BLANCHESTER — Blanchester stormed out of the gates with a dominant first quarter Friday night and cruised to an 83-47 win over East Clinton.
The Wildcats (8-1 overall, 4-1 SBC National) scored 26 of the first 28 points of the game, which included a 22-0 run. It was 28-4 Blanchester after one quarter.
“They’re just a very good team,” EC head coach Tony Berlin said. “We played better in the second half, but we just shot ourselves in the foot with turnovers.”
East Clinton (1-7, 0-4) committed eight turnovers in the opening quarter and made just 2 of 10 from the floor. Blanchester had 13 more shot attempts in the period, making 13 of 23.
“We steamrolled the first quarter,” BHS head coach Adam Weber said. “I was impressed with our efficiency, our transition. When we rebound the ball and get in transition, it’s been our offense all season.”
Blanchester led 48-18 at the half and led by as many as 41 in the fourth.
Brayden Sipple led the Wildcats with 33 points and 11 rebounds. Sipple moved up to 11th on the Clinton County all-time basketball scoring list, passing former Hurricane great Quinten Rollins. Sipple is at 1,407 points, just six shy of the Lady Astros’ all-time leading scorer, Robbin Luck.
Hunter Bare added 17 points and six rebounds.
Tanner Creager added 10 points and seven rebounds. Blanchester’s guards had a huge night on the boards. In addition to Sipple’s 11 rebounds and Creager’s seven, Braden Roy had 10 rebounds (six offensive) and Jacksson Waialae had eight.
Blanchester outrebounded East Clinton 53-28, including 21-7 in offensive rebounds. Roy, Sipple, Waialae and Creager combined to pull down 13 of those 21 offensive boards.
“Those guys have been putting the work in and it’s paying off,” Weber said.
Blanchester faces another stiff test Tuesday when they travel to Fred Summers Court to take on Wilmington.
“We play really well at home,” Weber said. “We’re hard to beat here. And Wilmington is hard to beat up there. So we’ve got to be focused. We can’t let past history affect what we think the outcome should look like. I’m sure they’ll be prepared and so will we.”
SUMMARY
Friday, Jan. 3, 2020
At Blanchester High School
Blanchester 83, East Clinton 47
EC^4^14^13^16^^47
BL^28^20^16^19^^83
(47) EAST CLINTON (fg-3fg-ft-tp) Branson Smith 3-1-2-9, Dakota Collum 3-2-1-9, Trenton Garen 0-0-2-2, Landon Runyon 0-0-1-1, Quinten Tolle 1-0-0-2, Dylan Peterman 1-0-0-2, Gunner Neanover 1-0-0-2, Matt Hall 3-0-1-7, Matt Mitchell 1-0-0-2, Colton Vadnais 5-1-0-11. TOTALS 18-4-7-47.
(83) BLANCHESTER (fg-3fg-ft-tp) Brison Lucas 2-1-1-6, Braden Roy 1-0-3-5, Tanner Creager 5-0-0-10, Trenton Czaika 0-0-1-1, Brayden Sipple 14-3-2-33, Jacksson Waialae 2-0-1-5, Logan Heitzman 3-0-0-6, Hunter Bare 7-0-3-17. TOTALS 34-4-11-83.
FIELD GOALS: EC 18/52 (Vadnais 5/8); B 34/71 (Sipple 14/25, Bare 7/15, Creager 5/9)
3 POINT FIELD GOALS: EC 4/18 (Cullum 2/3); B 4/18 (Sipple 3/7)
FREE THROWS: EC 7/17; B 11/22 (Roy 3/6, Bare 3/4)
REBOUNDS: EC 28 (Neanover 5, Vadnais 4, Runyon 4); B 53 (Sipple 11, Roy 10, Waialae 8, Creager 7, Bare 6)
ASSISTS: EC 9 (Runyon 4, Smith 3); B 14 (Creager 4, Roy 3, Sipple 3)
STEALS: EC 4; B 9 (Roy 4)
BLOCKED SHOTS: EC 0; B 3
TURNOVERS: EC 22; B 15
