CAMDEN —The Preble Shawnee boys have won three of their past five games — unfortunately for the Arrows those other two games have come against state-ranked Northridge.
The Arrows took on the state-ranked Polar Bears for the second time in as many weeks and Northridge continued to show how dominant they have been in the SWBL Buckeye League by defeating the Arrows, 76-41, on Friday, Feb. 5.
Head coach Jason Crider said his team’s effort was better this time around, and gave credit to his opposition for having a strong team.
Northridge created 21 steals in the game and jumped out to an early 21-8 lead after the first quarter.
By half time, the score was 36-14 with Northridge leading.
The Arrows came out strong in the second half and trimmed into the lead, but the sleeping bear had been awakened. Northridge exploded to close the game on a big run for a 76-41 final.
Thomas Buell scored 16 points and grabbed 10 rebounds in the contest.
On Tuesday, the Arrows defeated Bellbrook, 51-42, in what Crider called his team’s “most balanced game of the season.”
Bellbrook jumped out early on the hosting Arrows, grabbing a 13-9 lead after the first quarter. The Arrows responded to take a 24-23 lead into halftime.
Going into the fourth quarter, the Arrows led 39-34. As a team, the Arrows shot 18-28 from the free throw line to help seal an eventual 51-42 victory.
“That was a big win,” Crider said. “That was one of the few games we’ve had everyone healthy and playing on the same page. It was nice to see us execute our game plan and have everyone back. That’s a key win late in the year for us.”
Buell once again led with 14 points and 12 rebounds. Levi Lewis scored ten points and Joby Williams and Lane Conway each scored eight.
“I thought we did a really good job of getting the looks we wanted on offense and limited them to looks we wanted to limit them to on defense,” Crider said after the game. “I thought it was the best game of the year from top to bottom, in all aspects of the game.”
“We’ve got two more games — I’d love to go out and get 13 wins to end the regular season,” Crider said as the season winds down.
The Arrows play Middletown Madison with a chance to finish third in the SWBL Buckeye Division on Friday, Feb.12, and host Arcanum for Senior Night on Saturday, Feb. 13. The Arrows will play Brookville in the opening round of the OHSAA Sectional Tournament and are now 11-9 on the season.
