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ATHENS - As he glanced through the scorebook about 10 minutes after
the final buzzer, Logan Elm coach Doug Stiverson noticed that his Braves
outscored the Logan Chieftains 20-2 in the second quarter of their
Holzer Clinic Hoops Invitational matchup Saturday night in the Ohio
University Convocation Center.
Stiverson was surprised to learn that his Braves had actually went on
what amounted to a game-breaking 22-0 run.
"I didn't realize that," the 1989 Logan High School graduate admitted
after the Braves had finished off his alma mater by a 61-46 count.
Logan (3-6) forged a 15-10 lead a little over a minute into the second
period before Logan Elm (10-1) scored the final 20 points of the quarter
and netted the opening bucket of the third stanza.
In all, after trailing 13-7 at one point late in the opening period,
the Braves outscored the Chieftains 29-4 over a span of 12 game minutes
to build an insurmountable 36-17 lead.
"The key was our defensive intensity in the second and third quarters,"
said Stiverson. "We also got some easy baskets. We're not a great
half-court team, so we knew we needed to get some baskets off
transition."
They did. The Chiefs had a difficult time with Logan Elm's full-court
trapping defense, and that proved costly.
"I really don't know what happened," said Logan coach Keith Myers, a
1986 LHS alum who was a high school teammate of Stiverson's. "We would
try to dribble out of their trap... we ended up getting into a funk in
the second quarter. Their (Logan Elm's) intensity on defense was
tremendous... they really got after it."
Stiverson agreed.
"Some of their turnovers led to points in transition and we finished
(those opportunities)," he said.
Playing a late-night game (tip-off was 9:15 p.m.) one night after
exuding a tremendous amount of energy and effort during a tough
three-point loss to Warren, the Chieftains still, for the most part,
showed that intensity and hustle once again... but the execution just
wasn't there in the second quarter.
"We hustled and we didn't quit," Myers acknowledged, "but that second
quarter was a killer."
Logan Elm took a 5-0 lead in the first minute when Kyle Reichelderfer
netted a jumper in the lane and Evan Blake canned a triple from the left
of the key. Myers called a timeout to settle his charges down, and they
responded with a 13-2 run.
Six different Logan players scored during that run, capped off by a
nice-looking turnaround shot from the right block by Alex Wallace, and
Logan led 13-7 with 1:10 to go in the opening period.
Blake (21 points, eight rebounds and five assists on the night) canned
another triple in the final 10 seconds of the period to draw Logan Elm
within 13-10 at the break. When Clayton Frederick (eight points, five
rebounds) drove the lane for a basket at the 6:50 mark of the second
period, it was 15-10 Logan.
However, the roof was about to cave in on the Chiefs, who would not
score again for eight minutes and 15 seconds.
Logan Elm made nine of its next 11 shots from the field to break the
game open, with five players getting in on the act.
A Ryan Hoffman free throw and back-to-back trifectas by Reichelderfer
(a double-double of 14 points and 10 rebounds, as well as four assists)
and Chris Leasure (nine points) started the uprising, putting the Braves
ahead to stay, and Blake capped off the quarter-ending 20-0 outburst by
drilling a long trey from the left of the key. It was 30-15 Logan Elm at
the half.
Reichelderfer scored the opening goal of the third period to cap off
the 22-0 run. Logan Elm's biggest lead of the night was 19 (36-17), and
the Chieftains never closed the gap any closer than 12 the rest of the
way although Andrew McKee (15 points, nine rebounds and five steals) and
Lucas Wright (11 points, five boards) began to heat up.
Stiverson acknowledged that it was strange to be coaching against his
alma mater and former teammate.
"There were mixed emotions," he admitted. "Keith's been a friend for
many years, we played high school basketball together, and one of us had
to lose. It was nice to see some people I hadn't seen in awhile."
Reichelderfer and Frederick were named "Player of the Game" for their
respective teams by organizers of the event.
The Logan-Logan Elm contest was the finale of a seven-game schedule of
prep hoops.
Logan plays back-to-back again next weekend, hosting Jackson in a
Southeastern Ohio Athletic League tilt Friday and welcoming
Bloom-Carroll for a non-conference game Saturday. Logan Elm hosts
Fairfield Union in a Mid-State League Buckeye Division contest Friday
night. |
