GRANDVIEW HEIGHTS — The Washington Blue Lions played their penultimate regular season game for 2018-19 at Grandview Heights High School against the Bobcats Thursday, Feb. 14.
Grandview bolted out to a 20-9 first quarter led en route to a 69-40 victory.
The loss for Washington breaks a string of several close wins in the last many games.
Luke Lachey was the leading scorer for the Bobcats with 22 points.
Brian Collier had 16 points.
Five different players had at least one of the team’s seven three-point field goals.
Grandview Heights won the game without making a free throw (0 of 2 from the line).
Senior Richie Burns led the Blue Lions with 12 points and senior Evan Upthegrove had 11 points.
Washington was without junior Garitt Leisure and senior Omar Porter.
“We struggled to score in the half court and they do a great job of not turning the ball over against pressure,” Washington head coach Connor Scott said. “We also struggled to get stops which allowed them to set up defensively. (Our) goal now is to get everyone healthy for tournament time.”
Washington is now 14-7 overall and will play at McClain High School in Greenfield Saturday with the j-v game starting at 6 p.m.
Chillicothe previously clinched the Frontier Athletic Conference title with a record of 9-1.
Washington is 6-3 in the FAC.
Jackson finished 6-4 and McClain is 5-4, so, a win by Washington would put the Blue Lions in sole possession of second place. A McClain win would create a three-way tie for second place in the conference.
Tournament tickets
The Blue Lions will play Unioto for a Sectional championship at Southeastern High School Friday, Feb. 22 at 8:30 p.m.
Tickets will be on sale next week at the high school (enter the school at the gymnasium entrance) from 8-11 a.m. and from 1-3 p.m.
Tickets are $5 and the school gets to keep 25 percent of the proceeds from tickets it sells.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
W 9 10 14 7 — 40
GH 20 14 17 18 — 69
WASHINGTON — Evan Upthegrove 4 (1)-0-11; Miguel O’Flaherty 2-2-6; Blaise Tayese 2-0-4; Rishaun Burns 0-0-0; Karson Runk 0 (1)-0-3; Brice Cartwright 0-0-0; Eli Lynch 0-0-0; Drew Moats 2-0-4; Richie Burns 4 (1)-1-12; Ethan Rogers-Wright 0-0-0; Mitchell Lotz 0-0-0. TOTALS — 14 (3) -3-40. Free throw shooting: 3 of 4 for 75 percent. Three-point field goals: Upthegrove, Runk, Burns.
GRANDVIEW HEIGHTS — Brian Collier 5 (2)-0-16; Aaron Ciucione 1 (2)-0-8; Maury Day 5 (1)-0-13; Lance Tranes 0 (1)-0-3; Kyle Casey 0-0-0; Johnny Herlihy 0-0-0; Glenn Gribbs 1 (1)-0-5; Luke Lachey 11-0-22; Grant Culberson 1-0-2. TOTALS — 24 (7)-0-69. Free throw shooting: 0 of 2. Three-point field goals: Collier, 2; Ciucione, 2; Day, Tranes, Gribbs.
