BLANCHESTER — East Clinton remained undefeated in SBAAC National Division play with a strong 62-39 victory over Blanchester Thursday night at the BHS gym.
East Clinton (16-2 overall, 8-0 National) connected on eight three-pointers in the win. The win comes on the eve of funeral services for EC senior Timmi Mahanes, who died last week in an automobile crash.
EC’s Kami Whiteaker led both teams in scoring with 17, followed for the Astros by Libby Evanshine with 12. Evanshine also had 15 rebounds and five assists. Whiteaker grabbed five rebounds. Jordan Collom had seven assists and five steals.
Also for East Clinton, Jayden Murphy came up with six rebounds and three steals. Jozie Jones hauled in seven rebounds and Lauren Stonewall grabbed five. Megan Tong had three rebounds.
Karlee Tipton led Blanchester with 11. Despite missing its top three scorers by average, Kaylee Coyle, Tori Potts and Olivia Potts, the Ladycats were only slightly under their season average of 49 points per game.
Exceptional post moves from Evanshine would put East Clinton on the board first, which sparked an early 7-2 run. Blan fought back but a Jordan Collom three-pointer gave East Clinton a 16-6 lead going into a Wildcat timeout. East Clinton closed out the quarter leading 19-6.
A Whiteaker midrange shot off the inbound pass drew first blood in the second quarter, a quarter in which East Clinton would play exceptional defense on the way to another 7-2 run. Karlee Tipton knocked down a three to end it, but the Astros scored eight of the final 13 points of the half to take a 34-16 lead. Blanchester had some excitement as Macey Waldron beat the buzzer for a three-pointer.
The teams began the third battling before East Clinton got hot yet again, going on a 12-2 run. The Astros led 50-24 led entering the fourth.
Despite an excellent offensive quarter from Blan, the deficit would be too much to overcome.
SUMMARY
Jan 26, 2023
@Blanchester High School
East Clinton 62, Blanchester 39
EC^17^17^16^12^^62
B^6^4^8^15^^39
(39) BLANCHESTER (fg-3fg-ft-tp) Roy 2-0-0-4 M. Tipton 3-0-0-6 Waldron 0-0-0-0 K. Tipton 5-1-0-11 Whitaker 3-0-0-6 Abbott 1-1-0-3 Gillman 1-1-0-3 Trovillo 1-0-0-2 Davenport 1-0-0-2 Panetta 1-0-0-2 TOTALS 18-3-0/9-39
(62) EAST CLINTON (fg-3fg-ft-tp) Collom 1-1-2-5 Evanshine 5-1-2-13 Whiteaker 7-3-0-17 Jones 1-0-0-2 Murphy 5-2-0-12 Tong 4-1-0-9 Hadley 1-0-0-2 Schiff 1-0-0-2 Stonewall 0-0-0-0 Scott 0-0-0-0 Rigolin 0-0-0-0 TOTALS 25-8-4/8-62
