LEES CREEK — A disastrous fourth-quarter on Senior Night was the downfall for East Clinton in a 50-38 defeat at the hands of the Fayetteville-Perry Rockets.

“It doesn’t really sting that much,” EC head coach Clyde Snow said. “I preach effort, attitude and energy and I thought we played with that tonight Overall we played hard and I’ll be proud of that every game.”

The Astros began the game playing one of the best quarters of basketball they’ve played all season. A big factor in that was a 7-0 run early that lasted more than four minutes. Brody Feldhaus was able to put in the first Rockets bucket, but the Astros weren’t done as Dameon Williams quickly countered and finished the period with eight points. The Astros closed out the first with a 13-6 lead.

In the second the Astros kept up their strong play defensively and Xander Lake scored the first points. Fayetteville quickly countered with an athletic layup, though, and on their next possession, a deep Ayden Wells three made it a four-point game.

With the narrow lead, Lake went to work banging down low for nice baskets on back to back possessions. Neither team scored again until there was just 1:40 left in the half when Aiden Warner found himself wide open for a nice three-pointer. Afterward, the teams traded scores but EC was able to maintain a 24-16 lead at the break.

Following a big scoring drought for both teams, Charlie Coffman was able to get the ball rolling for the Rockets in the third but Lake quickly countered. Fayetteville strung together back to back buckets late to again make it a four-point game but a corner three from Peyton Lilly gave EC some breathing room, 35-26 going to the fourth.

Unfortunately for the Astros, the fourth quickly turned into disaster when following an opening Warner bucket, the Rockets scored 16 unanswered points to take the lead 42-35. Williams knocked one down at the line to finally end the run, but the Rockets continued to dominate the rest of their way.

“It’s a lame excuse, but it’s just our youthfulness,” said Snow. “I think we got a little gassed. We’re just a young team, we just are. We haven’t been in those situations much and we got kind of sped up a couple of times, that was ultimately our downfall.”

In the junior varsity game, East Clinton was defeated 44-18. Zathen Maxwell had seven points for EC while Andrew Shrimper added four.

SUMMARY

Feb 13, 2024

@East Clinton High School

Fayetteville 50, East Clinton 38

F^6^10^10^24^^50

EC^13^11^11^3^^38

(38) EAST CLINTON (fg-3fg-ft-tp) Warner 2-1-0-7, Williams 4-0-1-9, Huff 0-1-0-3, Arnold 0-0-0-0, Roth 0-0-0-0, Crowe 0-0-0-0, Lilly 1-1-0-5, Boggs 0-0-0-0, Lake 7-0-0-14, Gulley 0-0-0-0, Walker 0-0-0-0 TOTALS 14-3-1-38

(50) FAYETTEVILLE (fg-3fg-ft-tp) Polston 0-0-0-0, Rugenstein 1-0-0-2, Jones 2-3-4-17, Wells 2-1-0-7, South 1-0-0-2, Craycraft 0-1-2-5, Tipis 0-0-0-0, Hendrix 0-0-0-0, Coffman 2-0-2-6, Bradshaw 3-0-1-7, Feldhaus 2-0-0-4, TOTALS 12-5-9-38