SPENCERVILLE-The Spencerville Bearcats returned home on Saturday night to take on the pesky Parkway Panthers. The hosts saw nine players hit the score column to pick up the 66-46 victory.
“I didn’t think we came out with defensive energy,” said Spencerville head coach Kevin Sensabaugh. “It kind of seemed like we were a step behind defensively but when we went back to playing trap from last night that asserted ourselves a little bit but I give Parkway credit for hanging around, they screened us well, moved the ball well and ran their offense and executed it.”
Both teams had their success on offense as both teams found their rhythm in the early going. Dylan Smith inserted himself into the ball game with a quick basket for the hosts but Trent Rollins responded for the visitors with a basket as part of his seven point quarter. A Smith layup towards the end of the quarter as the Bearcats led 17-15.
“I thought our guys competed real hard,” said Parkway head coach Doug Hughes. “We were happy going to the locker room down six at halftime and we thought the game might be getting away from us early in the second quarter but we battled hard and did a good job of keeping it close.”
Spencerville tried to extend their lead in the second quarter as they used a half court trap to get some easy points to extend the lead. Spencerville went on a 13-0 scoring run thanks to a three pointer by Owen Sensabaugh, a basket by Josh Henline and a pair of free throws from Carder Orr to extend the lead to double digits at 26-15.
“For whatever reason they both play better when it’s like that,” said Sensabaugh about starting his son Owen and having Osting off the bench. “I guess we are going to stick with this for a while till we feel like we need to change it again if we do.”
Rollins brought the Panthers in it with five straight points to cut the lead to single digits. The Panthers stayed in it at the half with a basket from Fletcher Smith and Landon May to trail 32-26.
The duo of Henline and Smith were the catalyst of the third quarter as the Bearcat lead started to grow by a little. The Panthers got within 32-28 on a basket by Devon Crouch but the rest of the night belonged to the hosts. Henline and Smith accounted for nine of the team’s 16 quarter points to lead 48-35.
Spencerville was able to put the game into the final quarter with team offense as seven different players scored in the quarter. The Bearcats received four points from Brody Sommers and three points from Orr and Henline to put the game on ice. Crouch chipped in four points for the visitors as the game drew to a close.
Parkway drops to 6-15 on the season and will visit New Knoxville on Friday.
Spencerville improves to 18-2 on the season and will have a chance to win the NWC outright with a win against their longtime rivals Delphos Jefferson.
“It’s going to be a really important game for us on Friday,” said Sophomore Brody Sommers. “This game is going to be dedicated to our seniors, Josh (Henline), Dylan (Smith), and “pickle” (Dylan Cook) as they all play very important roles to our team and to leave them with a win on our home court and clinch NWC that will be important to us.”
Parkway 15 – 11 – 9 – 11 – 46
Spencerville 17 – 15 – 16 – 18 – 66
Parkway (46)
Trent Rollins (16) Landon May (9) Trevor Stearns (6) Devon Crouch (6) Caiden Berry (4) Fletcher Smith (3) Brayden Bruns (2)
Spencerville (66)
Josh Henline (17) Dylan Smith (14) Carder Orr (11) Owen Sensabaugh (7) Brody Sommers (5) Evan Osting (4) Blake Sommers (4) Carter Sudhoff (2)
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