Shawnee falls to Jonathan Alder in CBC Kenton Trail finale
SPRINGFIELD — The Shawnee High School boys basketball team’s quest for a Central Buckeye Conference Kenton Trail Division title fell just short for the third straight season.
Jonathan Alder outscored the Braves 17-4 in the final three minutes to earn a 51-40 victory on Friday nightand its fourth straight Kenton Trail Division crown.
Shawnee senior Zion Crowe scored 17 points as the Braves fell to 13-8 and 6-4 in the division, one game behind Jonathan Alder. The Braves have finished runner-up in the division the last three seasons.
“We’ve had a good year and we put ourselves in a position to be able to get a share of the league title,” siad Braves coach Chris Mcguire. “We knew tonight was going to come down to execution. JA is always solid, runs their (offense) well and takes advantage of mistakes. We felt good about it with three minutes left and it was a tie game. They executed down the stretch, got some easy baskets and we weren’t able to score some points. That’s kind of what they do, possession by possession execution.”
Pioneers junior Peyton Heiss had 23 points and senior Will Jackson added 12 for Jonathan Alder (138, 7-3).
The Braves jumped out to a 15-11 lead in the second quarter on a 3-pointer by junior Darian Dixon, but the Pioneers fought back to take an 18-15 lead on a 3 by Heiss. Shawnee tied the score at 22 on a 3-pointer by Crowe as time expired in the first half.
The Braves knew Jonathan Alder would do whatever it took to stop Crowe, the CBC’S leading scorer at 20.6 points per game. They worked hard to get open shots for other players in hopes it would open the floor for Crowe.
“We needed to hit some of those open shots to make them guard and extend on some of those other guys,” Mcguire said. “We just weren’t able to knock those down. They were good shots. We got good shots from a lot of guys and they just didn’t fall.”