by JOHN HOWLEY / sportingpumpkin.com
The first boys’ basketball game in the new high school gym is one Logan Elm will remember — and one Circleville would like to forget — as the Braves picked up a 35-31 win.
Other than LE’s 10-1 lead to start the game, the game was tight throughout with Circleville leading only once — 16-15 in the second quarter — and LE never leading by more than six the rest of the way.
With it being the first boys’ game in the new gym and against Circleville, most of the new 1,400-seat gymnasium was filled, including a couple energetic student sections.
“We knew coming in it was going to be a great atmosphere. Circleville is a really good basketball team, skilled and athletic so we knew it was going to be a tall test for us,” first-year LE coach Nate Dropsey said.
One of the keys to the game was the toughness Logan Elm came out with.
“In our first couple of games I felt we didn’t play with enough toughness physically and mentally,” Dropsey said. “Our kids played with a tremendous amount of toughness tonight, especially there late in the game. They were up in us and turning up the pressure. We handled the basketball; we didn’t turn it over and came up with a couple key rebounds.”
Nemiah Waugh had six of his game-high 19 in the fourth quarter, including going 4-4 at the line early in the period.
“I can’t say enough about Nemiah. The ball is in his hands a lot and he handled it well,” Dropsey said. “He kept us under control when Circleville picked it up. He made some big plays, and I liked his leadership tonight.”
Circleville struggled to gets its shots to fall Tuesday (2-10 in the fourth quarter and 11-38 for the game) and missed four free throws in the final period.
“They were just physical with us,” Circleville coach Cody Carpenter said. “They didn’t do anything out of the ordinary, they just played straight up man-to-man defense. I thought they communicated well. The referees let us play on both sides of the ball, for the most part, and they were the more physical team.
“Unfortunately, this was the first game this year where I felt like we weren’t the more physical team and it cost us.”
In Circleville’s first three wins, the senior duo of Briley Cramer and Slater Search combined to average 32 points. Tuesday night it was 15.
“Carson Summers – we gave him the task of chasing around Cramer, who is a tremendous player. Cramer got loose a couple of times but for most of the game, he did a great job,” Dropsey said. “Carson is a tremendous on-ball defender and I felt as a group we defended well. We communicated through screens; they defended their sets really well and I thought our pressure bothered them a little bit.
“With Slater, we know he’s strong in the post, likes to go over his left shoulder and I thought Keegan (Diehl) sat on that pretty well and made it incredibly tough when he was staying connected to him.”
Ed Kirk was Circleville’s leading scorer on the night with 11 points, seven of which came in the opening quarter.
Carpenter said the atmosphere surrounding Tuesday’s rivalry game is something players look forward to and he thought his Tigers would be ready for a good start.
“These are the games that you want to play in when you’re a high school athlete,” he said. “I thought we were going to be ready to play — unfortunately, we had another slow start in the first quarter. We weathered the storm again and made a run.
“That’s been our Achille’s heel this year, our game has been about runs whether we’re making runs or giving up runs. We’re not playing consistent basketball.”
Circleville finished the night with a 29-26 rebounding edge with Search grabbing 10 and Kirk and Jack Kline each grabbing six.
Waugh and Diehl led the Braves with seven each.
Circleville (3-1, 1-1) hosts Hamilton Township Saturday while Logan Elm (1-2, 1-1) hosts Amanda-Clearcreek.
Logan Elm 35, Circleville 31
Circleville — Preston Hulse 0-3-3, Briley Cramer 2-5-9, Jack Kline 1-0-2, Slater Search 3-0-6, Ed Kirk 5-1-11. Total — 11-38 9-17 31.
Logan Elm — Tyler Speas 1-1-4, Brady Neff 0-2-2, Brody Sabine 2-2-8, Alden Williams 1-0-2, Nemiah Waugh 7-5-19. Three-point goals — Speas, Sabine (2). Total — 11-31 10-11 35.
Quarter scores 1 2 3 4 F
Circleville 7 9 8 7 31
Logan Elm 13 5 8 9 35
