Circleville 56 Westfall 54 a final

[pfloyd]

Circleville 56
Westfall 54 a final

... took the 40 minute drive to Roundtown Friday night to catch 2 games - the opener was between Athens and New Hope Christian ... wanted to see New Hope as they have given MANY SE District teams good games getting W's and L's but seemingly always "IN" the games ... Athens I had seen at the Warren Clash at the Coliseum the opening weekend of the season, the Bulldogs were undermanned due to a couple players being suspended - I wanted to see AHS at full strength to get a better feel for the top teams (in my mind in the TVC - Alexander/Vinton County) ... New Hope 56 Athens 41 a final ... the night cap/championship game between the SVC - Westfall and MSL - Circleville ... Coach Carpenter's Tigers have been moving up the rankings/ playing the win one lose one game (.500) on the season while Westfall has been getting "solid" - looking to be the #2 team in the SVC behind Zane Trace ... a great atmosphere in Roundtown! fullhouse! great music! loud crowd! all of the "fixin's" for an outstanding matchup - one team trying to prove they are better than a .500 team, the other wanting to keep the solid play rolling with momentum going into the 2023 side of our pocket schedules ...

... in Holiday tournaments you just want "good games" in the championship game ... "good game"? - closely played, tight for 32 minutes , high scoring both teams ... those of us in the Cheap Seats got the game behind door #2 - tight for 32 minutes ... each team traded buckets throughout the opening quarter ... for the Tigers of Coach Carpenter 6-3 jr swing man Briley Cramer showed us part of his repertoire of skills with a pair of 2 pointers in the paint and drilling a deep triple for 7pts ... Cramer got support with buckets from PG fr. Joe Wray, Ian Warden and 6-5 freshman Ed Kirk ... for the Mustangs of Coach Meister Blaec Bugher drained one of the 2 Mustang treys in the qtr. along with a 2 pter plus one (6 pts) / senior guard Casey Cline added a three ball from behind the arc while starters Brody Clark/Seth Gifford each added a deuce to round out the Westfall scoring ... each team had a turnover apiece ... CHS going 1/4 from downtown while WHS went 2/5 ... Westfall 13 Circleville 13 after one ... neither team looked to get separation as each matched the others moves on the court ... the 2nd period had Cramer for Circleville continue his consistency in being able to seemingly get to rim anytime he wanted adding 5pts/Warden & Drew Thornsley added 2 points / 6-4 jr. in the post Slater Search stepped out to knockdown a 3 ball (3pts) his first points of the night finished the Tiger scoring for the half ... Westfall kept pace behind the guard tandem of Clark and Cline ... each adding a three pointer in the quarter ... Casey Clark 5pts/Brody Cline 4 pts ... the Mustangs went 1/4 from the FT line in the quarter - a trend that played big in the outcome of the game ... Circleville 25 Westfall 22 at the intermission ... as a fan of basketball you like to see both teams play "clean" games - few turnovers, tough D without a lot of fouls ... through the opening 16 minutes we got just that ... the Mustangs with outstanding guard play had but 1 turnover in the first 2 periods while the Tigers who left the ballhandling up to freshman Joe Wray were turned over 4 times thru 2 qtrs. ... each team played 7 players ... neither team could get separation maintaining 1 possession spreads thru 2 ... the Mustangs seemed to come out of the locker room with more energy as Brody Clark opened the 3 qtr dropping a 3 ball, then getting a strip steal for a transition bucket, a Westfall 5-0 run to open the quarter and force a CHS timeout 25-27 Mustangs ... game on ... defense was the norm in the 3rd as the Mustangs could only add 7 points after that opening :38 second 5-0 run ... Cline adding 2 points, Henry Barnes got in the scoring column with 3 points, Jeremiah Layton came in off the bench to get 2 pts on the block ... the Tigers took the blow starting the quarter, behind Cramer's 3 pter to answer the MHS run, giving the Tigers back the lead 28-27 ... CHS was able to maintain the lead in the 3rd - Cramer with 6pts/Wray got to the rim on a couple of baseline drives (4pts) ... Search add 1/2 from the line ... Circleville 36 Westfall 34 end of 3 ... tight game, good defense, turnovers hadn't hurt either team ... the 4th was just as evenly matched - at least in the end - as both teams had their best scoring quarters of game as each dropped 20 points in the period ... thru the opening 2 plus minutes of the 4th the teams traded buckets with Westfall getting the lead at 40-39 with 5:18 on the clock ... at 1:49 on the game clock Westfall had "stretched" the lead to 48-45 ... a Brody Clark triple gave the Mustangs what looked like the lead for good at 51-45 at 1:14 ...Cramer with a drive to the rim & finish 51-47 MHS ... Cline for MHS added a FT ... 52-47 MHS :48.1 ... Preston Hulse drained his only bucket of the game/a 3 ball for Circleville 52-50 MHS ... missed front end of the 1&1 by the Mustangs ... miss by CHS at the rim ... big turnover by the Mustangs ... Cramer hard drive to the rim for 2 pts for the tie 52-52 ...Cramer was fouled on the shot making it an & 1 ... timeout CHS ... Cramer a make on the FT ... 16.5 on the clock 53-52 Circleville ... Bugher for the Mustangs was fouled with 3.9 on the clock ... Bugher drained both FTs 54-53 Mustangs with the lead ... side line pass off of the inbounds pass - tipped out on the CHS side of the court ... 1.8 on the clock ... inbounds pass to Slater Search on the sideline ... a well contested jumper from 30 ft by the 6-4 junior - good at the buzzer ! ... THAT IS HOW A CHAMPIONSHIP GAME SHOULD PLAY OUT!!! ... the scoring in the final quarter - for Westfall Bugher 6pts/Cline 5pts/Barnes 4pts/Clark 3pts/Brydan Gail off the bench for 2pts ... for Circleville Cramer 10 pts/Search 5pts/Hulse 3/Ed Kirk 2 pts ... Circleville 56 Westfall 54 a final ...

