CEDARVILLE — As Greeneview junior Mason Schneider went, so did his Rams team, in Tuesday’s 59-37 road romp over Cedarville High.
Schneider scored 18 of his game-high 22 points in the first half, but by halftime Greeneview had a 30-17 lead and was well in control of the Ohio Heritage Conference battle with Greene County foe Cedarville. The 6-foot-7 junior unofficially recorded four blocks and snared seven rebounds as well.
“It’s never easy to win a game on the road, it’s never easy to win a game in the OHC, and it’s never easy to win at Cedarville,” Greeneview coach Kyle Fulk said. “The cool part as a coach is that you never have to come up with some kind of a great pre-game speech to get these guys ready to go. They knew it was Cedarville, so they were ready to go.”
After Greeneview’s Kollyn Brooks tied the contest at 2-all on a shot from the left baseline, Schneider scored the next 10 Greeneview points as part of a 12-3 Rams first-quarter run. With Ethan Bradds on the sideline with an undisclosed injury that Fultz said required season-ending injury, Schneider has had to take on more of the load.
On Tuesday, he carried the load with ease.
“Mason was big tonight. Recently, we’ve gotten off to some slow starts. But the way he played early was just what we needed. … That was a great start from him. He’s a guy with the skills and abilities to score, and that really helped us out. I think you saw how he helped everyone else, when Cedarville started double-teaming him in the second half. It opened up some scoring opportunities for some other guys on our team,” Fultz said.
Kollyn Brooks scored nine of his 14 points in the second half, Blake Steward wound up with seven points and Gabe Caudill had six for Greeneview (13-6 overall, 8-3 OHC). Fultz said Greeneview played one of its better overall team efforts of the season. Cedarville coach Ryan Godlove agreed.
“Greeneview played really well this game. With him losing Bradds, I think they’re playing really well without him. Kyle’s done a nice job of putting that team back together. They played a really good game tonight. Schneider got them rolling, then when we tried to double him up, they had a lot of other players who stepped up for them. As a team, they played really well tonight,” Godlove said.
Colby Cross led Cedarville (5-14, 2-9 OHC) with a 10-point evening. Mason Cross finished with nine points, but was held scoreless in the second half, and Seth Salisbury was next with six points.
Cedarville stays home for a 7:30 p.m. Friday Feb. 10 contest against OHC foe London Madison Plains. Greeneview also has a home game on Friday. The Rams will host OHC opponent South Charleston Southeastern at 7:30 p.m.