L
EES CREEK – Rebounding from a sluggish loss on Friday, East Clinton defeated Felicity-Franklin 71-52 Saturday night in SBAAC National Division boys basketball action.
As a team, the Astros were a blistering 22 for 33 from the field.
East Clinton lost to Williamsburg 51-38 on Friday.
The win evens the Astros overall record at 3-3 while improving their National Division mark to 2-1. Felicity is 0-5, 0-4.
East Clinton senior Wyatt Floyd paced the Astros scoring attack with a 33-point effort. Floyd was 11 for 12 from the field and 10 for 12 at the free throw line. He also led EC with four assists.
In the process, he moved past his brother Dalton for second place on East Clinton’s all-time scoring list with 1,122 points.
Dalton Floyd held the No. 2 spot until Saturday with a career total of 1118 points. Mark Woodruff is at the top of the list with 1339 points.
“Wyatt came out ready to play strong,” said Astros head coach Tony Berlin.
Floyd scored 13 of the Astros’ 21 points as EC built a 21-8 first quarter advantage. East Clinton opened the game with a 10-0 run.
Felicity got things cranked up in the second period, however, and reeled off a 25-18 advantage, making it 39-33 at halftime.
The difference was the third quarter, when the Astros delivered the knock-out punch, clipping the Cardinals by an 18-5 margin, good enough for a 54-38 advantage after three periods.
Six different Astro players scored during the third quarter with Floyd and JT McCarren combining for 10 points.
McCarren finished the game with 15 points.
For Felicity-Franklin, Dalton Cochran and Joey Glassmeyer scored 10 points each.
Berlin juggled the starting line-up, making three changes. He inserted junior Zach Mitchell, senior Logan Kelly and sophomore Colton Vadnais into the line-up. He felt it produced instant dividends for his squad.
“We’ve been committing too many turnovers lately and protecting the basketball is the key. This group did a nice job tonight and we only turned it over once in the third period,” said Berlin. “I felt Zach (Mitchell) set the tone on defense, and JT gave a double-double. He really crashed the boards well and we controlled the pace of the game. Our passing was good, we took good shots, and played good team basketball out there tonight.”
East Clinton also capitalized at the free-throw line, converting 25 of 33 attempts, including a 16 of 18 effort in the second half. In the final period, East Clinton was 10 for 10 at the charity stripe.
Next up for the Astros will be a road contest at county rival Blanchester Tuesday night. Tonight the freshman and junior varsity squads will be in action at Fairfield-Leesburg. The varsity squads met earlier during the Ohio Valley Hoops Classic at Southern State College.
After starting out 0-2, Berlin believes his squad is now headed in the right direction, and credits his coaching staff with playing a key role.
“My staff has worked extremely hard and they do a great job with scouting and executing our game plan,” Berlin said. “Each of them — Roger (Earley), Justin (Stewart) and Greg (Roberts) — are doing a great job for us and even though we got in foul trouble down at Williamsburg (Friday), we still kept it close and only lost by 13. That’s a reflection of what these guys are doing in terms of preparation.”
After the Blanchester game, the Astros will close out the 2017 portion of the season hosting Frankfort Adena on Dec. 22.
SUMMARY
December 16 2017
@East Clinton High School
East Clinton 71 Felicity-Franklin 52
(52) FELICITY-FRANKLIN (fg-3fg-ft-tp) Shelton 3-0-2-8, Cochran 4-0-2-10, Boeckman 2-0-5-9, Hall 1-0-1-3, Armacost 1-0-0-2, Simpson 3-0-1-7, Glassmeyer 4-0-2-10, Reeves 1-0-1-3. TOTALS 19-0-14-52.
(71) EAST CLINTON (fg-3fg-ft-tp) Jenkins 2-1-0-5, McCarren 5-0-5-15, Pence 0-0-2-2, Z. Mitchell 2-0-2-6, Michael 1-0-0-2, Floyd 11-1-10-33, Kelly 0-0-2-2, M. Mitchell 0-0-4-4, Vadnais 1-0-0-2, Neanover 0-0-0-0, Olds 0-0-0-0. TOTALS 22-2-25-71.
FIELD GOALS: EC (22-33) Floyd 11-12 McCarren 5-10
3 PT FIELD GOALS: EC (2-8) Floyd 1-4 Jenkins 1-2
FREE THROWS: EC (25-33) Floyd 10-12 M. Mitchell 4-5
REBOUNDS: EC-29 (McCarren 12 Vadnais 4 Z. Mitchell 3 Kelly 3 Floyd 2 Michael 2)
ASSISTS: EC-8 (Floyd 4 McCarren 2)
