BLANCHESTER — An avalanche of Blanchester points late in the second quarter buried Clermont Northeastern 65-48 Friday night in SBAAC National Division boys basketball action at the BHS gym.
In the win, Brayden Sipple reached 2,000 career points. He finished with 33 and now has 2,004 in his career.
The win was the 12th straight home win over National Division opponents. Blanchester’s last home loss to a division foe was on Dec 14, 2018, 69-66 against Clermont Northeastern.
The Rockets dominated on the offensive glass (9) and defense (11 BHS turnovers) midway through the second period. Clermont Northeastern had 13-6 first quarter lead.
Then Sipple heated up.
The 6-4 senior reeled off a trio of 3-pointers, including a last second trifecta and rallied the Wildcats to a 15-15 tie after a quarter. Sipple had 13 of the BHS points.
“He has to score early to, basically, give them (his teammates) the confidence to shoot,” BHS coach Adam Weber said.
Into the second quarter, neither team was scoring. With just over 4:00 on the clock, the game was tied 16-16.
And then Sipple heated up again.
The BHS stalwart hit a 3, a 2 and then had a steal and layin to finish a personal 7-0 run in 38 seconds. After a CNE basket, 23-18 BHS, ‘Cats other than Sipple stepped to the fore.
“It’s critical for him to score and when he does it opens it up for other guys and they hit big time (tonight),” said Weber.
A Hunter Hartmann basket began the game-closing BHS run, this one 16-0 to end the half. Colton Wilson had 5 points and Bryce Highlander had a 3 in the scoring spree. The Rockets also were hit with a technical foul. Sipple closed the half with a 3 and it was a runaway, 39-18, at the break.
In the third, Highlander found the range again with a pair of 3s, putting BHS up 45-19. While Sipple wasn’t scoring, the ‘Cats still maintained a comfortable margin the rest of the way.
Neither team made any headway at the free throw line — CNE was 10 for 25 while BHS was 4 for 10.
Logan Heitzman grabbed 10 rebounds for the Wildcats to go along with 2 assists and 2 steals. Hartmann and Brayden Sipple had 6 rebounds each.
SUMMARY
Dec 11, 2020
@Blanchester High School
Blanchester 65 Clermont NE 48
B^15^24^14^12^^65
CN^15^18^12^18^^48
(65) BLANCHESTER (fg-3fg-ft-tp) Bryce Sipple 1-0-0-2 Highlander 3-3-0-9 Hartmann 2-0-0-4 Brayden Sipple 13-4-3-33 Heitzman 3-0-1-7 McVey 0-0-0-0 Wilson 3-1-0-7 Hogsett 0-0-0-0 Gray 0-0-0-0 TOTALS 26-8-4-65
(48) CLERMONT NE (fg-3fg-ft-tp) Yeager 4-3-2-13 Pottorf 3-0-1-7 Reece 1-0-2-4 Martin 4-1-2-11 House 1-0-1-3 Fishback 0-0-2-2 Krug 2-0-0-4 Hopkins 1-0-0-2 Mott 1-0-0-2 Boothby 0-0-0-0 Carlier 0-0-0-0 TOTALS 17-4-10-48
FIELD GOALS: CNE 17/51; B 26/51
3 PT FIELD GOALS: CNE 4/21; B 8/21
FREE THROWS: CNE 10/25; B 4/10
REBOUNDS: CNE-33 (Martin 8 Pottorf 6 House 4 Fishback 3); B-38 (Heitzman 10 Brayden Sipple 6 Hartmann 6 Wilson 5 McVey 4 Bryce Sipple 3 Highlander 2 Hogsett 1)
ASSISTS: CNE-6 (Reece 3 Pottorf 2); B-7 (Heitzman 2 Wilson 2 Highlander 1 Hartmann 1 McVey 1)
STEALS: CNE-6 (Reece 3 Pottorf 2); B-5 (Heitzman 2 Wilson 1 Brayden Sipple 1 Highlander 1)
BLOCKED SHOTS: CNE-1; B-2
TURNOVERS: CNE-18; B-22
