Eddie Mowen Jr. | The Register-Herald
Eddie Mowen Jr. | The Register-Herald
Preble Shawnee senior Mason Shrout led the Arrows with 22 points, 14 rebounds and four assists in a 66-48 loss to Lloyd Memorial (Ky.) in The Beacon Orthopaedics Flyin’ to the Hoop Invitational on Monday, Jan. 15 at Trent Arena.
Eddie Mowen Jr. | The Register-Herald
Eddie Mowen Jr. | The Register-Herald
Eddie Mowen Jr. | The Register-Herald
Eddie Mowen Jr. | The Register-Herald
Eddie Mowen Jr. | The Register-Herald
Eddie Mowen Jr. | The Register-Herald
Eddie Mowen Jr. | The Register-Herald
Eddie Mowen Jr. | The Register-Herald
Eddie Mowen Jr. | The Register-Herald
Eddie Mowen Jr. | The Register-Herald
Eddie Mowen Jr. | The Register-Herald
Eddie Mowen Jr. | The Register-Herald
Eddie Mowen Jr. | The Register-Herald
Eddie Mowen Jr. | The Register-Herald
Preble Shawnee junior Brayden Robinette looks to get out of a double team during the Arrows game with Lloyd Memorial (Ky.) at the The Beacon Orthopaedics Flyin’ to the Hoop Invitational on Monday, Jan. 15. Robinette scored 11 points and had four rebounds in a 66-48 loss.
Eddie Mowen Jr. | The Register-Herald
Eddie Mowen Jr. | The Register-Herald
Eddie Mowen Jr. | The Register-Herald
Eddie Mowen Jr. | The Register-Herald
Eddie Mowen Jr. | The Register-Herald
KETTERING — Last season Preble Shawnee used a loss at The Beacon Orthopaedics Flyin’ to the Hoop Invitational to fuel a run to a league title and a trip to the regional final.
After suffering its first setback of the season, a 66-48 loss to Lloyd Memorial (Ky.) in this year’s FTTH Invitational on Monday, Jan. 15, at Trent Arena, Preble Shawnee Coach Jake Turner hopes to use the game as a learning experience for a repeat of last season.
“We’re getting there. I told them in the locker we’re not where we need to be,” Turner said. “I hope this wakes them up. We’ve kind of been saying this for a while now. We’re nowhere close to where we need to be right now. And I hope this is a wake-up call for them because I’m not happy with where we’re at and that’s all me and I have to figured out how to get us there. We got to have some guys step up though. I mean, we only play usually six, seven sometimes. We got to find a couple more guys to get some of these guys breathers and we just got to play better. We got to be better.”
The Arrows, now 12-1, are currently ranked No. 3 in the latest Division III state rankings despite the loss.
Shawnee trailed just 13-12 after the opening quarter and was down 23-20 with just over four minutes left in the first half before the Juggernauts went on a 10-0 run late in the half to take control.
Shawnee fell behind by as many as 16 in the third quarter and trailed by 17 (52-35) with just under seven minutes remaining in the game. A 10-2 run got the Arrows within 54-45 with 3:20 left in the game.
“Wasn’t our day. I thought we did a good job of continuing to compete, not quit. (We) got down multiple times by double digits. I think we got it to eight maybe in the fourth quarter or nine,” Turner said. “We got down early and it kind of took out our game plan. We weren’t able to do what we thought would give them some issues. We had to play a lot faster than we would have liked to. Defensively we had to scramble a lot more than we wanted to. We put ourselves in a bad situation, but they made a lot of plays. They’re a good team. They’re hot right now. I think this is eight straight wins for them. Got really good player. They’re well coached. Good team their guys made plays and made shots.”
Mason Shrout led the Arrows with 22 points, 14 rebounds and four assists. Brayden Robinette added 11 points and four rebounds. Brody Morton tossed in seven to go along with six rebounds and Isaac Blankenship added six points and five rebounds.
Lloyd Memorial was led by 6-8 junior E.J. Walker, who has more than 20 Division I scholarship offers, with 21 points and seven rebounds.
Falling behind early forced the Arrows to go with a smaller lineup, which limited the play of the Arrows 6-foot, 8 inch center Logan Hawley.
“We thought smaller gave us the best chance to win and get another shooter in there, kind of space it out, give Mason some areas to drive to the rim. I thought Mason got some easy ones when we did take Logan out a little bit,” Turner said. “So, we wanted to go smaller to get a chance to hit some threes. I thought we had some open ones, some went in and out, but we just thought the small lineup gave us a chance to get back into the game.”
Turner praised the play of Shrout, who is headed to Purdue Fort Wayne next season.
“He played his tail off,” Turner said. “He made a lot of plays, kept us in the game. We ask him to do a whole lot. He’s got to do a whole lot for us and that’s just part of being the guy and he does a great job. He’s doing a good job leading these young guys. We got a lot of young guys, inexperienced, that are playing so he’s doing a good job with them. But I was just proud of his effort not giving up just keep fighting and fight and fight and he’s a gamer. That’s who he is.”
Turner said playing in FTTH, one of biggest basketball invitational in the country, is an experience his team won’t forget, but also can use it as a learning experience.
“To play in this environment, this event, this is a great event, one of the best ones around here in high school basketball to have that opportunity to get this experience for these guys, they won’t forget this. But also, I think last year helped us in the long run with that game. I’m hoping the same this year. We can go back (and) look at some things that maybe we did differently that can help us down the road. We got a lot of big games coming up.”
The Arrows were scheduled to play at Twin Valley South on Friday, Jan. 19 then travel to Fenwick on Tuesday, Jan. 23.
Reach Eddie Mowen Jr. at 937-683-4061 and follow on X @emowenjr.
