Circleville, Logan Elm Sweep Day 2 of Brad Morris Holiday Classic
Article presented by Kingston National Bank …
The second day of play in the Brad Morris Holiday Classic found Logan Elm and Circleville sweeping their respective matches with Teays Valley and Westfall Tuesday at Circleville High School. Here’s a recap of the action.
Girls: Logan Elm 53, Teays Valley 52 in Overtime
The opening game featured Logan Elm coming off an 80-39 victory over Westfall on Monday. The Vikings were still riding on a high from easily handing Circleville it’s first loss on the season, 51-34.
The Braves’ Kimmy Petty banked home a buzzer beating three-pointer to close out the first quarter. The shot lifted Logan Elm to a 11-10 lead. They went on to outscore Teays Valley 14-5 in and grabbed a 25-15 margin at halftime.
The Vikings rallied back to 42-40 with 3:55 left in regulation. Logan Elm appeared poised to be the victor until Kiki Ingram clamped down on a long rebound with Teays Valley’s Areyanna Karshner. Ingram was charge with a foul with 0.3 seconds on the clock. Karshner calmly sank the free throws to tie the game at 49-49, sending the game into overtime.
Petty knocked down another three for a 52-49 advantage with 2:35 remaining. Karshner pulled the Vikings back within 52-51 and Amelia Brumfield made one of two free throws to tie at 52-52 with 1:47 left. After the two exchanged scoreless possessions Ingram and Karshner tangled again, this time with 5-seconds left. Ingram hit the first shot to give the Braves all they needed for the 53-52 win.
Braves Head Coach Mike Schultz said it was a great way to cap a stretch of the schedule. “Us playing at Amanda Clearcreek on Saturday with the style of play we try to always portray, getting up and down the court and then yesterday coming out against Westfall… We’re gonna get back in the gym on Friday and Saturday. It’s time to start believing we have a good squad. It was neat to see us regroup (with 20 seconds left in OT) the look in some of the kids eyes, that was basically showing me ‘Coach, we got this. We’re ready to go.”
Logan Elm improved to 8-1 on the season and will head to Jackson Monday. Teays Valley is 7-2 and will face Centerville next Tuesday.
Boys: Logan Elm 71, Teays Valley 67
The Vikings opened the game similarly to their win over Circleville the night before, jumping out to a 9-2 lead, stretching that to a 17-9 margin through the first 8-minutes. Logan Elm’s Owen Russell dropped in a three-pointer to pull the Braves to 22-19. Teays Valley quickly climbed back on top by 13 when Lane Struckman hit a turnaround for a 34-22 margin at the half. The Braves scored four points to close the gap to 34-26 at the intermission. Then, Logan Elm’s Kelton Bennington out on a three-point clinic, hitting six 3’s, putting the Braves ahead 52-46 through three-periods. A 26-12 turnaround.
It took nearly 14-minutes, but the Vikings tracked down the Braves to climb in front 63-62 on a field goal by Brody Fields with 2:10 left in the game. Owen Russell answered with a triple putting Logan Elm ahead 65-63. Teays Valley ran out of time as the Braves earned the 71-67 final.
Logan Elm’s Nate Drospey was hoping to slow the pace on Teays Valley entering the game, but the Vikings set the tempo early forcing the Braves to respond. “That was our plan, to slow it down” Dropsey said after the game “really try to grind it out with those guys.Wen knew how skilled they are, they have a lot of fire power. It just wasn’t the game it turned into. I thought our kids did a really good job adjusting to the speed of it and knocked down some shots.”
“I was just getting’ in the zone” said Bennington after the game. “My teamsmates did a great job finding me and I was hot.That’s just good Logan Elm basketball right there and we were able to get the win.” Bennington led all scorers with 24-points.
That’s who Kelton is” said Dropsey. He’s a kid that can get it going and just absolutely strokes the three. He plays with a ton of confidence. He knows we as a staff and as a team trusts him that if he has an open look, let it go.” And he did just that.
Brady Neff was steady throughout the game to add consistency for the Braves, adding another 20-points. The Vikings were paced by Fields’ 20-points and Jayden Morrison’s 18.
Logan Elm is now 5-3 on the season and will host Chillicothe next Tuesday. Teays Valley evens its mark at 4-4 and will travel to Whitehall-Yearling next Monday.
Girls: Circleville 69, Westfall 37
It didn’t take long for the Lady Tigers to bounce back from Monday night’s loss at Teays Valley. Circleville pushed out to a 35-20 lead at halftime and finished with a 69-37 win.
Addison Edgington led Circleville with 22-points in the post, while Brooklyn Cramer tallied 14 and Maddie Blakeman netted 11 more. Prior to suffering a leg injury last season, Cramer handled the point guard duties for Circleville. The sophomore says she’s beginning to feel like herself again. “The first few games (this season) I didn’t really fell like myself” said Cramer. “But I feel like I’m getting back into it every game.”
The Tigers got back to their style of play after being upset by Teays Valley the game before. Coach Josh Blakeman was happy to get the transition game going again, something the Vikings had limited Monday. “We got up and down the court a little bit tonight, got back on the track a little bit, but some silly turnovers and things like that, we’ve got to clean up… we got Addison going tonight, got Brooklyn – that game she gave us, she’s a huge piece for us.”
Westfall was led by Adrian Moehl’s 9-points while Kendall Moehl, Rylan Baughman and Makenzie Cook had 8-points each. Mustangs Coach Justin Hudnell said despite being a young team, they’re coming along. “They’re getting there” said Hudnell. “Like I’ve told them each time in, we have to stay focused and play very physical defense. And it’s coming along. From last night to tonight, you could tell our focus was a lot better and we were able to slow ourselves down and pace it out.”
Circleville is 7-1 and heads to Unioto on Monday. Westfall is 3-7 and gets back to action on January 2nd at Grandview Heights.
Boys: Circleville 62, Westfall 35
In the nightcap, Circleville used a 22-2 run to post a 40-18 halftime lead to bounce back from their emotional loss to Teays Valley Monday night.
Kole Nungester scored 21-points for the Tigers while Circleville used its size inside with Ed Kirk hitting for 15, Riley Jenkins for 11 while Blain Fowler and Auri Travis combined for another 10.
Westfall was led by Bryan Craig’s 11-points.
“We knew Westfall was going to come in here and play hard” said Tigers Coach Evan Callihan “and they’re a team that can score with the basketball. They’re streaky.” The Mustangs had closed within 19-14 in the first quarter before Circleville hit its stride. “We were strugglin’ to guard them… we looked a little tired early on in that first quarter, but I thought our guys responded and we finished that quarter strong and second quarter I think was 21-4. Our guys came in focused to the shoot around today and I thought they turned the page and showed a lot of maturity tonight.” Circleville, 6-2, is off until January 3rd when they travel to undefeated Miami Trace. Westfall, 2-8, will also wait until 2026 to get back on the floor with Grove City Christian on the 3rd.
