OWENSVILLE – Batavia scored the first eight points of the second half and never looked back in beating Clinton-Massie 60-51 in the championship game of the Clermont Northeastern Boys Holiday Classic Monday.
Nick Chowning led the Falcons (3-6) with 18 points. Trey Uetrecht, an all-Classic selection with Ryan Weiss, added 17.
Seth Steele led the Bulldogs (7-2) with 17.
“In the first half, we got up 10, 12 points, and a couple calls went against us. All of a sudden, four players have two fouls. We only have eight players to begin with,” CM head coach Dustin Eads said. “We can’t play as aggressively defensively. We went to a zone in the second quarter to try to stay out of foul trouble. We had six guys end up with two fouls (by halftime). We were hoping to sit back in the zone. That let them get some easy buckets, because our kids were afraid to go stop the basketball.
“From there, it spiraled out of control.”
With the Falcons in foul trouble and hesitant on the defensive end, the Bulldogs pounded the ball inside. Four straight point-blank buckets put Batavia up 35-29 at the 5:11 mark of the third quarter.
Batavia’s lead bounced between six and 10 the rest of the game.
Massie kept it close with a barrage of threes (9 for the game), but it couldn’t overcome Batavia’s cavalcade of free throws.
“It was frustrating, but our boys fought through it. To be outshot 45-11 on free throws and still have a chance to win the game is impressive,” Eads said. “Just goes to show how hard these boys worked.”
Massie had a chance to cut Batavia’s lead to one possession in the final minute, but a three missed the mark and the Bulldogs headed back to the line to salt away the game.
SUMMARY
Dec 29, 2015
@Clermont Northeastern HS
Batavia 60 Clinton-Massie 51
B 12.15.18.15…..60
C 16.13.11.11…..51
(60) BATAVIA (fg-3fg-ft-tp) Sickles 2-0-3-7 Richardson 0-0-8-8 Watson 0-0-2-2 Steele 7-0-3-17 Gibbs 1-0-1-3 Wolfe 3-0-7-13 Marson 0-0-0-0 Woods 0-0-1-1 Adams 3-0-1-7 Kraus 1-0-0-2. TOTALS 17-0-26/45-60
(51) CLINTON-MASSIE (fg-3fg-ft-tp) Leforge 0-0-0-0 Chowning 5-3-5-18 Greathouse 2-2-0-6 Uetrecht 6-3-2-17 Myers 0-0-0-0 Chris Demler 3-1-1-8 Wolfe 0-0-0-0 Weiss 1-0-0-2. TOTALS 17-9-8/11-51
FIELD GOALS: B 17-47; CM 17-56 (Chowning 5-9 Chris Demler 3-6)
3 PT FIELD GOALS: B 0-5; CM 9-28 (Chowning 3-5 Uetrecht 3-6)
FREE THROWS: B 26-44; CM 8-11 (Chowning 5-7)
REBOUNDS: B-39; CM-33 (Uetrecht 14 Chris Demler 7 Weiss 5)
ASSISTS: B-4; CM-11 (LeForge 6, Uetrecht 3)
STEALS: CM-9 (Chris Demler 3 Chowning 2)
BLOCKED SHOTS: CM-1
TURNOVERS: B-10 CM-9
