Centerville beat Beavercreek again Tuesday in a battle for first place in the Greater Western Ohio Conference, but this time the Beavers put up a better fight in a 65-54 loss.
“Good fight, but we missed a lot of shots that we normally make, and we didn’t finish around the basket,” Beavers coach Isaiah Williams said. “We had our opportunities. We all know that if you miss on Centerville, you don’t get it back, and they’re going to capitalize.”
While the Beavers (12-3, 7-2 GWOC) were misfiring in the first half, Centerville junior guard Jamar Montgomery was sneaking around the basket behind Beavercreek’s zone defense. He wasn’t dressed in camo like the Beavercreek student section, but the 6-foot-3 left-hander may as well have been. He scored 14 of his team-high and career-high 17 points in the half to help the Elks (11-4, 8-1) to a 33-27 lead. The points were needed with leading scorer Jonathan Powell on the bench with two fouls for the final 6:49 of the half. Powell finished with 12 points, 10 below his league-leading average.
“Jamar did a good job of finding space on a baseline against the zone, and I thought our guys did a good job of getting it to the middle of the floor and then playing off of two feet where they could find things,” Cupps said. “We stayed under control, we found the open guy and Jamar did a really good job of finishing.”
Montgomery, who came in averaging 7.2 points, said his points were a result of he and his teammates doing their jobs well.
“I knew they would be unselfish when the time was right, and when I’m open they’d give me the ball,” Montgomery said. “Being behind everybody, watching the gaps seeing where I could move, moving off of my teammates to when they’re flashing middle gave them a lot of good distractions for me to be able to get open.”
The Elks took a 48-38 lead into the fourth quarter despite some offensive struggles. Baboucarr Njie, who had 16 points, scored twice late in the quarter to stretch the lead.
“Some of that’s their ball pressure bothered us,” Cupps said. “We had a lot of empty possessions, but we were pretty solid defensively throughout that stretch and got some stops to maintain a lead. It’s something we’ve just got to learn from. We’ve got a lot of guys handling the ball in those situations that haven’t been in those situations in that environment. And I’ve got to do a better job putting them in position to handle it and give them the space to be able to play.”
The Elks built the lead to 55-38 on Njie’s putback of an offensive rebound with 5:24 left. Then the Beavers showed the fight their coach spoke of cut their deficit to seven with 1:03 left. But the Elks cured themselves another turnover bug and finished off the Beavers with free throws and more good defense.
Isaiah-Michael Williams led the Beavers with 21 points and Kaden Ellerbe added 13. Coach Williams was pleased that the his team gave Centerville a much better challenge this time, but knows his team still needs to get better at a lot of things.
“You’ve got to pay more attention to detail because the win is in the details,” he said. “Especially when you’re playing Centerville, the win is in the details.”
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