Pfloyd's official "UN-official" Napkin Stats - Westfall

Scoring ... Casey Cline 15, Brody Clark 14, Blaec Bugher 12, Henry Barnes 7, Bryden Gail 2, Jeremiah Layton 2
3 Pointers ... 6/17 ... Brody Clark 3, Casey Cline 2, Blaec Bugher 1
FTs ... 8/16
TOs ... 5
PnP ... 11 fgs/ 22 points in the paint
PnT ... 1 fg/2 points in transition
Pbk ... 1 fg/2 points on putback buckets

Pfloyd's official "UN-official" Napkin Stats - Circleville

Scoring ... Briley Cramer 28, Slater Search 9, Joe Wray 6, Ed Kirk 4, Ian Warden 4, Drew Thornsley 2
3 Pointers ... 5/15 ... Slater Search 2, Briley Cramer 2, Preston Hulse 1
FTs ... 7/10
TOs ... 10
PnP ... 15 fgs/ 30 points in the paint
PnT ... 1 fg/ 2 points in transition
Pbk ... 2 fgs/ points on putback buckets

[Roger Mink]

Great breakdown as usual Pfloyd. Fantastic game. Free throw line was the difference for my Mustangs. Even as the heart breakin 3 went in, I was standing, smiling, clapping. Nobody deserved to lose. Circleville made every needed play down the stretch to deserve the win.

[danicalifornia]

Really good game. Like posted above, the free throw shooting was a killer for the Mustangs, especially out of typically reliable shooters.

Circleville made some huge plays and Cramer was awesome for the Tigers.

[Ironman92]

Great game…great highlight ending

Free throws beat Westfall

[pfloyd]

Looking BEYOND the 2022-23 season, Circleville is going to be "a player" in the rankings next season - 6 of Coach Carpenters first 7 players will be back ... jr. Briley Cramer IS outstanding - multi-dimensional , 6-3 size/6-8 length, outstanding at both ends of the floor ... the Tigers bring back 6-3/6-5/6-4/6-2 to go with a freshman pg who averages 10+ dimes per game/holds the CHS for dimes in one game - with 14 assists 3 games ago ... he's learning, needs to KEEP the REST of the team involved at times, run the offense as opposed to "being the offense" BUT he has lots of upside as a freshman ... I liked what I saw from the Tigers ... this season? last night is an indication they can play with the best of teams ... they have played as a .500 team thus far - finding consistency will be a goal for the remainder of the season ... with consistency for 32 minutes will come W's for the Tigers THIS season ... don't sleep on the Tigers! THIS season ...