It was a match-up of familiar foes, both featuring lineups without a lot of varsity experience as the Miami Trace Panthers played host to the Logan Elm Braves at the Panther Pit Tuesday night.
Miami Trace led the entire game, right up until Logan Elm’s only senior, Cody Anderson, was fouled and went to the line for a one and the bonus with his team trailing by one point and 3.4 seconds to play in the game.
Anderson calmly sank both free throws.
Miami Trace was able to get a shot off somewhere between the three-point line and half-court at the buzzer, but it was no good, giving Logan Elm a 59-58 victory.
Both teams are now 1-1 on the season.
Miami Trace senior Darby Tyree was the game’s leading scorer with 24 points. He had a double-double with 14 rebounds.
Junior Austin Brown scored 15 for Miami Trace and pulled down 11 rebounds.
Senior Cameron Carter scored 12 for Miami Trace.
Anderson was Logan Elm’s leading scorer with 16 points to go along with six rebounds.
Junior Evan Huffman scored 16 points and led his team with eight rebounds.
Freshman Jeremy Wietelmann scored nine points for Logan Elm and freshman Jason Sailor also tallied nine points.
The Panthers led 10-9 at the end of the first quarter and 26-21 at halftime.
Both teams had their highest-scoring quarter of the game in the third, as Logan Elm scored 21 to Miami Trace’s 20 to put the score at 46-42 after three quarters of action.
The teams traded scores to open the fourth quarter.
Tyree had a slam dunk for the Panthers and a tip-in later by the 6-6 senior gave the Panthers a 52-48 lead with 3:48 remaining in the game.
Huffman converted the old-fashioned three-point play to pull the Braves to within one, 52-51, with 3:38 to go.
Brown rebounded his own missed shot and put it back up and in for a 54-51 Miami Trace lead.
Anderson hit a three-point shot that tied the game with 1:55 left to play.
Brown scored and was fouled, converting the free throw to give the Panthers a 57-54 lead.
Logan Elm had only been charged with three team fouls, so they had to get busy fouling to stop the clock and send the Panthers to the free throw line.
The Panthers hit one of two at the line with 25.7 seconds remaining for a 58-54 lead.
Anderson hit another three-pointer, one of seven the Braves made on the night, to pull Logan Elm to within one at 58-57.
The Panthers were fouled again and went to the line for another one and one opportunity with 7.3 seconds to go. The front end was missed and Logan Elm began to bring the ball down the floor when a foul was called on Miami Trace.
With 3.4 seconds remaining, Anderson hit both ends of the one and one.
A shot at the buzzer by Miami Trace was no good, leaving the Braves on the winning side of a 59-58 score.
“When you have a group that doesn’t have a lot of experience at the varsity level closing out games, it’s hard for them to hold leads,” Miami Trace head coach Rob Pittser said. “We had multiple-possession leads in the second half. We have to figure out a way then to close out games.
“By that I mean, we have to take care of the ball and get stops on defense,” Pittser said. “We went through a stretch there where we didn’t do those two things.
“The good news is, we built a lead, which is very encouraging,” Pittser said. “The next thing for us is, after we’ve built a lead, how do we continue to maintain that lead by taking care of the ball and getting stops late in the game. We’ll have to figure that out as a group and it will be a process.”
“We were behind the entire game,” Logan Elm head coach Doug Stiverson said. “They were up by as many as 10 points in the third quarter.
“I’m just proud of the way our guys hung in there,” Stiverson said. “Our kids kept giving themselves a chance. It wasn’t a pretty game; it was sloppy at times, but our kids hung in there and made some big plays.
“I thought Evan Huffman tonight was huge for us,” Stiverson said. “He did great things for us on both ends of the floor.
“Cody Anderson, our only senior, plays extremely hard,” Stiverson said. “To step up and hit those two free throws at the end; it was nice to have your senior step up and hit those two free throw.”
Miami Trace had 31 team rebounds (eight on the offensive end) to 28 for Logan Elm (four offensive).
Both teams had 15 turnovers.
Miami Trace shot 46 percent from the floor (27 of 58) to 40 percent for the Braves (20 of 49).
However, Logan Elm made seven three-point field goals to one for Miami Trace.
At the free throw line, Logan Elm made 12 of 13 for 92 percent to three of six for 50 percent for the Panthers.
Logan Elm opens Mid-State League play Saturday at Liberty Union.
Miami Trace begins play in the Frontier Athletic Conference Friday at home against Chillicothe.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
MT 10 16 20 12 — 58
LE 9 12 21 17 — 59
MIAMI TRACE — Cameron Carter 6-0-12; Matt Fender 0-0-0; Austin Mathews 1-0-2; Dakota Bolton 2-0-4; Brett Lewis 0-0-0; Heath Cockerill 0-1-1; Austin Brown 7-1-15; Darby Tyree 10 (1)-1-24. TOTALS — 26 (1)-3-58. Free throw shooting: 3 of 6 for 50 percent. Three-point field goal: Tyree. Combined field goal shooting: 27 of 58 for 46 percent. Three-point field goal shooting: 1 of 11 for 9 percent. Rebounds: 31 (8 offensive). Assists: 18. Steals: 8. Blocks: 4. Turnovers: 15. Personal fouls: 14. Bench points: 6. Second chance points: 10. Points off turnovers: 14.
LOGAN ELM — Evan Huffman 4 (2)-1-15; Jeremy Wietelmann 2-5-9; Isaac Ward 3-0-6; Cody Anderson 2 (2)-6-16; Jason Sailor 0 (3)-0-9; Gabe Chalfin 2-0-4; Luke Baldwin 0-0-0. TOTALS — 13 (7)-12-59. Free throw shooting: 12 of 13 for 92 percent. Three-point field goals: Sailor, 3; Huffman, 2; Anderson, 2. Combined field goal shooting: 20 of 49 for 40 percent. Three-point field goal shooting: 7 of 23 for 30 percent. Rebounds: 28 (4 offensive). Assists: 12. Steals: 8. Blocks: 0. Turnovers: 15. Personal fouls: 11. Bench points: 4. Second chance points: 5. Points off turnovers: 17.
