Sports
Athens Finishes Regular Season On High Note
< < Back to athens-finishes-regular-season-high-noteThe Athens Bulldogs (18-4, 8-2 TVC-Ohio) entered Friday night’s game coming off a heartbreaking loss to the TVC-Ohio leading Vinton County Vikings. Fueled behind their two seniors on senior night, the Bulldogs were able to stomp all over the Alexander Spartans (5-17, 0-10 TVC-Ohio) in their final game of the season, defeating them 58-40.
Senior Jared Elmore had 16 points and six rebounds and senior Sawyer Summers added 11 points with three three-pointers in the Bulldogs 18-point victory.
“This night’s all about them,” Athens head coach Jeff Skinner said. “Our young talent gets a lot of attention, and they should, but Jared Elmore and Sawyer Summers are guys that have been playing in our basketball program since fourth grade. They’re incredibly important to our team.”
The Bulldogs led by as many as 28 points tonight and were able to utilize their strength and size advantage in the paint quite effectively to decimate the Spartan defense.
Alexander entered the half down 24-15 and held Athens guard Joe Burrow to zero points during that time. However, the third quarter has been a problem for the Spartans the entire season and the stout defense of the Bulldogs in that quarter exposed the youth of the Spartans.
The Bulldogs exploded in the third quarter, scoring 22 points while holding Alexander to 11 points and extending their lead to 20 points heading into the final period.
Burrow and freshman guard Ibi Watson accounted for only seven points apiece in the win, but their unselfishness opened up opportunities for Elmore, Summers and company. Sophomore forward Adam Leuhrman added 12 points and five rebounds for the Bulldogs on 6-of-7 from the floor.
Senior Braden Jones and freshman Seth Richardson led the Spartans with 11 points each, while Jones was able to bring down a game-high 13 rebounds. Despite having a significant size disadvantage, the Spartans were able to hang with the Bulldogs on the boards, being outrebounded 27-24.
As a team, the Spartans shot 14-of-50 from the field and committed 14 turnovers. The Bulldogs shot 26-of-51 from the floor while committing 17 turnovers.
The No. 9 seeded Spartans next game is against the No. 8 seeded Crooksville Ceramics in the Division III sectional playoffs Tuesday Feb. 19 at 8:00 p.m. at Athens High School.
The No. 2 seeded Bulldogs face off against the No. 7 seeded Gallia Academy Blue Devils Feb. 22 at 6:00 p.m. at Logan High School in the Division II sectional playoffs.