Sports
Athens Stays Perfect In League Play
By: Michael Somrak
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With the score 30-27 at halftime in favor of Athens, and both teams shooting poorly, it seemed as if this game was going to be decided by a small margin.
This would prove not to be the case, as Athens came out of the gate in the third quarter, going on a 14-3 run and outscored Nelsonville-York by 14 in the second half in their 64-47 win Friday night.
Ibi Watson started and finished this game strong. The first score of the game came off of an and-one dunk from Watson as he led Athens to a 20-10 lead in the first.
The Buckeyes, led by senior Josh Fayette, were not going to have much more of that in the first half. Fayette scored 12 first half points and helped cut the deficit to three going into halftime.
With both teams shooting around 35 percent from the field in the game, the two key factors in this win for Athens were sophomore Ibi Watson’s energy and second chance points.
Watson’s acrobatic plays throughout the game really sparked the second half run that allowed Athens to run away with this game.
Nelsonville-York just could not get anything going in the second half, as they only shot 29 percent from the field and were outrebounded by Athens 24-10.
Watson finished off the night with 22 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists and junior Joe Burrow added 12 points and 13 rebounds.
Fayette ended up with 16 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists for the Buckeyes.
With this win, Athens (13-3, 8-0 TVC) stays undefeated in TVC-Ohio play and extends its current winning streak to 6 games as the tournament draw approaches.
Nelsonville-York (10-8, 2-6 TVC) now stands at fifth in the TVC-Ohio and has lost 5 straight conference games against Athens. Nelsonville-York hasn’t beaten Athens in TVC-Ohio play since Jan. 6, 2012, in an overtime thriller.