BELMONT — Preble Shawnee allowed Brookville to post a 17-4 stretch in the first half of their match-up on Saturday, Feb. 20, falling 51-34 to the Blue Devils and ending their season.
“They made shots we didn’t, they got loose balls, we didn’t,” said Shawnee head coach Jason Crider. “I don’t think it’s for lack of effort. I think we had too much youth to overcome. We had a game plan in place, believe it or not. We worked on all their sets, we scouted them. We knew their sets.”
Aside from that eight-minute stretch, the Arrows played Brookville evenly in the contest, ending the first half getting outscored 6-5 after the big run.
Shawnee also tried to implement a triangle-and-two defense during the week after watching Franklin Monroe show success against them with it, said Crider.
The plan was to force the Blue Devils to beat them outside of the paint while limiting their two outside shooters.
“I thought we did a nice job of that. We knew most of their plays were to come out and screen the ball or reverse ball screen,” said Crider. “We talked about hedging hard to take away the drives but to make sure the backside of the triangle rotated over.”
Shawnee struggled at times with the new defense and mixed that with a cold night of shooting from the field, where they only shot 31 percent. They were, however, able to hold Brookville to 14 percent from three-point range.
Out of the break, Brookville outscored Shawnee 13-8 and 13-11 as the Arrows just could not make up any lost ground on the night.
Joey Bates led the team with nine points while Joby Williams and Thomas Buell both added eight apiece. Williams also added five assists and Buell pulled down nine rebounds.
The game was the last for seniors Williams, Buell, and Vince Bulach.
Williams was a four year varsity starter while Buell was a big force on the inside and Bulach knocked down 41 threes for the team this season.
“All three were key players throughout the season,” said Crider.
Shawnee finished the year at 12-11 and third in the Southwestern Buckeye League Buckeye Division.
