YELLOW SPRINGS — The host Yellow Springs Bulldogs simply ran outta gas.
Playing from behind for all but two minutes of the contest, Yellow Springs chipped away at Dayton Christian’s lead, pulled to within three points (21-18) with 2:24 left in that third quarter, and then … poof!
All the energy expended in defensing the Warriors and limiting them to those 21 points through almost three quarters of play, it all caught up to the Bulldogs.
The legs went away.
The Bulldogs’ shots stopped falling.
And Dayton Christian ran away for a 44-25 Metro Buckeye Conference road win, Jan. 8 in the Yellow Springs High School gym.
YS coach Bobby Crawford appeared encouraged with his team’s effort. He’s just patiently waiting for his youthful bunch to put everything together.
“When you’re playing so well at the varsity level, I think it caught up to them,” Crawford said of his team. “I mean, when you don’t score for stretches at a time, it affects our defense. We missed a lot of open shots, but we’re playing ‘D. What’d we hold them to, 44 points?
“We’re playing defense. … but they collected some garbage points late in the game. We’re coming along, but you can’t win by scoring 20 points.”
Three Bulldogs scored in Tuesday’s Metro Buckeye Conference contest. Andrew Clark accounted for most of those points, tying for game-high honors with 14. De Andre Cowen had been shutout in the first half, but finished with seven points; and Trey Anderson added four points.
Dayton Christian’s Seth Griswold tied Clark for high honors with 14 points of his own. Anton Webb played in his first game in a month and made his presence felt inside, scoring 11 points, and Devin Dreier finished with 10. After a tough 2018 portion of the Warriors’ schedule where they went 1-6 overall, coach J.T. Holliday proudly proclaimed his team undefeated in 2019.
“Hey, we’re 2-and-0 right now,” he laughed. “The guys started working hard, especially in that final quarter. On defense, getting lots of pressure and getting in those passing lanes, that’s really what we were trying to do. And then we started getting some good scoring runs, that was what we needed.
“… The guys were excited to have Anton back, too. He’s had mono and has been out for a month, and so I think everybody had an extra gear for that fourth quarter.”
Dayton Christian is now 3-6 overall, 2-4 in the MBC. The Warriors are back in action Friday, Jan. 11 for a 7:30 p.m. conference road contest in Springfield against Emmanuel Christian.
Yellow Springs (1-8, 1-5 MBC) has now lost six straight. Tuesday’s game was the third straight contest inwhich the Bulldogs scored less than 30 points in a game. The team returns to the YSHS gym for a 7 p.m. contest on Friday, Jan. 11 against Jefferson Township (2-9, 2-4 MBC).
