FAIRFIELD — Clinton-Massie’s boys basketball team overcame a bit of a sluggish start Saturday evening to defeat Miami Valley School 72-41 in the Brian Cook Classic Holiday tournament at Cincinnati Christian School.
Clinton-Massie had just five points with 75 seconds left in the first quarter. The Falcons went on a 10-0 run over the last 75 seconds of the first to take a 15-8 lead after one.
From that point, the Falcons steadily pulled away from the Rams. Miami Valley School got no closer than six points the rest of the way and trailed by double digits the entire second half.
Massie suffocated the Rams with pressure defense. MVS turned the ball over 26 times. Even when the Rams broke the Falcon press, Massie clogged passing lanes making it tough for the Rams to run their half-court offense.
While the Falcon defense was impressive, Massie gave back a few of those steals by turning it over immediately after. This is one area CM head coach Todd Cook would like to clean up.
“I’m really impressed with our defense,” Cook said. “We’ve got to do a better job at the discipline-side of controlling the ball. We got a lot of steals, then we throw a long pass and give it right back to them. We didn’t create anything there.”
At the other end, the unselfish Falcons made life miserable for MVS defenders. Clinton-Massie had 17 assists on 29 field goals, and four different players scored in double figures.
Brendan Lamb led the Falcons with 17 points, five assists and four steals. He missed just one of his nine field goal attempts.
Griffin Laake, who was named to the all-tournament team, added 15 points and four steals. Thomas Myers had 14 points and 11 rebounds. Tate Olberding scored 10 points and pulled down five rebounds.
Five different Falcons scored in double figures on the weekend, which Cook knows will be important as the team heads into SBC American Division play.
“The majority of the attention will be on Thomas Myers,” Cook said. “He’s still going to have some big nights for us. We have some shooters on the outsides. Our guards are penetrating well. We are playing good team basketball.
“Right now, this team’s not concerned about who is the high-point guy, which is the mentality we have to keep all year long.”
Jake Wang and Casey Edgerley led the Rams with 11 points each. Miami Valley School shot just 34 percent and only attempted five free throws.
It was a good bounce-back game for the Falcons. Massie lost a fourth quarter lead Friday night to Stivers, one of the top Division III teams in Dayton. Stivers was 8-0 entering the contest against the Falcons, while it was just the third game of the season for Massie.
“We came out against Stivers, a team that we knew was going to play full-court, man-to-man,” Cook said. “We did the same with them. We didn’t change our philosophy. We lost by three and had an eight-point lead. We should have had an opportunity to win the game.
“Playing Stivers the way we did, I was very pleased with it. I never want to come into a locker room and say I’m proud of a loss. That’s about as proud of a loss as you can be.”
The win in the consolation game of the Cincinnati Christian School holiday tournament improved the Falcons’ record to 3-1 on the season. Miami Valley School (4-4) has now lost three straight, all to teams in the CCS tournament.
Cincinnati Christian won the tournament Saturday night, withstanding a 30-point fourth quarter from previously unbeaten Stivers to win 56-51.
SUMMARY
Saturday, Dec. 30, 2018
@ Cincinnati Christian School
Clinton-Massie 72, Miami Valley School 41
MV 08.15.08.10…..41
CM 15.22.14.21…..72
(41) MIAMI VALLEY SCHOOL (fg-3fg-ft-tp) Jake Wang 4-3-0-11, Ian Wadzinski 1-0-0-2, Alec Martin 3-2-0-8, Dave Scott 0-0-2-2, Casey Edgerley 4-1-2-11, Pruthvi Choudary 2-1-0-5, Taki Karras 1-0-0-2. TOTALS 15-7-4-41.
(72) CLINTON-MASSIE (fg-3fg-ft-tp) Daulton Wolfe 1-0-0-2, Brendan Lamb 8-1-0-17, Zach Chowning 2-2-2-8, Austin Faucett 0-0-1-1, Tate Olberding 4-1-1-10, Thomas Myers 6-0-2-14, Griffin Laake 6-2-1-15, Drew Settlemyre 2-0-1-5. TOTALS 29-6-8-72.
FIELD GOALS: MV 15/44 (Edgerley 4/11, Wang 4/8); CM 29/61 (Lamb 8/9, Myers 6/10, Laake 6/10, Olberding 4/5)
3 POINT FIELD GOALS: MV 7/18 (Wang 3/6, Martin 2/3); CM 6/17 (Laake 2/2, Chowning 2/6)
FREE THROWS: MV 4/5; CM 8/14
REBOUNDS: MV 28 (Martin 7, Wadzinski 5, Wang 4): CM 35 (Myers 11, Settlemyre 5, Olberding 5)
ASSISTS: MV 7 (Edgerley 3); CM 17 (Chowning 6, Lamb 5)
STEALS: MV 6 (Wang 2, Martin 2); CM 18 (Chowning 5, Lamb 4, Wolfe 4)
BLOCKED SHOTS: MV 1; CM 3 (Settlemyre 2, Voss 1)
TURNOVERS: MV 26; CM 9
