LAFAYETTE-The Spencerville Bearcats began their three game road trip on Friday night when they visited the Allen East Mustangs in conference action. The upset-minded Mustangs fought hard but the Bearcats survived for a 66-61 victory.
“I tell our guys all the time that when a team plays us they just want to beat us and that happens when you have a good record,” said Spencerville head coach Kevin Sensabaugh. “I didn’t think our guys brought a whole lot of intensity tonight as we were careless with the basketball and I don’t think we played very intelligently on the defensive end and I just think we were very good tonight but the bottom line was we escaped with a win.”
Both teams found offensive success in the opening quarter as both traded points for much of the quarter. The Bearcats took their first lead of the night on a basket by Dylan Cook but a three pointer by Keaton Miller gave the hosts an early 3-2 advantage.
Allen East was able to build a little lead on four straight points from Carson Clum to lead 11-6 before some free throws by Josh Henline and Carder Orr cut the deficit to 11-10.
Spencerville was the aggressors in the second quarter and were able to the charity strike quite often in the quarter. The visitors shot 12/13 from the line in the quarter to go along with three field goals to take a 35-30 halftime lead. Orr punched seven of his 14 points in the quarter.
“I thought we played as a team tonight and we fought together through the mistakes.” said Sophomore Carder Orr.
Allen East responded in the third quarter and was able to cut the lead even smaller. A basket by Henline gave the visitors a 42-34 lead before baskets by Jacob Hereshberger and Caleb Hopkins cut the deficit back to four at 42-38.
A three pointer by Hereshberger cut it to 44-41 but Henline answered to stretch the lead back to five at 46-41. A pair of late free throws from Brady Shea trimmed the lead to 50-49.
A basket by Evan Osting and a pair of free throws from Orr extended the lead to 54-47 and a three pointer from Henline gave the Bearcats their biggest lead of the night at 57-47. The Mustangs got within five multiple times but key free throws from Smith iced the game down the stretch for the visitors to pick up the victory.
Spencerville improves to 16-1 and are on a 10 game winning streak. The Bearcats visit state-ranked Marion Local in a marquee matchup on Saturday night.
“It’s going to be incredibly difficult for us not only because they are very good but it’s going to be an hostile environment and it’s our second straight road game of the weekend and there’s a lot of challenges and a lot of adversity but we need to learn our lesson from tonight and hope our guys come out with better energy tomorrow.” concluded Sensabaugh.
Spencerville 15 – 20 – 15 – 16 – 66
Allen East 16 – 14 – 19 – 12 – 61
Spencerville (66)
Josh Henline (21) Carder Orr (14) Dylan Smith (10) Evan Osting (6) Dylan Cook (5) Owen Sensabaugh (4) Carter Sudhoff (4) Brody Sommers (2)
Allen East (61)
Keaton Miller (16) Keaton Lehman (13) Jacob Hereshberger (8) Deacon Jones (8) Carson Clum (6) Brady Shea (4) Caleb Hopkins (2)
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