LINCOLNVIEW-The Spencerville Bearcats and the Lincolnview Lancers met on Friday night, as both teams looked to stay in the NWC title race. The visitors of Bearcats were able to shut down the Lincolnview offense to pick up the 57-19 victory.
“It was a really great night defensively for our guys, as they were as locked in as I have seen them,” said Spencerville head coach Kevin Sensabaugh. “I was a little nervous going into this game, because this is a hard place to play and I did not know how our guys would react.”
Lincolnview grabbed their first and only lead at 2-0 on a basket by Garett Richardson, but the rest of the opening quarter belonged to the visitors. It was a 13-2 scoring run by Spencerville that gave them some momentum. A Tyler Koenig three pointer gave them a 3-2 advantage, and Koenig continued to pour it on. He added five more points late in the quarter that gave the Bearcats a 13-4 advantage.
Lincolnview’s scoring drought continued in the second quarter, as they managed to score four points, but Spencerville continued to keep their foot on the gas pedal. A basket by Dylan Smith extended the lead to 15-4 and another bucket from Josh Henline powered the lead to 17-4. The Bearcats hit three more shots from downtown, including a banked three pointer at the buzzer from Evan Osting, to put the lead at 32-8 at halftime.
Spencerville grew their lead to the 30 point mark in the third quarter, but the Lancers hung around with baskets by Cole Binkley and Richardson. Henline netted six points in the quarter as part of a 12 point second half to give the Bearcats a 46-15 lead.
“Our seniors are leading the way for us right now and each one of them gives us a boost,” said Sensabaugh. “I feel like I do not do a lot sometimes, but I just let them play and they are able to take care of business.”
The final quarter saw both teams put their reserves in, and the Bearcats outscored the Lancers 11-4 to pick up the 57-19 victory.
The Bearcats were led by Josh Henline, as he had a season high of 20 points, and Spencerville improves to 8-1 on the season.
Spencerville will return to action on Saturday when they visit the Bath Wildcats. Lincolnview returns the same night to visit Miller City.
Spencerville 13 – 19 – 14 – 11 – 57
Lincolnview 4 – 4 – 7 – 4 – 19
Spencerville (57)
Josh Henline (20) Dylan Smith (13) Tyler Koenig (8) Evan Osting (5) Carter Sudhoff (4) Eli Harter (4) Cade Elling (3)
Lincolnview (19)
Garett Richardson (6) Daegan Hatfield (4) Cole Binkley (4) Landon Price (3) Elijah Peterson (2)
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