CIRCLEVILLE — Logan Elm had a decisive second half to beat visiting Liberty Union 47-32 on Hall of Fame Night.
Trailing 20-19 at the half, LE’s Ne’miah Waugh had the first nine points of the third and LE held the Lions to three points in the quarter to lead 28-23.
The Braves struggled to hit their shots in the first half going 6-25 from the field but fared better in the second half as they converted nine of 19.
“I thought we got great looks, we just couldn’t get anything to go down,” LE coach Nate Dropsey said. “The second half, we made some adjustments on how we were going to attack their defense a little bit earlier than we did in the first. We were able to get Ne’miah and Tyler some looks early in the possession which helped us to get going a little bit.”
Lucas Bialy, Zane Seimer and Waugh combined for the first seven points of the fourth quarter to extend the Braves’ lead to 35-23.
LE closed out the win hitting seven of eight free throws in the final two minutes.
The Braves gave up only 12 points in the second half. One of the keys was limiting points from LU’s big men.
“We started fronting the post tonight because we know their bigs are really good, really skilled and just a lot bigger than us,” Dropsey said. “I thought our kids bought into that. I thought we really did a great job getting all the way over, even past the midline to help on that.
“It was a great defensive effort in the second half.”
LU’s Luke Williams (6-5) had all 10 of his points in the first half and Cooper Manson (6-5) had seven of his 10 in the first half.
The Lions took advantage of their size to outrebound the Braves 40-27. It was a 22-13 edge in the first half and 18-14 in the second.
“With us fronting the post, that hurts because we already are giving up a defensive rebounding advantage,” Dropsey said. “I thought Brady, Ne’miah and Lucas came from the guard spots and helped us rebound better in the second half.”
Waugh was the game’s top rebounder with 13 to go with his game-high 20 points.
Williams had 11 for LU, while Manson had nine and Noah Shook had eight.
Along with 20 points from Waugh, LE got nine from Neff and eight from Speas.
Prior to the start of Friday’s game, Logan Elm inducted Cory Heeter, Dillon Young, Capt. Stephen Saxton and Scott Bartholomew into the school’s athletic hall of fame.
Click here to read about their accomplishments.
Logan Elm 47, Liberty Union 32
Liberty Union — Eli Kocher 2-1-6, Noah Shook 2-2-6, Cooper Manson 4-1-10, Luke Williams 5-0-10. Three-point goals — Kocher, Manson. Total — 13-45 4-9 32.
Logan Elm — Zane Seimer 1-0-3, Tyler Speas 2-2-8, Brady Neff 2-4-9, Owen Russell 1-0-2, Lucas Bialy 1-3-5, Ne’miah Waugh 8-2-20. Three-point goals — Seimer, Speas (2), Neff, Waugh (2). Total — 15-44 11-15 47.
Quarter scores 1 2 3 4 F
Liberty Union 12 8 3 9 32
Logan Elm 12 7 9 19 47