LEES CREEK — Bryce Sipple reached a career scoring milestone and Blanchester held off a pesky East Clinton squad 68-53 Friday night.

The SBAAC National Division win puts Blanchester at 7-10 overall, 4-6 in the division. The Wildcats have won three straight games

The Astros drop to 3-14 overall, 0-9 in league play.

Sipple scored the 1,000th point of his BHS varsity career on a free throw with 5:05 to play in the third period. He is the fourth boys basketball player at BHS to reach 1,000 career points, joining his brother Brayden Sipple, Todd Lane and Bob Jacoby.

“I’m just super grateful that I had the opportunity to be the coach when he did it,” BHS head coach Mike Malott said. “His teammates were really rooting for him, which says a lot about his character.”

Sipple finished with 31 points while Kaden Cromer added 16 and Jansen Wymer finished with 12.

Xander Lake led East Clinton with 20 points and Peyton Lilly chipped in with 16 points.

“This was our third time in the 50s all season,” East Clinton head coach Clyde Snow said. “Peyton Lilly, this was definitely his best game of the season.”

Nick Taylor had the hot hand for the Wildcats in the opening period, hitting a pair of threes and scoring eight points as Blanchester led 16-12 after one.

“Nick had a tough assignment (defensively) against Lake,” Malott said. “The Lake kid is a heck of a ballplayer and getting those eight (points) out of Nick was a huge bonus.”

Sparked by a Jansen Wymer steal and layup, the Blanchester led went to 26-14 midway through the second. The Astros battled back, though. Lilly continued his hot start with a pair of three-pointers to make it 26-20. Lake’s stickback basket at 2:04 pulled the Astros within 26-22.

The offenses picked up the pace in the second half, combining for 71 points. Blanchester led the entire way, sometimes by as many as 11 points.

Every time, however, the Astros fought back. Lilly had six quick points to cut a 31-22 deficit to 31-28.

“First time all year somebody came out and threw a punch and we punched back,” Snow said. “They got on a run and we threw a haymaker to get right back in it.”

Sipple took center stage at 5:05 of the third when he was fouled on a three-point shot. At 16 points for the game, Sipple made the first two attempts (he would make all three) to reach the 1,000-point plateau and make it 37-30.

With a 48-38 lead going to the fourth, Blanchester seemed to have stemmed the tide just enough to feel good about the win.

But, again, the Astros made the Wildcats sweat. A Lake steal and layup was followed by a Toby Huff three and Dameon Williams assisting on Aiden Warner’s basket. All of a sudden, with still more than six minutes to play, the BHS lead was down to 49-47.

Snow really liked his team’s effort on defense, taking four charges on the night.

“That was something we stressed in practice,” Snow said. “Are we willing to make the hustle plays? When we’re making the hustle plays, we play more engaged on offense.”

Malott’s troops were relentless on this night on the offensive end. Cromer, Wymer and Sipple pushed the BHS lead back to double digits.

“That was one of those games … it was a grind it out game, a little ugly, a little sloppy and we’ve not been very good in those kinds of games,” Malott said.

SUMMARY

Feb 2, 2024

@East Clinton High School

Blanchester 68, East Clinton 53

B^16^12^20^20^^68

EC^12^10^16^15^^53

(68) BLANCHESTER (fg-3fg-ft-tp) Sipple 7-3-14-31 Taylor 3-2-0-8 Wymer 3-0-6-12 Cromer 7-0-2-16 Malott 0-0-0-0 Tangonan 0-0-0-0 Culberson 0-0-1-1 Byrom 0-0-0-0 Bradley 0-0-0-0 TOTALS 20-5-23-68

(53) EAST CLINTON (fg-3fg-ft-tp) Williams 1-0-0-2 Huff 3-2-0-8 Crowe 0-0-0-0 Lake 8-0-4-20 Walker 0-0-0-0 Warner 3-0-0-6 Arnold 0-0-0-0 Lilly 5-2-4-16 TOTALS 20-5-8-53

FIELD GOALS: B (20-40) Sipple 7-14 Cromer 7-11 Taylor 3-3); EC (20-50) Lake 8-15 Warner 3-6 Huff 3-5

3 PT FIELD GOALS: B (5-11) Sipple 3-6 Taylor 2-2; EC (5-12) Lilly 2-5 Huff 2-4

FREE THROWS: B (23-32) Sipple 14-17 Wymer 6-8; EC (8-8) Lilly 4-4 Lake 4-4

REBOUNDS: B-31 (Sipple 7 Wymer 5 Cromer 4 Taylor 3 Culberson 2 Bradley 2 Tangonan 1); EC-26 (Lake 14 Williams 4 Warner 2 Lilly 2 Huff 1)

ASSISTS: B-8 (Malott 2 Wymer 2 Sipple 1 Tangonan 1 Culberson 1); EC-8 (Lilly 4 Williams 2 Huff 1 Crowe 1)

STEALS: B-10 (Wymer 5 Cromer 3 Sipple 2); EC-7 (Lake 2 Lilly 1 Crowe 1 Huff 1 Williams 1 Warner 1)

BLOCKED SHOTS: B-3 (Cromer 1 Wymer 1 Sipple 1); EC-1 (Lilly 1)

TURNOVERS: B-14; EC-17