CHILLICOTHE — Chillicothe turned the game around in the third period and went on to defeat East Clinton 43-35 Wednesday in South Central Ohio League action at CHS.

The loss puts the Astros at 7-13 overall and 2-10 in the SCOL. Chillicothe keeps pace with Miami Trace and is now 17-2 overall and 11-1 in league play.

“Proud of our kids effort,” EC coach Steven Gerber said. “Chillicothe is tied for first in the league with Trace. Our kids gave it everything they had. We talked about being a spoiler. If a shot here or there falls, we could win that game.”

East Clinton led 15-12 at halftime against the high-powered Lady Cavaliers.

“I thought this was one of our better defensive efforts this season,” Gerber said. “Our whole goal was to slow them down, make it a half-court game. They are so athletic and so talented, we thought that was our best plan of attack. It worked. Our defense played excellent and forced them into a lot of contested shots.”

But Chillicothe outscored East Clinton 12-6 in the third quarter and took a 24-21 lead into the fourth quarter.

Gerber said the Lady Cavaliers took advantage of the free throw line in the second half to pull out the win.

“We got a lot of excellent looks,” said Gerber. “It seemed like we couldn’t get anything to fall. Shots would go in and out, or bounce around.

They got some offensive rebounds in the second half. We got into some foul trouble early in the third quarter. To their credit they knocked down a bunch of free throws.”

The Lady Astros pulled within one late in the fourth quarter but could never regain the lead.

SUMMARY

February 1, 2017

@Chillicothe High School

Chillicothe 43 East Clinton 35

C 05.07.12.19…..43

E 11.04.06.14…..35

(35) EAST CLINTON (fg-3fg-ft-tp) Davis 1-0-2-4 Durbin 2-0-3-7 Talbott 0-0-0-0 Hall 0-0-0-0 La. Peterman 3-2-0-8 Campbell 1-0-0-2 Lilly 3-0-6-12 Christian 1-0-0-2. TOTALS 11-2-11-35