Wildcats fall at Spartan Bowl

By John Estridge, Editor

CONNERSVILLE -- Franklin County played 27 minutes of good basketball Friday night at Connersville.

Unfortunately, the game was 32 minutes long.

During a five-minute stretch from the last minute in the third to the halfway point in the final quarter, the Spartans outscored the Wildcats 15-2, which resulted in a 57-47 Connersville victory. With the win, the Spartans improved to 11-10 while the Wildcats dropped to 3-16.

“Connersville plays hard, and I thought we matched their intensity except for the first four minutes in the fourth quarter,” FC freshman coach Drew Young said.

An old-fashioned three-point play by FC senior Cody Steele with 54 seconds remaining in the third quarter brought the Wildcats within three, 36-33. However, the Wildcats had a chance to tie or be down by one before the quarter ended. It did not turn out well as Spartan junior Charles Peterson put back a Spartan miss as the buzzer sounded, ending the third quarter.

Then, the home team went on a 12-2 run to take a 15-point lead with 3:45 remaining in the game, 50-35.

“It was down to three points, and then we gave up the offensive rebound at the end of the third, and that really hurt us,” Young said. “We just kind of lost our focus at the beginning of the fourth quarter. That was pretty much the game.”

FC coach Joe Neuman said it was a matter of fatigue as the Spartans had more bench strength. The Wildcats had but a half dozen players enter into the scoring column while the hosts had nine on their side of the ledger.

In the defensive side of the game, the Wildcats played well, taking on the multiple screens the Spartans threw up as part of their offense. It was designed to give them a little space to either cut to the basket or have a wide-open three.

“We were switching on defense,” Young said. “We prepared for it real hard all week. We just had those lapses.”

On the other end of the floor, the Wildcats were working the ball in for close-in work by senior center Kyle VanMeter or driving layups by Steele and fellow senior Ryan Bower. Steele finished with a game-high 17 points. VanMeter had 11 while Bower finished with 10 points. Bower, sophomore Kyle Ortman and VanMeter each finished with game-high six boards.

When Steele was not hitting hard-driving layups, he was drawing fouls, finishing with a seven-of-eight performance at the foul line.

“They were hedging out on screens pretty hard, and we countered that and were taking advantage of those opportunities,” Young said.

While FC minimized its turnovers with a dozen, only four in the first half, the Wildcats were shooting ice from the field, going just 3-of-21 (14 percent) from 3-point land.

FC kept fighting even after getting 15 down halfway through the fourth, fighting back to within 10 before the end of the game.

Peterson finished the game with a dozen points. Fellow junior Dakodah Carlin also had 12 points.

Connersville finished its season Tuesday night, Feb. 21, playing host to Greenfield Central and former Wildcat coach Josh Johnson. FC’s last game of the season is Friday at South Dearborn.