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WEST RUSHVILLE
- Logan Elm was looking to end a rare three-game losing streak Tuesday
night and had to go to Fairfield Union to get it done. In a physical
matchup, the Braves came through with strong defense and accurate
shooting in getting a 64-53 win.
“This is a huge
win coming off three losses in-a-row. I can’t remember the last time we
lost three games,” LE senior Evan Blake said. “What an atmosphere. It
was their senior night and they’re fighting for a league title. We
wanted to play harder than them to start off with.”
The Braves
definitely played harder and executed better to start off the second
half as they started off with a 12-2 run going 5-5 from the field with
Blake hitting a pair of 3-pointers, Kyle Reichelderfer scoring twice and
Jamie Morris hitting a basket to go up 39-28.
LE added a
3-pointer from Reichelderfer and then eight points from Chris Leasure to
lead 50-45 entering the fourth. The Braves were 9-11 from the field in
the period.
“It goes back to
execution. We’ve worked on it all week,” Blake said. “The third quarter
was all about execution.”
Logan Elm’s
defense came through in the fourth quarter. While the Falcons were still
getting to the offensive boards - nine offensive rebounds in the fourth
period and 24 in the game - they weren’t able to convert many of their
second chances. And then the Braves, who didn’t take their first free
throw until a minute into the fourth period, converted 6 of 8 in the
final 90 seconds to end the losing streak.
“We knew it was
going to be physical. Our kids kept battling and didn’t give in to
them,” LE coach Doug Stiverson said. “We did what we needed to do to
win.”
“We’ve been
preaching we need everyone and we had great contributions from
everyone.”
Blake led the
Braves with 19 and Reichelderfer had 17 with Leasure scoring 10. Four
other Braves contributed points and they all contributed on the
defensive end.
“Logan Elm came to
play some defense tonight and took us out of what we wanted to do,”
Falcons coach Keith Barr said. “We told them the first two minutes of
the third quarter were going to be important and they hit some shots and
we were a little flat."
Chase Burge led
the Falcons with 23 points and 11 rebounds, many of those on the
offensive end. LE was able to hold Jared Larson to eight points (his
first basket of the second half gave him 1,000 for his career).
“They were real
physical with (Larson) and made him work for everything he got,” Barr
said. “It was a hard-fought game but very clean with good
sportsmanship.”
“There’s a respect
there.”
The Falcons
finished the night with a 42-38 rebounding edge. Blake led LE with nine
and Cody Leist had eight and the Braves had 16 offensive boards as a
team.
Tuesday’s win was
an important one as the Braves look to end the regular season strong and
get ready for the postseason.
“We played three
good teams back-to-back. We just needed to come in and play with a lot
of pride,” Stiverson said. “We can still finish high in the league.”
“We played with a
lot of pride tonight and we wanted to get something going for the
tournament.”
Logan Elm (14-5,
8-5) finishes the regular season with a home game against Amanda-Clearcreek
Friday. The Braves also will be holding Hall of Fame inductions
following the reserve game.
Fairfield Union
(11-8, 8-5) is at Canal Winchester to complete league play Friday.
Logan Elm fell
67-55 in the reserve game.
Tim Congrove led
the Braves (13-4, 10-3) with 21 points and Eric Holbrook contributed 15. |
