
Overall, Circleville was 20-50 shooting from the field, but during the second quarter the Tigers hit five of eight.
“If you’re not disciplined on the defensive end in all five positions, things break down and you leave one of those guys open they’ll make you pay for it,” Justus said. “During that stretch, our attention to detail kind of slipped and they got some good looks. You give a team like that looks like that and they’re going to knock them down.”
Maddox Cupp led the Aces with 10 points and Logan Stevens had eight.
Search had a game-high 12 rebounds for his second double-double in as many games. Overall, the Tigers outrebounded the Aces 35-29. Cramer had seven for the Tigers to go with five steals and Stevens led AC with seven rebounds while Colton Westhoven had six.
Circleville 56, Amanda-Clearcreek 41
Amanda-Clearcreek — Colton Westhoven 2-1-5, Nick Holland 1-1-3, Logan Stevens 3-0-8, Maddox Cupp 4-1-10, Brody Elder 2-0-4, Jace Morrison 3-0-6, Tanner Rose 2-0-5. Three-point goals — Stevens (2), Cupp, Rose. Total — 17-47 3-9 41.
Circleville — Preston Hulse 4-0-11, Drew Thornsley 0-1-1, Briley Cramer 4-6-14, Jack Kline 2-0-5, Slater Search 7-1-15, Riley Jenkins 1-0-3, Ed Kirk 2-3-7. Three-point goals — Hulse (3), Kline, Jenkins. Total — 20-50 11-17 56.
Quarter scores 1 2 3 4 F
Amanda-Clearcreek 16 6 9 10 41
Circleville 15 17 11 13 56
