By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
It was an up and down last week for Coach Josh Arey and his Peebles Indians. After wins over Ross County Christian and West Union extended the Tribe’s winning streak to nine games, they had a chance to clinch a share of the small school title of the Southern Hills Athletic Conference if the streak went to 10 in a Saturday night trip to Fairfield for their final conference game of the regular season.
Coming off a 30-point victory at West Union on Friday night, the Indians were flying high as they traveled to the Lion’s Den with just two league losses on their ledger, the same number as Fayetteville, who had completed their conference schedule with an 11-2 mark. A win for Peebles would have meant a share of the small school crown as the two teams split their two regular season meetings.
On Friday night in West Union, the Indians led from wire-to-wire, taking an early 7-2 advantage after a three-pointer from sophomore guard Bo Johnson, who would go on to lead all scorers with 24 points. The lead stretched to 14-6 after another Johnson triple plus his steal and score, and the Tribe continued to build the advantage, going up 23-8 on a Connor Gross three-ball, followed by a putback score from Keegan Puckett and two Grady Knechtly free throws. The final bucket of the first quarter came from West Union’s Logan Caldwell but he and the Dragons were already staring at a 13-point deficit.
Caldwell opened the second stanza with a bucket on the Dragon’s first possession, only to see Peebles get four straight, one basket coming on a perfect lob in transition from Josh McClary to Paxton Ryan for an easy lay-in. Caldwell continued to be the only West Union offense, picking up an old fashioned three-point play at the 6:29 mark to make it 30-17.
Moments later, the home team showed some more spark with a 6-0 run, consecutive baskets from Brylee Mills, Billy Flaugher and Tegan Knox . The Indians answered with five straight that included another Johnson trey, but the Dragons responded with five of their own to end the first half, the final three coming on a Knox three-ball. When all that dust settled, Peebles took a 39-28 lead into the intermission.
Coach Arey was likely not too happy with his team’s second quarter performance and most certainly let his team hear that in the locker room and the message must have gotten through as the Indians opened the third quarter with a huge 14-1 run to put the game out of reach. Included in that run were a pair three-point baskets from McClary and scores on their first five possessions of the third period. That big run left the Peebles lead at 53-29, before West Union’s Caldwell converted another three-point play to slow down the visitors’ onslaught.
Nothing was going to slow down Peebles’ McClary, however, as he drilled two more three-pointers before the third quarter ended, the final one coming at the buzzer and increasing his team’s lead out to 61-36.
Again the sleeping Dragon woke up as the final period began, the home team starting on an 8-2 run, getting three-point goals from Tyren Pennington and Tegan Knox, only to see the Indians answer with a game-defining 13-0 run, holding West Union scoreless until inside of a minute left in the game. In that final Peebles burst, McClary was fouled on a three-point attempt and sank all three free tosses while Johnson added a basket “and one” as the Indians’ lead ballooned to 76-44. West Union’s Jake Thompson recorded the game’s final basket, accounting for the final 30-point difference.
“Winning on the road in the SHAC is always difficult and we know the West Union kids play extremely hard,” said Coach Arey in his postgame radio interview. “Our kids have had games this year played the same way as tonight and I felt like we got away from our game there in the second quarter and they made us play their game but we were able to come out in the third quarter and lock down defensively.”
“West Union plays hard and they have shooters and length inside and their record isn’t indicative of how they can be.”
The victorious Tribe was paced by a trio of players in double figures- Bo Johnson with 24, Josh McClary with 19 and Keegan Puckett with 10.Right on the verge of double figures was Connor Gross with 9. The sharpshooting Indians drilled nine three-point baskets in the victory and went 11 for 14 from the charity stripe.
“We’ve got guys who can put the ball in the hole and it’s a nice mix and hard to defend,” added Coach Arey. “They accept whatever their role is on that particular night and it’s a big time luxury for us.”
West Union (3-17) was led by 16 points from Logan Caldwell with Tegan Knox also hitting double figures with 10.
Box Score
Peebles
23 16 22 15 —76
West Union
10 18 8 10 —46
Peebles (76): Sims 2 0-0 4, Knechtly 2 4-6 8, Gross 4 0-0 9, Johnson 8 4-5 24, Ryan 1 0-0 2, McClary 6 3-3 19, Puckett 5 0-0 10, Team 29 11-14 76.
W. Union (46): Pennington 1 1-2 4, Thompson 1 0-0 2, Knox 5 0-0 12, Flaugher 2 0-0 4, Mills 4 0-0 8, Caldwell 7 2-4 16, Team 20 3-6 46.
Three-Point Goals:
Peebles (9)- Gross 1, Johnson 4, McClary 4
W. Union (3)- Knox 2, Pennington 1
Riding high after their ninth consecutive win, the Indians made the trek to Leesburg on Saturday night for a rescheduled makeup game with the Fairfield Lions, with a win securing the Tribe a share of the SHAC small school championship. Peebles and Fairfield met earlier in the season, with the Indians squeezing out an overtime win so there were high expectations for another thriller on Saturday night.
Unfortunately for the visiting Indians, and for whatever reason, they were just never able to find any rhythm or flow on Saturday night as the Lions controlled the action for the majority of the contest. Fairfield led 18-12 after the first quarter and then taking advantage of Peebles miscues, increased that margin to 34-21 by halftime.
After the break, the Indians sharpened their game a bit and began a comeback attempt. slicing the Fairfield lead down to 39-33 after a Johnson three-pointer and a bucket by Ryan but that momentum was short-lived as the Lions answered with a 9-0 run and by the end of the third quarter had increased their advantage to 49-36.
IN the early going of the fourth quarter, the Tribe had numerous opportunities to dig into the Fairfield lead, but could just never seen to cash them in and behind the hot shooting of Broday Smith, the Lions took a 20-point lead at 64-44 and though the Indians got within nine with1:10 left on three-pointers from McClary and Colyn Sims, the Lions were able to hang on down the stretch and hand the Indians the devastating loss by a final count of 71-60.
The loss left the Indians with a final conference record of 10-3, finishing one game behind Fayetteville (11-2). The Tribe stands with an overall record of 17-3 with one regular season game remaining, a February 21 makeup game at Racine Southern.
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