Amanda-Clearcreek 46, Logan Elm 43
AMANDA — It was a game that came down to the wire with Amanda-Clearcreek holding off Logan Elm for a 46-43 win.
“We hung in there and played really good defense tonight,” AC coach Ray Miller said.
Neither team could get much of an edge in the first half.
LE had a 9-4 lead in the first but the Aces scored the final seven points to lead 11-9.
The teams traded the lead a couple of times in the second period with the Aces finishing the half on top 21-19.
The Aces scored twice in the opening minute of the third to take a seven-point lead but LE had the game tied at 30-30 late in the quarter before a three from Nick Holland put the Aces up 33-30 heading into the final eight minutes.
Points from Colton Westhoven, Holland and Logan Stevens gave the Aces a 40-30 edge with 5:35 left in the game.
A three-point play from Holland gave AC a 45-36 lead with four minutes left and then the Braves started chipping away.
A basket from Brady Neff and free throws from Lucas Bialy made it 45-40 with 1:52 left.
After AC missed two free throws, Tyler Speas hit a three to make it 45-43 with 31 seconds showing.
Holland hit one of two free throws five seconds later for the game’s final points. After LE missed a potential game-tying shot, the Aces were unable to put the game away as they missed a pair of free throws with 5.9 on the clock. LE got another potential tying shot off from the top of the arc but couldn’t convert.
Holland led the Aces with 18 points and Westhoven had 13.
On a night when junior Hayden Dunn was unavailable because of a kicking showcase in Indianapolis, Miller was glad to see Westhoven return from injury.
“Colton Westhoven has had a little bit of a problem with his wrist, and we’ve missed him,” Miller said “He’s back and he’s the only young man that we have with any size so that helped us with our rebounding.”
The Braves were playing shorthanded as well, which included the recent news that they lost senior Keegan Diehl for the season to an ACL injury.
“We had to ask some younger guys to play a lot of minutes right now and I thought that showed tonight,” LE coach Nate Dropsey said.
Junior Brady Neff led the Braves with 19 points and came down with a number of rebounds.
“Brady played well. We’re asking a lot of him right now,” Dropsey said. “He started the year off in a big slump – I think he started 6 of 30 from the field. He’s been coming in in the morning and working out and staying after practice and working on his shot. It was good to see that piece of it come together tonight and we just need to make sure we continue to keep him scoring and rebounding.”
Speas added 12 for LE.
AC struggled from the free throw line Friday night as they were 7-16 through the first three quarters. It looked like they might have turned it around hitting their first five attempts in the fourth, but they were 1-6 in the final minute.
“If we make free throws, we’d be right in there,” Miller said. “It was one of those things where they made the run, and we had a chance – if we’d have made those free throws it would never have gotten that close.”
Despite the team’s struggles from the line, Miller thought it was defense that made the difference and that his team got a big lift off the bench.
“Boston Fowler couldn’t throw it in the ocean if he was standing on the shoreline,” Miller joked, “but he can play defense.
“I thought his play defensively was what really saved us. He came in off the bench and did just a great job defensively and that really helped us.”
The Aces (3-5, 1-2) have an afternoon tipoff hosting Southeastern Saturday.
The Braves fall to 1-7 on the season and return to action Monday at Fairfield Union.
“Winning is not easy and right now we’re struggling,” Dropsey said. “We’ve come close against Bexley, close against Miami Trace, close against Jackson, we gave ourselves a chance there against Hamilton and then now tonight. Sometimes, you have to learn to win. As a group we don’t know how to win right now.”
Amanda-Clearcreek 46, Logan Elm 43
Logan Elm — Tyler Speas 5-1-12, Brady Neff 8-2-19, Owen Russell 1-0-2, Lucas Bialy 3-2-10. Three-point goals — Speas, Neff, Bialy (2). Total — 17-48 5-8 43.
Amanda-Clearcreek — Nick Holland 5-4-18, Brody Elder 1-1-4, Branson Fowler 1-0-2, Carter Madison 1-0-2, Colton Westhoven 5-3-13, Boston Fowler 0-1-1, Logan Stevens 0-4-4, Maddox Cupp 1-0-2. Three-point goals — Holland (4), Elder. Total — 14-13-46.
Quarter scores 1 2 3 4 F
Logan Elm 9 10 11 13 43
Amanda-Clearcreek 11 10 12 13 46
Teays Valley 44, Canal Winchester 31 (girls)
CANAL WINCHESTER —Teays Valley grabbed its third conference win of the season with a 44-31 victory over Canal Winchester.
Areyana Karshner and Tessa Horsley each had 11 points to lead the Vikings (4-5, 3-2).
Isabelle Kemper led the Indians (1-6, 1-4) with 10.
The Vikings return to the court against Logan Elm at the Brad Morris Holiday Classic next Friday. The game tips at 5 p.m. at Westfall.
Quarter scores 1 2 3 4 F
Teays Valley 10 13 9 12 44
Canal WInchester 10 7 4 10 31
Teays Valley 55, Canal Winchester 54 (boys)
ASHVILLE — Teays Valley held off visiting Canal Winchester for a 55-54 win Friday night.
After falling behind 34-31 at the half, the Vikings took the lead at 45-41 by the end of the third.
It was the first win of the season for the Vikings and first as a member of the Ohio Capital Conference.
Quarter scores 1 2 3 4 F
Canal Winchester 18 16 7 13 54
Teays Valley 22 9 14 10 55
Westfall 68, Southeastern 63
CHILLICOTHE — Westfall won its fifth straight Friday night with a 69-63 final at Southeastern.
Joe Wray led the way for the Mustangs with 22 points and Bryan Craig put in 19.
Brock Williams added nine points and Haden Rigsby had eight.
The Mustangs (5-2, 5-1) host Fisher Catholic Saturday afternoon.
New Hope 65, Liberty Christian 27
CIRCLEVILLE — New Hope got off to a quick start on the way to beating Liberty Christian 65-27 Friday.
Ignited by three three-pointers from Nathanial Ames and two from Tyler Cook, the Statesmen raced out to a 23-9 first quarter lead and gave up only one basket in the second quarter to lead 44-11 at halftime.
“Proud of our focus tonight. We executed on each end of the floor the way we planned. Tonight was about us doing the little things regardless of the circumstances or the opponent. We asked them to be locked in and get better tonight and I felt they did that,” New Hope coach Shane Roese said. “We have Cincinnati Christian coming in tomorrow night and we know that game will be a great test of where we are in this season. We could have easily overlooked this game and coasted a little but to their credit the did not.”
Xander Rink led New Hope (6-1) with 18 points, Ames had 15, Hunter Cavanaugh added 13 and Cook had nine.
Quarter scores 1 2 3 4 F
Liberty Christian 9 2 6 10 27
New Hope 23 21 13 8 65