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The tradition of Saint Francis DeSales High School is one hard to match
in the landscape of Ohio high school athletes.
But their was only one problem that the DeSales Stallions faced
Saturday evening.
Logan Elm didn't care about big named stars or their tradition.
The Braves rode a tenacious defense that forced 20 turnovers and a
career-high 35 points from senior Evan Blake to a 78-62 win over
visiting DeSales.
"I can't say enough about this team. They refused to lose," Logan Elm
coach Doug Stiverson said. "This team has made it a goal not to lose on
their home floor and they battled through this one from start to finish.
"Our big goal was to limit them to one shot on each possession and for
the most part our guys limited them on offense to just one shot."
On a night highlighted by stars wearing the purple of DeSales, Blake -
who shot 11 for 18 during the game - took the ultimate stage with four
dramatic quarters.
"Evan was phenomenal on both ends of the floor tonight," Stiverson
said. "He carried us in the first quarter when we really needed him and
he hit some big shots."
"That is the most outstanding game I've seen out of any player
period."
"Personally, I never thought I could ever score that much in a game,"
Blake said. "I have to give a lot of credit to my teammates for finding
me and working to set some screens that helped to create shots.
"That helped me to get in a flow early on. After the first couple of
shots fell, I just kept it going."
In the early-going it seemed that DeSales may have been too strong,
building an 11-3 lead with a pair of layups from Elijah Allen and three
points by Dane Johnson.
After missing seven of their first eight shots of the night, the
Braves caught fire with Kyle Reichelderfer laying in the ball for two,
then dishing to Blake on the next possession for a layup that drew the
score to 11-7.
A pair of lay-ins by Alex Kellogg, son of former Ohio State star Clark
Kellogg, put the DeSales lead up to 19-11, but two free throws from
Blake and a three-pointer at the buzzer drew the score down to 20-16.
Logan Elm (5-0) kept the pressure up with Reichelderfer opening the
quarter with a putback of his own miss and drawing a foul from David
Knapke for an additional free throw that put DeSales only up by a point.
The Stallions quickly regained some momentum with a three-pointer from
Brandon Garrick and a layup by Kellogg that gave DeSales a 27-19
advantage.
LE trimmed the score by turning inside to Jamie Morris for a pair on a
layup and a nifty reverse layup from Cody Leist off a Blake feed.
Two free throws from Blake cut the lead down to two and started to get
the home folks charged up.
Momentum for Logan Elm continued to build up as Morris took a charge
from Garrick that handed the ball back to the Braves for Blake to bury a
three-ball that gave the Braves their first lead of the night at 28-27
with 3:15 left.
"Jamie, Cody and Chris all did the little things to help us execute on
defense," Stiverson said. "When you can get players to sacrifice their
body and do the dirty work inside, that makes the other team think about
pulling up for a jumper instead of going in for a layup. It also helped
us get some of their guys into a little bit of foul trouble."
Blake then canned two straight jumpers toward the top of the key
and added two more from the line to finish the first half with 22
points.
Logan Elm ended the quarter scoring on seven of their final eight
possessions, capped by a three-pointer by Chris Leasure with three ticks
left on the clock that put the Braves up 40-33 at the half.
The Braves countered a layup from Garrick to begin the third with a
jumper from Reichelderfer and two low on the left block from Leist that
put the Logan Elm up by nine.
As DeSales shifted both Allen and Kellogg to try and guard Blake at
various times during the second half, neither had better results than
any other of the Stallion players with Blake finishing off the quarter
with two more treys that put the Braves up 52-41.
DeSales managed to trim the Logan Elm lead down to nine in the fourth
quarter with a pair of easy layups from Kellogg.
Logan Elm found an answer as Reichelderfer took an inbound pass and
glided to the hole for two and an additional free one on a foul by
Kellogg.
"I took the ball to a hole a lot more and didn't settle for the
outside shots as much," Reichelderfer said. "In the second and third
quarters especially I was shooting pretty good and getting some
opportunities.
"Against Kellogg, I just backcut past him and managed to get the shot
to fall and that kind of pushed us over the top."
After a dunk by Allen, the Braves began to salt away the game with
Blake adding three free throws and a layup off a touchdown pass from
Reichelderfer across court, and two more from Morris.
DeSales was hurt by a lack of proficient free throw shooting at the
lane, only converting 6 of 13 freebies for the night, while Logan Elm
was nearly flawless with their 24 of 28 performance from the line.
Logan Elm shot 53 percent from the field (24 for 45), including a
stretch of 14 for 23 in the second and third quarters. DeSales managed
to shoot 26 for 46 for 56 percent during the game.
The Braves landed four scorers in double figures with Reichelderfer
chipping in 16 points with Jamie Morris and Chris Leasure each adding 10
points. Blake led all game-scorers with 35 points.
"Even with Evan having a big game, we still managed to get four of our
players into double figures," Stiverson said. "That I believe speaks to
the kind of unselfish basketball these guys play and makes me proud to
be the head coach of Logan Elm basketball."
For DeSales, Kellogg scored 19 points, while Johnson gathered 13
points and Allen 12.
LE returns to league-action Tuesday night against Hamilton Township at
home.
DeSales romped Logan Elm 64-36 in reserve action with Tim Congrove and
Mark Coleman each scoring 12 points and Ben Lee putting in five.
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