Troy Scowden scored 10 of his team’s first 11 points to keep things close early and came up with a key put-back bucket in the final minutes to lift the Buckeye Valley boys basketball team to a 42-38 non-league win over visiting Delaware Hayes Saturday night.
After the Pacers’ Ryan Smudz and Barons’ Jake Radcliffe traded hoops, with Hayes hanging onto a one-point lead — 38-37 with 2:12 left — Owen Osborne picked up a steal near mid-court and was fouled. He missed the front end of the ensuing one-and-one opportunity, but Scowden cleaned up the miss and scored inside to give BV a lead it maintained the rest of the way.
After a stop at the other end, Scowden again came up with an offensive board on a missed free throw, this time setting up two successful tosses for Osborne to make it a 41-38 game with 32 seconds left.
The Pacers had a chance to get a little closer on their next trip down the floor, but missed the front end of a one-and-one, giving the ball back to the Barons, who all but sealed the deal when Jack Rotondo split a pair at the charity stripe with 6.4 seconds left.
Scowden poured in a game-high 21 points in the win while Osborne closed with eight and Rotondo chipped in seven, including a pair of clutch three-pointers in the fourth quarter.
Jesse Burris led Hayes with 18 points, 12 of which came in the second half, while Smudz finished with eight in the setback.
Olentangy 64, Olentangy Berlin 45
The Braves had their inside-outside game working Saturday as they won their second straight league game to start the season and handed the visiting Bears their second straight league loss.
Zach Wieging held things down in the paint, finishing with a game-high 19 points. Olentangy did plenty of damage from behind the arc as well as seven different players hit at least one three-pointer in the win.
The Braves started both halves well, outscoring the Bears 19-9 in the first quarter and 18-8 in the third. They also made all seven of their free throws.
Tavian James backed Wieging with 11 points while Luke Elmore added eight.
Austin Corley finished with a team-best 15 points for Berlin while Adrian Stone finished in double figures with 10.
GIRLS BASKETBALL
Big Walnut used offense to pull ahead early and defense to seal the deal late on the way to a 58-37 win over host Delaware Hayes Saturday night.
The Golden Eagles hit five three-pointers in the first half — two apiece from Abby Brown and Jordan Walters and another from Abbey Coleman — as they built a 34-23 lead by the break.
The defense took over after that as BW outscored Hayes 24-14 in the second half to smooth out the scoring summary.
Brown led the charge with a game-best 17 points while Walters added 16 and Avery Maxeiner finished with 10.
Hayes’ Alexis Amabile scored eight of her team-high 15 points in the first quarter, Myah Byers had nine and Sophie Midura finished with eight in the loss.
