by JOHN HOWLEY / sportingpumpkin.com
There weren’t too many seats available at Circleville Friday night when the Tigers tipped off with Logan Elm. The packed house saw two rivals battle it out with Logan Elm making just enough free throws at the end to snatch a 30-28 win from the Tigers.
“In an atmosphere like that, where it’s almost completely packed, that’s what high school basketball is all about,” LE coach Nate Dropsey said. “Circleville has a good team with a lot of athletes, and they can do a lot with their personnel. But we challenged our kids to come in here and compete as hard as we can. We talked a lot about representing Logan Elm and what our basketball history is and trying to stay to that standard.
“To be in an environment like this and come away with the win, that’s pretty special for our guys.”
The game started with the Tigers getting out to an 8-1 lead before LE’s Ne’miah Waugh scored the last seven points of the quarter to tie the game at 8-8.
The lead bounced back and forth a few times in the second before Circleville’s Ed Kirk converted a three-point play for an 18-17 CHS advantage and then Jack Kline sunk a three to make it 21-17 with 1:18 to go and that’s where the score stood at halftime.
It was a low-scoring third quarter where baskets by Keegan Diehl and Waugh in the first two minutes tied the game. It wasn’t until there was 4:53 on the clock that Slater Search scored for Circleville on the Tigers’ first field goal attempt of the quarter.
LE added another bucket from Waugh and Circleville got a free throw from Drew Thornsley to leave Circleville ahead 24-23 entering the final quarter.
Fourth quarter scoring began with a three-pointer from Waugh 40 seconds in and he followed that up 45 seconds later converting off a turnover. That basket put the Braves up 28-24, which was the largest advantage the Braves had all night.
Circleville got on the board with 4:42 left when Briley Cramer had a steal and a dunk. A minute later, Kline scored to tie the game. But those were Circleville’s last points.
The score stayed tied until the final minute.
Carson Summers went to the line with 47 seconds left and hit the second of two free throws to put LE up. With 24 seconds on the clock, Waugh stepped to the line but failed to convert on either shot and Preston Hulse came down with the rebound for Circleville.
The Tigers got two shots off, but Waugh came down with the rebound off the second shot and was fouled with 11 seconds left.
This time he made the first of the two.
Cramer corraled the rebound off the second attempt and Circleville got two more shots up, but neither fell giving the win to the Braves.
Circleville struggled with 17 turnovers Friday, six in the fourth quarter, and after going 8-15 from the field in the first half, CHS was 3-13 in the second, including 1-2 in the third quarter.
“Not to take anything away from Logan Elm and their defense, but I also thought we kind of shot ourselves in the foot,” Circleville coach Cody Carpenter said. “We’re trying to dribble through two people and that’s middle school basketball and we shouldn’t do that. We weren’t strong with the ball in triple-threat position, and they were able to get some hands on it. There were just too many moments where we hurt ourselves.
“We did a good job fighting back and they helped us out with missing some free throws. We got some good looks, we got the looks from the people we wanted, the shots just didn’t fall.”
While the wins haven’t come as often as Logan Elm would like this season, the Braves have had things working when it’s come to the two games with Circleville – the Tigers’ two lowest scoring games of the season. When not playing Logan Elm, Circleville is averaging 55 points on offense. In the LE games, CHS has scored 31 and 28.
“I thought, defensively, we were really good all night,” Dropsey said. “They have some really skilled kids who can put it in the basket, and they can go on a lot of runs. I thought defensively we pressured them, and our thing was to make them uncomfortable all night. I felt like as a group, we did that pretty well.”
Waugh finished the night with 19 points for the Braves.
“Ne’miah, we’re going to lean on him when we need something to happen,” Dropsey said. “I was impressed with him defensively. His hands were really active on Kline, and I think he had three steals off those. We asked him to get in help and rebound for us and he did a really good job on that end, too.
“Offensively, he’s going to carry the load for us. I thought guys did a good job screening for him, but I also thought Ne’miah gave it up when he needed to and trusted his teammates to shoot the open shots.”
Kline led Circleville with 10 Friday – his highest output of the season.
Circleville had a 22-20 rebounding edge with Search grabbing seven. Camden Redd had seven for the Braves.
The Braves (6-10, 3-6) will try to keep their winning ways going when they host Amanda-Clearcreek Tuesday.
Circleville (9-7, 3-6) will try to bounce back at Hamilton Township Tuesday.
“This loss is going to hurt, but we said as much as it’s going to hurt, we’ve got to forget about it,” Carpenter said “We have to prepare for Hamilton on Tuesday, which is not going to be an easy game. We have to prepare and get ready for tournament. We have to be playing our best ball come tournament time.”
Logan Elm 30, Circleville 28
Logan Elm — Tyler Speas 2-0-5, Brody Sabine 1-2-4, Ne’miah Waugh 7-3-19, Keegan Diehl 1-0-2. Three-point goals — Speas, Waugh (2). Total — 11-35 5-10 30.
Circleville — Preston Hulse 1-0-3, Drew Thornsley 0-1-1, Briley Cramer 3-1-7, Jack Kline 4-0-10, Slater Search 1-0-2, Riley Jenkins 1-0-2, Ed Kirk 1-1-3. Three-point goals — Hulse, Kline (2). Total — 11-28 3-5 28.
Quarter scores 1 2 3 4 F
Logan Elm 8 9 6 7 30
Circleville 8 13 3 4 28
