The East Clinton boys basketball team defeated Bethel-Tate 48-46 in overtime Saturday night in SBAAC National Division action.
The Astros go to 11-8 overall and 8-4 in the division.
The Tigers fall to 8-6 in all games, 3-4 in the National.
It was an up and down rollercoaster ride for the Astros on offense.
East Clinton led 19-11 after one quarter then scored just three points in the second and trailed 24-22 at the half.
Dakota Collom had the lone three points for EC in the second, which followed a big first quarter when he had 10 points.
“We relied too much on the outside shots in the second,” EC coach Phillip Shori said. He also noted Jared Smith and Landon Runyon were dealing with foul trouble in the quarter.
After another 19-point quarter in the third, East Clinton had another three-point quarter in the fourth and the Tigers tied the game.
Collom had seven in the third but Branson Smith joined the scoring frenzy with nine points.
Branson Smith scored the three EC points in the fourth.
“We just didn’t attack like we normally do,” Shori said. “We really had to step it up on defense and that’s what we did.”
Neither team scored much in the extra session but the Astros managed to eek out the two-point win. Branson Smith hit a three and Quinten Tolle added a free throw. The Astros were just one for four at the line in the overtime.
“Overtime was a matter of who wanted it more,” Shori said. “Both teams competed so hard on the defensive end, it was hard for either team to really get any flow going (offensively).”
East Clinton has some time off until its tournament game Noon Saturday against Williamsburg at Western Brown.
“We’re looking forward to our second season,” said Shori. “We know that we haven’t had a season like this one in a while and we’re grateful to represent our school and community.
“Our attention is focused on beating Williamsburg who played us very tough a week ago. We know they want to knock us off. Hopefully we can get into the gym with all this bad weather coming.”
SUMMARY
Feb 13, 2021
@Bethel-Tate High School
East Clinton 48 Bethel-Tate 46
EC^19^3^19^3^4^^48
BT^11^13^8^14^2^^46
(48) EAST CLINTON (fg-3fg-ft-tp) B. Smith 8-2-1-19 Collom 8-4-0-20 J. Smith 0-0-2-2 Runyon 2-2-0-56 Tolle 0-0-1-1 Arnold 0-0-0-0 Bean 0-0-0-0 TOTALS 18-8-4-48
(46) BETHEL-TATE (fg-3fg-ft-tp) K. Smith 7-0-4-18 Snider 0-0-0-0 Wolfe 1-0-0-2 Debell 0-0-0-0 Little 5-2-2-14 Stiles 4-0-1-9 Weis 1-1-0-3 L. Smith 0-0-0-0 TOTALS 18-3-7-46
