CAMDEN — The Preble Shawnee Arrows boys’ basketball team suffered its first loss of the season when the team hosted the Carlisle Indians on Tuesday, Dec. 15.
Shawnee suffered a 72-55 setback.
The Indians had four players score in double figures and held the Arrows to just 35 percent shooting on the night to hand the Arrows the loss.
Carlisle jumped out to an early lead in the first quarter and managed to hold the Arrows at bay the remainder of the game as they went on to a 17-point victory.
It was 23-12 after the first quarter. By halftime, the Indians’ lead was 12, at 41-29.
The Arrows managed to win the third quarter, but only trimmed the lead by a single point for a 54-43 Carlisle lead heading into the final frame.
Thomas Buell and Levi Lewis each scored 16 for the Arrows, but it was the starters from Carlisle who scored all but nine of the teams 72 points. Michael Morris led all scorers with 19 and Daulton Butler had 18 points and 10 rebounds.
“I thought we are lot better than losing to Carlisle by 17 points,” Shawnee head coach Jason Crider said. “But we didn’t expected to go undefeated, this loss was inevitable, what’s important is how we respond to it.”
On Friday, Dec. 18, Preble Shawnee responded to the loss and returned to its winning ways, defeating Dixie, on the road, 57-48.
Buell once again led the Arrows with 16 points and he also added ten rebounds in the contest.
The two teams played even throughout the game, as they were tied at the end of the first quarter and third quarter.
The Arrows used a 6-0 to start to the fourth quarter to finally gain separation from the host team.
Both teams found themselves struggling to score as the first three minutes of the final frame saw both teams go scoreless.
Lewis finally broke the scoring drought with a layup with just under five minutes to go to put the Arrows up 44-42.
Joby Williams then found Lewis with a pass through the Greyhound defense and the Arrows lead was 46-42 with just over four minutes to play.
Joey Bates then scored on a post move and the Arrows lead was six with 3:30 to play in the quarter. Dixie called a time out after Cody Grubb scored for the Greyhounds to cut the lead to 48-44.
After the timeout, Preble Shawnee expected full court pressure from Dixie and all five Arrows touched the ball before Bates found Buell for a lay-up and a perfectly executed press breaker stretched the lead back to six points.
“I told them during the timeout ‘we know they are going to press us’ and I told them to run our press breaker and we will be fine,” Crider said. “We run and drill for it and that was our press breaker to a tee.”
Grubb scored again and Kevin Ketring was sent to the line for Shawnee, sinking both free throws. Despite shooting just 12-of-21 from the free throw line in the game, the Arrows were 7-of-8 in the final three minutes of the contest with Williams and Lewis joining Ketring in making free throws.
Preble Shawnee picked up its fourth win in five tries.
Crider was happy with how his team responded after suffering its first loss of the season.
“Very solid road win, again it goes back to this team and their character, we had a tough loss to Carlisle. I was proud of the way we responded tonight against a good team.”
Grubb scored 26 for the Greyhounds.
Vince Bulach scored nine points including two important threes in the third quarter for the Arrows.
Williams scored seven points and led the team with five assists.
On Saturday, Dec. 19, Shawnee traveled to Xenia Christian and picked up a three point, non-conference victory, 61-58.
The Arrows are now 5-1 on the season and will host the Preble Shawnee Holiday Tournament on Tuesday, Dec. 29 and Wednesday, Dec. 30. The play Talawanda at 7:30 p.m., on the opening night.
