LEES CREEK — Down 19 in a sloppy first quarter, East Clinton fell to Clermont Northeastern 44-20 Friday night in SBAAC National Division boys basketball.

On the first possession of the game, one would’ve thought it would be a much different ball game. Xander Lake stepped in front of a Rockets pass, getting a big reaction from the EC student section, but the Astros turned it right back over and Brady Schmidt capitalized.

The next possession, CNE’s Parker Woolery stole the ball and turned it into a fast break bucket setting up a 21-2 run to start the game. The Astros were plagued with sloppy turnovers and poor inside defense.

A Lake putback with 21 seconds remaining was the first EC bucket since their second possession, but Symon Mattes made his way to the line with just one second to counter. The score was 23-4 after one.

EC was able to open up the second much better as Peyton Lilly knocked down a mid-range shot and a few possessions later, Maddix Crowe found himself open from three and was able to hit the bottom of the net. Both teams then struggled to hit anything until Schmidt knocked down two at the line for CNE’s first points of the quarter. CNE then put two more at the line, and that was it for scoring in the second.

A Xaden Hunt mid-range shot kicked off a 9-0 run for CNE to start the second half and, with dominant defense, the Rockets closed out the quarter up 25 points 38-13.

The win gave CNE sole possession of first place in the SBAAC National Division.

East Clinton was defeated in the junior varsity game 35-14.

Kaden Roth and Nick Pence had four points each for the Astros.

SUMMARY

Dec 15, 2023

@East Clinton High School

Clermont NE 44 East Clinton 20

EC^4^6^3^7^^20

CNE^23^4^11^6^^44

(20) EAST CLINTON (fg-3fg-ft-tp) Warner 1-0-1-3, Williams 0-0-0-0, Huff 0-0-0-0, Arnold 0-0-0-0, Roth 0-0-0-0, Crowe 1-1-0-3, Lilly 2-0-0-4, Boggs 0-0-0-0, Lake 2-0-1-5, Gulley 2-0-1-5, Walker 0-0-0-0 TOTALS 8-1-3-20

(44) CLERMONT NORTHEASTERN (fg-3fg-ft-tp) L. Yeager 0-0-0-0, Schmidt 2-0-2-6, Mattes 4-0-4-12, Bowen 0-0-0-0, Woolery 4-0-1-9, Van Pelt 1-0-0-2, Crawford 0-0-0-0, Hunt 2-0-1-5, Carlier 1-0-0-2, Greer 0-0-0-0, Brehm 0-0-0-0, C. Yeager 3-0-2-8, TOTALS 17-0-10-44