BLANCHESTER — Blanchester withstood a furious East Clinton comeback attempt Monday to collect its first win on the season 60-52 in SBAAC National Division play.

The win put Blanchester at 1-3 in conference play and 1-6 overall. EC whereas EC falls to 1-2 in the National and 1-5 overall.

The win was the first for the Wildcats over the Astros in 11 tries. The last win was Jan. 25, 2018, 46-41, at EC.

Blanchester’s Kaylee Coyle led all scorers with 21 points. Lauren Runyon had 19 for East Clinton.

The game began very back and forth as the teams traded buckets until Blan was able to rattle off a 7-0 run that wasn’t broken until Megan Hadley found the bottom of the net on a tough inside shot. From there EC got hot, scoring enough to make it a two-point game.

After that, Coyle knocked down a three for the Wildcats who once again separated due to ferocious inside defense and found space on the offensive end. At the end of the first, Karlee Tipton stole an EC inbound and was immediately sent to the line with 0.3 on the clock. She nailed both as Blan took a 20-10 lead into the second quarter.

Blan remained hot scoring the basketball. EC finally scored off a nice lay-in from Sahara Tate to make it 27-12, the Wildcats had scored the previous 15 points.

Blanchester head coach Phillip Jackson was proud of his team’s hot start, something that has been a rarity for the Wildcats this season.

“The girls just came ready,” he said. “I’ve been challenging them to start better than they have the previous games. We’ve been in a hole in the first quarter every game of the season until tonight and I just told them to come out of the first quarter on top.”

The Tate bucket was the first of a string for EC. Later, Lauren Runyon stole the ball and made a beautiful pass to Tate who scored pulling the Astros within single digits. Blan used a timeout and immediately went on a 6-2 run closing the half up 37-24.

The third quarter saw EC come roaring back with two big Liz Schiff three balls to get the score within single digits again. Ending the half, Runyon got the Astros within a single possession on a beautiful score, 47-44.

The fourth quarter became a dogfight as Blan fought for separation and EC tried to avoid it. A Hadley steal turned to fast break points to make it a one-point game. But Blanchester made several clutch free throw and forced several turnovers to secure its first win.

Despite their records, both coaches remained optimistic about their chances at making a run in the conference, which each agreed will be winnable.

“We just gotta keep working. Like I told the girls afterwards, a league loss gives us two league losses but we said it at the beginning of the year, I honestly believe the league champion will be 8-2 or even 7-3. So we’re not out of this thing and I think the league itself is pretty even.” said EC coach Bill Bean.

Said Jackson, “I’ve been telling the girls, there’s three or four teams that can win the league this year. It’s anybody’s two losses. I don’t think anybody’s going undefeated, everyone is good in the league this year so getting our first win is very important. This was pretty much it for us to get in there for a chance to win the league title.”

SUMMARY

Dec 11, 2023

@Blanchester Ohio

Blanchester 60, East Clinton 52

BC^20^17^10^13^^60

EC^10^14^20^8^^52

(52) EAST CLINTON (fg-3fg-ft-tp) Kay. Terrell 0-0-0-0, Arnold 0-0-0-0, Reynolds 3-1-0-7, Schiff 2-1-0-5, Hadley 3-0-0-6, Runyon 5-0-9-19, Ken. Terrell 0-0-0-0, Tate 2-0-2-6, Reed 2-0-0-4, Scott 1-0-3-5 TOTALS 18-2-14-52

(60) BLANCHESTER (fg-3fg-ft-tp) Roy 0-0-0-0, Tedrick 0-0-0-0, Harris 2-0-0-4, Coyle 6-0-9-21, Gillman 2-1-0-5, Tipton 2-0-4-8, Trovillo 4-0-0-8, Abbott 0-0-0-0, Lansing 0-0-0-0, Panetta 2-0-4-8, Kelly 3-0-0-6 TOTALS 21-1-17-60