LINDEN — Tuesday evening at North Montgomery featured a battle of two teams looking to get back on the right track as the boy’s basketball season has now reached its final two weeks. The host Chargers welcomed the Clinton Central Bulldogs in a non-conference game. The Chargers came in off a Sagamore Conference loss to Frankfort last Friday while the Bulldogs had struggled to get much going all season with a 3-16 record.
Both teams treated the fans to a shootout as in the end the Bulldogs defeated the Chargers 73-67. The 73 points by the Bulldogs are their season high and it’s the most the Chargers have surrendered this season. Offensively the 67 points are the highest points scored by the Chargers since they scored 70 exactly three years ago in a win over Frankfort.
North Montgomery had the Bulldog lead down to 2-5 points multiple times throughout the game but just couldn’t get a single stop when they needed it. A Jarrod Kirsch three made it 59-56 in the fourth quarter, but in the final eight minutes, that’s as close as the home team got.
“We practice defense over and over and we just can’t seem to grasp it,” North Montgomery coach Chad Arnold said. “Defense is a want to type thing and we have to want to play good defense. We couldn’t guard and probably gave some guys career highs tonight. We played hard but we didn’t play smart.”
The visiting Bulldogs shot a blistering 30-53 (57%) from the floor including going 24-33 (73%) from two. After previously scoring 70 points against Western Boone back on Feb. 4, Tuesday marked the second time in the last four games that Clinton Central has eclipsed 70 or more points.
“We were really clicking tonight on that end of the floor,” Bulldogs coach Derek Davis said. “We were cutting with the purpose and taking it strong to the basket and when you do that good things can happen. We took advantage of our size with guys like Luke Davison who’s hard to guard off the dribble and Cole Davison is a force down low. We did a heck of job all around.”
Luke Davison led the Bulldogs with 21 points while Cole Davison added 20. Daiden Taulbee added 11, Troy Smith eight while both Max Adair and Lane Davis chipped in five each. Creed Mennon rounded out the scoring with three.
Jarrod Kirsch and Kelby Harwood both scored 21 for the Chargers in the loss. Ross Dyson scored eight, Gabe Shirar six, Drew Norman five, Nate McCoy four and Noah Hopkins two. The Chargers problem in the past offensively has been they haven’t been able to take enough shots. In Tuesday’s loss they went 25-57 (44%) from the floor and 11-28 (39%) from three. The offense was something that Arnold was pleased to see from his team.
“Kelby was really good about finding our shooters in the second half,” Arnold said. “He was able to find Jarrod who was hot shooting the ball tonight and we need that moving forward. That was good to see. All of our guys down low like Ross Dyson, Drew Norman, and Noah Hopkins gave great effort too. Noah just competes and overall I was proud of their effort on that end.”
The loss for the Chargers sees their record fall to 5-15 on the season. Clinton Central with the win improves to 4-16. North will be back in action on Friday when they conclude their Sagamore Conference slate against Tri-West. It will also be senior night for the Chargers. Clinton Central will host Traders Point also on Friday.
