LEES CREEK — East Clinton was able to defeat SBAAC National Division rival Blanchester Thursday night in a tough and physical defensive contest 38-35 at the EC gym.
The aforementioned defense and sloppy offense translated to not a lot of first-quarter scoring. Chloe Scott of EC was able to put up the first points with just 10 seconds remaining in the period. Ultimately, thanks to a very late bucket from Sahara Tate, the Astros took a 4-2 lead into the second.
“We’ve had quarters like that all year. I don’t care what it is, it seems like we have one bad quarter. I told the girls, we got our bad quarter out of the way, let’s have three good quarters.” EC coach Bill Bean said about the sluggish start to the game.
Scott scored with a long ball three early in the second. After this, though, the teams again struggled from the field scoring the majority of points off free throws with EC holding a multiple-possession lead for nearly the entire period. Despite this, Blan was able to go on a 7-2 run that brought them within a point. A very late Lauren Runyon bucket kept the Astros up 18-15 going into halftime.
The opening points of the second half again came from Runyon, again from the line. This started an 8-0 run from the Astros before Alison Trovillo put one in from under the basket for Blanchester. The Wildcats strung together enough buckets to pull within just two possessions and, after a tough offensive rebound was put in by Shelbie Panetta, there was even more pressure on the Astros. With this pressure, though, EC senior Liz Schiff forced her way to the line and knocked down both.
A few possessions later, Schiff rose to the occasion once again with a very well-placed inbound that hit Runyon in stride allowing her to get to the line off a blocking foul. Runyon made one free throw. Karlee Tipton responded for Blanchester, hitting a running floater at the buzzer to cut the Astro lead to 31-28 entering the fourth.
After another low-scoring quarter, EC went back to the line with both Panetta and Tipton in foul trouble. And the Astros took advantage. Despite Blanchester keeping it very close at the end, a clutch Scott free throw clinched the game.
“I just told them after the game, I was proud of their effort. There’s a lot of teams when you’ve only won three ball games, at this point in the year, you’re kind of ready to get it over with and go through the motions. They have not done that. I give them a lot of credit. I think that speaks to what kind of kids they really are.” Bean said.
Blanchester will have time to regroup as they don’t play again until Monday.
“We wanted this one bad. East Clinton swept us the last four years. This year was the first year we beat them in a long time,” BHS coach Pete Jackson said. “Coach Bill is a great coach and from the first time I played them to now they’ve improved tremendously and that just shows his ability of getting them to play even if they don’t have the talent they had the year before. We wanted it bad, but I’ll give Bill and their team credit, they wanted it a little worse than we did.”
SUMMARY
Jan 25, 2024
@East Clinton High School
East Clinton 38, Blanchester 35
EC^4^14^13^7^^38
B^2^13^13^7^^35
(35) BLANCHESTER (fg-3fg-ft-tp) Roy 0-0-4-4, Tedrick 0-0-0-0, Harris 0-1-0-3, Coyle 1-0-0-2, Gillman 0-0-0-0, Tipton 2-0-4-8, Trovillo 1-0-0-2, Abbot 0-0-3-3, Panetta 1-0-4-6, Kelly 3-0-1-7, TOTALS 8-1-16-35
(38) EAST CLINTON (fg-3fg-ft-tp) Kay. Terrell 0-0-0-0, Arnold 0-0-1-1, Reynolds 1-0-1-3, Schiff 0-0-4-4, Hadley 0-0-1-1, Runyon 3-0-5-11, Ken. Terrell 0-0-0-0, Tate 1-0-1-3, Reed 1-0-0-2, Scott 3-1-4-13 TOTALS 9-1-17-38
