Preble Shawnee’s Isaac Blankenship (left) and Mason Shrout (24) pressures National Trail’s Logan Smith during boys high school basketball game on Friday, Dec. 22. Shawnee remained unbeaten with a 75-27 win.
Preble Shawnee’s Carson Hollon scored eight points in the fourth quarter of the Arrows 75-27 win over visiting National Trail on Friday, Dec. 22.
CAMDEN — Preble Shawnee continued to rely on its defense and sharing the ball on offense to roll past visiting National Trail 75-27 on Friday, Dec. 22 to remain undefeated on the season.
With the win the Arrows improved their record to 6-0 overall and 4-0 in the Western Ohio Athletic Conference.
Trail falls to 3-6 and 2-2 in the WOAC.
“We gave up a couple easy ones to start off. They made five layups in the first quarter,” Preble Shawnee coach Jake Turner said. “They did a good job handling our press early on. They broke it and got some easy layups at the rim.”
Shawnee knocked down 13 three-pointers in the game as they built a 20-10 first quarter lead and a 42-15 halftime lead.
Junior Isaac Blankenship helped the Arrows build their 10-point margin in the first quarter, scoring nine of his 14 points.
Sophomore Brody Morton added 16 points, with eight coming in the third quarter as Shawnee extended its lead to 64-19.
Senior Mason Shrout led the way with 18 points which included making four 3-pointers in only three quarters of action.
“Offensively, we were able to go make or miss in transition and get some easy ones,” Turner said. “We shared the ball tonight, again. That’s one thing I keep saying, but we’ve been preaching it, share the ball, we don’t care who scores and we did a great job of that. I think the majority of our made field goals in the first half were assisted. I think we had like 13 or 14 assists in the first half. So, we’re doing a great job sharing the ball. We just got to continue to do that.”
Despite the lopsided win, Turner believes his team can continue to improve on the defensive end of the floor.
“Defensively there’s some things we’ve got to clean up and fix moving forward. But we’re getting there,” he said. “We’re getting better every time we step on the court and these guys are enjoying playing together and they’re playing for each other and that’s what we want.”
For Trail, Kellen Laird and Tayden Blevins each scored eight points.
Trail coach Jeremy Laird said he was impressed by the Arrows.
“Just really impressed by their depth to be honest. I feel like the (Logan) Hawley and the Shrout kids didn’t have the first half they wanted and for them to still be up like that just shows you where their programs at to,” he said. “And you know the Shrout kid’s there when you need him. They’re just deep. I mean, maybe not numbers wise, but talent wise they’ve got a lot of kids that can play. Kudos to them. They’re well coached and they play and just keep coming at you.”
The Arrows, who beat Franklin-Monroe 61-17 on Tuesday, Dec. 19, are off until they host their annual holiday tournament on Friday and Saturday, Dec. 29-30.
Trail, who beat Mississinawa Valley 67-62 on Tuesday, Dec. 19, was scheduled to host Lockland on Saturday, Dec. 23 and will host East Dayton Christian on Friday, Dec. 29.
Reach Eddie Mowen Jr. at 937-683-4061 and follow on X @emowenjr.
