ADAMS TOWNSHIP – Every time East Clinton made a run Friday night, Clinton-Massie had an answer.
In a contest that never saw the teams separated by more than single digits, it was the Falcons that had the final say in posting a 71-62 victory in South Central Ohio League action at the Lebanon Road gym.
Down by seven entering the fourth quarter, the visiting Astros showed tremendous resiliency, rallying to tie the score on three different occasions over the final six minutes. However, the CM duo of Noah Greathouse and Trey Uetrecht stifled each and every East Clinton spurt. Greathouse finished with a career-high 24 points, including 5 3-pointers, while Uetrecht poured in 23 points of his own.
“When Noah gets his feet under him, he shoots the ball really, really well,” Clinton-Massie head coach Dustin Eads said. “And, like I’ve said before, Trey is a sophomore, but he’s really not when it comes to the basketball court. He is one of those guys that wants to do all the little things to help us win.”
While CM had two players shouldering the bulk of the scoring load, East Clinton got contributions from up and down the roster. Six Astros scored at least seven points, led by a 12-point, 10-rebound, double-double performance by Brian Barnes. Wyatt Floyd scored 11 points for EC, while Jonny Blair came off the bench to provide a spark with 10 points and 11 boards.
Both teams came out of the gates hot as each side shot better than 50 percent from the field in the first half. The difference came from behind the 3-point arc. Clinton-Massie connected on 7-of-11 from deep in the opening half and made a total of 9 treys in the game. On the opposite side, the Astros hit on only 3-of-11 from 3-point land.
“I’m really proud of our boys,” Eads said. “We shot the ball extremely well in the first half. In the second we talked about trying to attack the rim more. Our guys were able to respond to every challenge. When we needed stops, we got them”
East Clinton got after the glass, out-rebounding CM 31-19 in the game. Offensively for the Astros, Griffin Campbell chipped in with nine points off the bench including two treys. Josh Moskal added eight points for EC and D.J. Luttrell scored seven.
On Clinton-Massie’s side, Chris Demler scored six points and Bailey LeForge scored all five of his points in the final four minutes to help seal the victory.
