WASHINGTON COURT HOUSE — Its defense lacking and unable to get its offense untracked, East Clinton lost a 76-48 South Central Ohio League game to Washington Tuesday night at the WSHS gym.
The Blue Lions are now 3-2 overall, 2-1 in the SCOL.
East Clinton falls to 2-3 overall, 0-3 in the SCOL.
Senior Max Knisley led a trio in double figures for the Blue Lions, and paced the game, with 26 points.
Senior Cameron Eckles scored 14 points and junior Jarett Patton had 10 points.
“I’m disappointed in our giving up 76 points,” East Clinton head coach Tony Berlin said. “That’s way too many, even though Knisley had 26. We try to take pride in our defense, but we haven’t done a good job with that this year.”
Sophomore Wyatt Floyd led the Astros with 19 points.
Senior Brian Barnes scored eight and senior Griffin Campbell added six points.
“I’m a first-year (head) coach,” Berlin said. “And, the team is still adapting to my philosophy. We were in the Miami Trace game and the Hillsboro game. Washington Court House is a very well-coached team. I have a lot of respect for Shannon. His kids play hard for him and they play for four quarters. My kids play hard for me, too. But Shannon’s been (the head coach) for a while. His program’s developed and you can see the result (tonight).”
Washington took an early 7-1 lead on the way to winning the first quarter, 17-13.
East Clinton, unofficially making 14 of 44 field goal attempts in the game for 32 percent, had its lowest offensive output of the game in the second quarter, sinking 2 of 9 shots from the floor on the way to scoring eight points.
The Blue Lions, again unofficially, made 30 of 56 shot attempts in the game for 54 percent.
“We haven’t always finished well so far this season,” Washington head coach Shannon Bartruff said. “We finished pretty well against Chillicothe Friday, holding them to 12 points in the second half, but offensively we weren’t very good.
“Offensively tonight, we were a little bit better,” Bartruff said. “We started executing a little better in the second half. In the first half, we kind of fell in love with threes at times, because they were going in.
Washington was 6 of 15 from the field in the second quarter, scoring 18 points to take a 35-21 halftime lead.
The Astros had their best quarter of the game in the third, scoring 12 points to 15 for Washington.
East Clinton pulled to within as close as 11 points on a three-point goal by Campbell with just over three minutes to play in the third.
Washington saved its best production on offense for the fourth quarter, scoring 26 points as eight different players chimed in with contributions.
Washington will be back in action Friday at McClain High School, taking on the Tigers with the j-v game commencing at 6 p.m.
East Clinton plays Wilmington Friday evening.
SUMMARY
Dec 8, 2015
@Washington Senior HS
Washington 76 East Clinton 48
WA 17.18.15.26…..76
EC 13.08.12.15…..48
(76) WASHINGTON (fg-3fg-ft-tp) Max Knisley 8-1-9-26; Jarett Patton 4-2-0-10; Evan Upthegrove 1-1-0-3; Kory Proby 4-0-0-8; Ryan Flora 0-0-0-0; C.J. Taylor 2-0-0-4; Kenny Upthegrove 1-0-0-2; Griffin Shaw 2-0-0-4; Cameron Eckles 6-0-2-14; Richard Burns Jr. 1-0-0-2; Brian Wilson 0-0-0-0; Jacob Knisley 1-0-1-3. TOTALS 30-4-12-76. Free throw shooting: 12 of 17 for 71 percent. Field goal shooting: 30 of 56 for 54 percent. Turnovers: 12.
(48) EAST CLINTON (fg-3fg-ft-tp) Cole Jenkins 1-0-1-3; Griffin Campbell 2-1-1-6; T.J. McCarren 0-0-1-1; Johnny Blair 1-0-0-2; Austin Mercer 0-0-0-0; Josh Moskal 0-0-1-1; Brian Barnes 3-0-2-8; Wyatt Floyd 5-0-9-19; Paul Luttrell 2-1-0-5; D.J. Luttrell 0-0-0-0; Griffin Irvin 0-0-0-0; Lance Vadnais 0-0-3-3. TOTALS 14-2-18-48. Free throw shooting: 18 of 29 for 62 percent. Field goal shooting: 14 of 44 for 32 percent. Turnovers: 16.
