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If
emotion was an energy that could be measured, the emotional atmosphere
at the Mill Street Gymnasium would of fed the world¹s energy needs for
years.
Circleville and Logan Elm once again met in The Rivalry, and even
though the Tigers were able to close the gap that has separated them
from Logan Elm, the Braves were still too strong in the end, taking a
59-50 win Saturday night in front of an overflowing capacity crowd.
“This was a great ballgame with two good basketball teams,” LE coach
Doug Stiverson said. “Both teams played with a lot of class and a lot of
toughness, and neither back down or gave up.”
The win over Circleville extends Logan Elm¹s streak over its archrival
to eight games. Circleville last beat Logan Elm in the 2001-02 Southeast
District sectional championship.
With the win, Logan Elm now stands at 4-0 against Pickaway County
competition so far this season, ensuring a fifth-straight county crown
for the Braves.
“This game was huge for us,” LE senior Kyle Reichelderfer said. “We
always want to win the county title and this class wanted to go out
never losing to Circleville in basketball. Those are a couple of goals
we set at the beginning of the season along with not losing on our home
floor.”
“We got in a little rut losing to Fairfield Union and not playing as
well as we wanted at Amanda, but this game definitely helps to get us
back on track.”
The storyline for Logan Elm (12-2, 6-2 MSL) didn’t change as senior
stars and team captains Evan Blake and Kyle Reichelderfer once again
stole the show, scoring all but 12 of the Braves’ offensive output
during the game.
“It came down to their two seniors and it just seemed that each time we
would make a run, they’d make some shots and put the fire out,”
Circleville coach Eddie Sims said. “That’s what senior captains are
suppose to do for you.”
“Logan Elm does such a good job of spreading the floor and creating
tough matchups for the opponent, and both Evan and Kyle are so strong,
they can use that advantage to create separation between themselves and
anyone who is guarding them.”
Blake and Reichelderfer scored all but one point in the third quarter
for the Braves.
A three-pointer from Circleville junior Cory Cooper cut the Logan Elm
lead down to 31-29 with 4:12 left in the third.
LE quickly countered by Blake dialing up three from long range and
adding a jumper. Reichelderfer then followed with two of his own to help
push the Braves¹ lead back out to 37-29.
Circleville (8-5, 4-4 MSL) found some momentum with spark plug Drew
Clanin collecting three off a Kory Hartinger feed and senior R.J. Brown
ending the quarter scoring with a jumper to make it 37-34 Logan Elm
after three.
The three point deficit turned out to be the closest CHS would be for
the rest of the evening as Logan Elm opened the fourth quarter on a 12-3
run that put the Tigers away.
Blake started the quarter by clearing distance between Brown and Clanin
in mid air and scoring on a three that was matched by Reichelderfer to
make the score 43-34 and promoting a time out by Circleville.
The pause in action didn’t help as Blake added two on a layup, then
collected a CHS turnover and found Reichelderfer for another
three-pointer to push the tally up to 48-37.
“We had came out shooting pretty good early on, but then we went cold
from the field,” Reichelderfer said. “But we still did a nice job of
putting each shot up with a lot of confidence, because that¹s half the
battle.”
“If we continually shoot with confidence, eventually the shots start
falling again like they did in the fourth quarter.”
Jamie Morris followed the flurry of points by Blake and Reichelderfer
by chipping in one from the line that was followed by Cody Leist finding
Reichelderfer for his third triple of the period and a 52-40 LE lead.
Reichelderfer added three more free throws down the stretch to finish
the quarter with 12 points.
Brown attempted to keep CHS in the game by hitting two three-balls of
his own, the latter making the score 54-46, but the Logan Elm lead
turned out to be too much for CHS to overcome.
“R.J. came out once again for us and played a great game,” Sims said.
“He left everything he had on the floor tonight.”
“The problem for us was that we had no one on offense that could step
up and go with him. We also got a good number of offensive rebounds in
the first half, but we won’t able to convert those and that hurt us.”
Blake scored 25 points to lead game scorers, while shooting 10 of 16
from the field. Reichelderfer followed with a 8 for 17 shooting
performance and 22 points and also added seven rebounds that matched
Morris for the team high.
The Braves shot five for seven in the fourth quarter.
“I can’t say enough about our seniors,” Stiverson said. “Evan and Kyle
were both huge for us in the fourth and made some big time shots when we
really needed them. Jamie and Cody (Leist) were both excellent on
defense and did a good job playing on the boards.”
“Then Tyler Congrove came in and have us some good defensive minutes
down the stretch when we needed him.”
Cooper scored six of his nine points in the game during the first
quarter, connecting on two triples that put Circleville out in front
10-9.
But a Blake jumper with 1:10 left gave Logan Elm a 11-10 lead after
one.
Circleville took three leads in the second quarter with the Tigers
final lead of the night coming as Hartinger hit Brown on a backdoor cut
to the rim for two that made it 17-16 Tigers.
Two free throws from Tyler Congrove helped LE regain the lead for good
at 18-17 and was added onto by a putback off the hands of Ryan Hoffman
and a Blake three-ball. The Braves led 27-22 at the break.
Logan Elm shot 20 for 43 during the game (46 percent) while Circleville
made 19 of 56 shots (34 percent).
Brown led CHS with 23 points and eight rebounds, including three treys.
Cory Cooper added nine and Ben Winner six points and seven rebounds.
“Ben was disappointed with the way he played against Logan Elm at their
place earlier and he came into this one ready and played well,” Sims
said. “He didn’t get enough touches and they made it difficult to get it
into the post.”
“They did a nice job fronting the ball and having good backside help.”
“We wanted to come out and establish our defensive pressure and be able
to keep R.J., Kory and Cory in front of us,” Blake said. “We wanted to
hold them to one shot and then get out and run on offense.”
“For most of the night, we were able to limit them and then in the
fourth quarter we were able to make shots and free throws.”
The Braves return to action Friday at home against Teays Valley.
Circleville travels to Amanda-Clearcreek on the same night.
“I told the kids I was proud of them and that they played hard,” Sims
said. “Sometimes your just not good enough to win and we had a rough
night shooting from the field.”
“ ... This has been a crazy MSL this year, kind of like during the
football season, and we just have to put this one behind us and get
ready to go to Amanda Friday.”
Fairfield Union lost to Hamilton Township 73-60 Saturday that forced a
tie for first between the Braves and the Falcons at 6-2 in the league.
“The second half is always huge for us,” Morris said. “People are
gunning for us more than ever since we’ve won the last two league titles
and are on top with Fairfield Union right now.”
“We just have to continue and play hard, especially on defense.”
Logan Elm also took the reserve match 50-43 with Tim Congrove scoring
21 points to lead all game scorers.
Luke Sargent added 10 and Ben Lee eight for the Braves.
Matt Roark led the Tigers with 17 points, followed by Justin Topping
and Dimitrious Spantithos with 10 each. |
