The Scott Winter Classic began play on Wednesday with four games at Scott High School. The tournament was originally scheduled to run Wednesday-Friday, but with the expected winter storm coming late Thursday, Friday’s games were postponed with hopes of making the final day up on January 14.
All eight of the teams participating have an open date on Jan. 14, so Scott basketball coach Steve Fromeyer is hopeful everyone can make it back then.
“It’s literally the only day that nobody in this is playing. We’d like to play at least the final and as many consolation games as we can,” Fromeyer said. “I can’t control the weather and the state of emergency just basically killed everything (for Friday). We’ll figure it out.”
Game times are moved up on Thursday to accommodate for travel, the first game starting at 1:30 p.m. with the last game beginning play at 6 p.m. In the winner’s bracket, Christian Academy-Louisville will play Simon Kenton at 4:30 p.m., Conner meeting up with Hamilton at 6 p.m. In the consolation bracket, Boone County will play Elder at 1:30 p.m., Scott facing Shelby County at 3 p.m.
Here’s a look at the action from Wednesday:
Simon Kenton 45, Elder (OH) 29
Scoring on Simon Kenton continues to be a tough task.
The Pioneers (7-2) allowed just seven points over the final 13-plus minutes in Wednesday’s third game of the day to pull away from previously unbeaten Elder.
Travis Krohman paced Simon Kenton with 18 points, catching the hot hand early with three 3-pointers in the first half, but it was a second half alley-oop to Gabe Dynes that got them energized and going.
“That was nice. Gabe has great hands for being that tall,” Krohman said. “It’s a fun feeling when he does that.”
Dynes’ dunk gave the Pioneers a 25-24 lead and a lead for good. Dynes followed with a three-point play that ignited a 10-0 Simon Kenton run for a 33-24 lead with less than five minutes to play. Dynes finished with 11 points, four rebounds and two blocked shots, altering many others as the Pioneers stingy defense continues.
“Communication, that’s really all it is,” Dynes said. “We felt like they lost confidence in their shot and weren’t shooting it. Once you start getting into the rhythm of cracking and dropping on your man in the 2-3 (zone) we were in, you can’t really score.”
Simon Kenton is now allowing 44.1 points per game, 36 per game over their last four during a four-game winning streak.
They endured a near eight minute scoring drought from the second into the third quarter, a 14-8 lead erased by a 12-0 Elder run.
Dynes ended the drought with a layup with 6:08 remaining in the third, Elder taking a 24-23 lead into the fourth, but were held to five points in the decisive final quarter.
“We didn’t play very tough in the first half. Had some foul trouble and it has a lot effect on psyches, my psyche too. We were able to come out in the second half and start executing and doing some things. Communication was great today, all five have to talk, if we’re all five communicating, makes it a lot tougher,” Pioneers coach Trent Steiner said. “Happy for our kids, they’re really bought in to what we’re doing right now.”
Conner 82, Shelby County 44
The nightcap was a snoozer.
Conner jumped on the Rockets from the jump and never let off the gas in a 38-point thumping.
The Cougars (5-3) had five players in double figures and 10 different players score as they put up 44 first half points and built their advantage to 44-21 by the break.
“It helps when you’ve got guys that can shoot it and make them. We came out in the first quarter and we were kind of feeling everything out and then once we kind of got in a rhythm it was pretty good the rest of the half and it just kept on carrying over,” Cougars coach Matthew Otte said.
Landen Hamilton got them going early with 11 first quarter points, Daniel Campbell following his lead in the second with seven points and hitting all five of his shots in the first half.
The hot hand then went to Ayden Lohr in the third, Lohr scoring 11 points in the frame as he nailed all three of his 3-point attempts, the Cougars leading 62-33 after three.
They eventually got the game to a running clock with 4:44 to play on Ben Fay’s putback, making it 74-38.
After a 2-3 start to the season and dealing with some injuries, the Cougars are back to full strength and have won three games in a row and found a bit of a rhythm.
“It’s starting to trend in that direction. We have seven seniors and some may think we’re really experienced, but in reality only three, three and a half of them have played minutes. So you got to get the other ones acclimated to it and I think we’re getting to that point, so hopefully we can just keep moving forward and not have to look back,” Otte said.
The five in double figures were Lohr with 16, Hamilton and Campbell with 13, Dalton Kramer adding 11 and Cory Henson also tossing in 11.
Shelby County (4-4) was led by Dillon Ritchey’s 18 points, Maalik Stoner adding 17.
Hamilton (OH) 69, Scott 51
The host Eagles played in the second game of the day and were unable to make a big enough run in the second half to come back from.
Turnovers were a culprit for Scott (3-7) committing 14 of them, offsetting an efficient shooting night in which they hit over 60 percent of their shots from the field.
“We shot well. We were okay in half court offense, but it was the turnovers. Turnovers were everything at the end of the day, we can talk about it and talk about it, but the sad thing is, you can’t help them,” Fromeyer said. “No one’s saving anybody here. You step in-between the lines and you just got to take care of the ball.”
Still shorthanded without Brayden Howell and Nolan Hunter to injury, Dylan Giffen and Connor Griffin helped carry the load for the Eagles, scoring 19 and 12 points, respectively. Jon Evans added 10, getting hot in the second quarter with eight points.
After a first quarter that had the Big Blue up 14-12, Hamilton (5-3) extended their lead to 10 in the second as Cooper Matthews started to pour it in with 16 first half points, his layup making it 29-19 Big Blue with under three minutes remaining in the half.
Scott was able to get within four behind Evans second 3-pointer of the quarter, Hamilton then taking a 35-27 lead into the break.
The Big Blue remained ahead, building their lead to as much as 12 in the third, but a 11-4 run got the Eagles within four near the end of the frame.
A big sequence in the closing seconds of the third came from a Andre Holden block on one end and a 30-foot Clint Moak 3-pointer on the other end before the buzzer giving Hamilton a 55-45 advantage into the fourth.
“It looked to me the ball was coming down. So, you know, being in what I thought was a real scenario, you have goaltending, dead ball out of bounds, then they have to go full court, maybe the shot still goes in, I don’t know. That’s a five point swing and a five point game right there. It goes from five to 10. And it’s a dagger, man. It’s a dagger,” Fromeyer said.
The turnovers that plagued the Eagles in the game really started to show in the final quarter, Hamilton taking full advantage with a 12-2 run over the final 6:15 of the game.
Christian Academy-Louisville 102, Boone County 83
The Centurions got what they wanted offensively for the majority of the game, a hot shooting CAL team clearing the century mark in the opening contest of the tournament.
CAL (4-5) had nine different players enter the scoring column, four of them hitting double figures led by Josh Sangali with 26, 19 coming in the first half when they posted 57 points by the break and led by 18. Nolan Wahl was the leader of the second half, scoring 17 of his 21 in the game’s final 16 minutes.
Boone County (1-6) trimmed a 71-48 deficit down to nine in the beginning of the fourth thanks to Thomas Williams catching a hot hand and scoring 10 of his game-high 27 points during a 20-6 run, but the Rebels could get no closer the rest of the way.
After Williams’ 27 point effort, Will Raleigh added 21, Eli Bodkin with 16, Maddox Jones with 12.