by JACOB MEREDITH / sportingpumpkin.com
OBETZ — Logan Elm and Hamilton Township both had big nights from their experienced guards but Hamilton Township pulled out a 60-43 win in this Friday night Mid-State League matchup.
The Braves began the evening missing their first five shots before Nemiah Waugh dropped a free throw to begin the Logan Elm scoring. Waugh had eight of the Braves’ 11 first quarter points with the lone other score coming from Brody Sabine.
The Rangers revved up their engine by dropping a three from Josh Woods and defensive stops gave their guard Jovon McBride the opportunity to can three consecutive jumpers to help HT to a 14-11 lead to after the first quarter.
It was much of the same for the Rangers to start the second as McBride connected from deep to begin the period. The Braves matched with scores from Cameron Redd and Carson Summers.
The half would end with two jumpers from the Rangers’ Hamidou Diallo and LE’s Waugh had the final points dropping 1 out of 2 free throws. Braves would go 6-19 from the field in the half and Rangers would go 3-9 in the quarter and hold an eight-point lead 25-17 going into the half.
“I feel like Carson played well and Nemiah got going scoring and that’s why we only trailed by eight going into half,” LE coach Nate Dropsey said.
Starting the second half, Diallo dropped a three to get the Rangers going out of the locker room. The Braves’ first points of the half came from Waugh on a night where he accounted for 19.
Then a mishandled pass in the paint led to a full-court post route from the Rangers’ McBride to Woods for Hamilton Township to leap ahead further. Hamilton Township used a 10-point third quarter from Woods to pull ahead 45-28 going into the final quarter.
The closing fourth quarter would see even scoring as Hamilton and Logan Elm both tallied 15 points each. The Braves were led by two threes from Brody Sabine and a drive from Waugh. LE also collected another three and a jumper from Tyler Speas to close out their scoring.
“Tonight, we didn’t rebound the basketball or close out collectively as I would like, and I think we need to get into practice and fix those things” Dropsey said.
McBride had 20 points on the night to lead the Rangers.
Quarter scores 1 2 3 4 F
Logan Elm 11 6 11 15 43
Hamilton Twp 14 11 20 15 60
