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They did it their way.
It may not of been flashy like a dunk from Elijah Allen of DeSales or
a nifty behind the shoulder pass, but their way was the right way
Saturday night.
With their 78-62 win over DeSales, the Braves started to lift the
massive shadow of the previous three seasons that have hung over the
campus along Tarlton Road like fog hangs over the city of London.
"Every kid in that locker room wanted this game," Logan Elm senior
Evan Blake said. "We did everything we could to win this game and we
proved that we wanted this game more than DeSales."
Sure the 2005-06 version of the Braves are without county
post-consolidation scoring leader Tyler Evans, Kyle Jones and the rest
of the crew that left their mark on Logan Elm basketball, but the
remaining players that are donning the red-and-white are determined that
the tradition built during the past several seasons won't fade on their
watch.
"We want to win the league, win the county and go as far as we can,"
LE senior Jamie Morris said. "We're not a team that is going to back
down from a challenge. Everyone is going to do their part of the dirty
work on defense. People thought when we lost Tyler, Kyle and everyone
that we'd be down. We're determined to just take things game by game and
continue to work hard and try to prove them wrong."
"The No. 1 goal of this team every night is to go out there and leave
everything on the floor," Blake said. "Some people might think we are
outmatched, but we are going after every loose ball, contest every shot
and work for the shots that are best for us."
Even though the Braves managed to hang 78 points on the Stallions, the
points were more of a result of the LE defense swarming around DeSales
and frustrating the feared trio of Allen, Alex Kellogg, Dane Johnson and
the rest of the Stallions into 20 turnovers for the game, as much as it
was about anything actually done on the offensive end.
"It all starts on defense for this team," LE senior Kyle Reichelderfer
said. "When we win games, we are winning by toughness and being
hard-nosed on the defensive end.”This team is better defensively than we
were last year. We have a group of guys that play with their heart and
are setting their mind on a goal and trying to accomplish it."
While the win against DeSales is an emotional high for the Braves and
their fans, most of the basketball season still remains with 15 games,
including contests against Canal Winchester, Bloom-Carroll, Fairfield
Union, Circleville and the other teams of the Mid-State League.
They will surely notice that LE hasn't disappeared off the basketball
map of southeast Ohio just yet.
"We've had the target on our back for the past couple of years now
with winning the MSL," Morris said. "We will just have to continue and
step up and play hard."
And up next, Game Six against Hamilton Township. |
