Ellinwood Preseason Tournament
BOYS
Friday
Sterling 51, Ellinwood 37
STERLING
Jaderston 0 0-0 0, Galyon 0 0-0 0, Lott 2 0-2 6, Proffitt 0 0-0 0, Engelland 0 2-2 2, DeWerff 0 0-0 0, Humphreys 0 0-0 0, Patterson 1 3-4 5, Walton 4 1-2 9, Gellerman 0 0-0 0, Maxwell 3 2-2 8, Oden 5 0-0 10, Bennet 4 2-4 11. Totals 19 10-16 51.
ELLINWOOD (1-3)
Corbett 3 5-8 12, C. Clawson 0 0-0 0, Blakeslee 4 4-8 14, Ringering 0 0-0 0, Hayes 0 0-0 0, K. Clawson 1 3-5 5, Christianson 0 0-2 0, Goering 3 0-0 6. Totals 11 11-23 37.
Sterling 15 15 10 11 — 51
Ellinwood 6 9 6 16 — 37
Three-point goals — Sterling 3 (Lott 2, Bennet 1); Ellinwood 3 (Blakeslee 2, Corbett 1).
Thursday
Chase 54, Ellinwood 40
CHASE
Brady 4 6-12 15, Clark 7 7-9 22, Gilmore 0 0-0 0, Oberle 2 2-4 6, VanAvery 0 0-0 0, Ray 2 3-4 7, S. Root 0 0-2 0, Hendricks 1 2-12 4, Linke 0 0-0 0. Totals 16 20-43 54.
ELLINWOOD (1-2)
Corbett 3 6-10 13, C. Clawson 1 0-2 2, Isern 0 2-2 2, Blakeslee 1 4-6 6, Ringering 1 2-4 4, Ward 0 0-0 0, Yellowolf 0 0-0 0, Hayes 0 1-6 1, K. Clawson 1 0-0 2, Christianson 0 0-0 0, Goering 4 2-3 10.
Totals 11 17-33 40.
Chase 10 16 13 15 — 54
Ellinwoo 13 7 14 6 — 40
Three-point goals — Chase 2 (Brady 1, Clark 1); Ellinwood 1 (Corbett 1).
ELLINWOOD — Kale Clawson put together five points and Kyle Blakeslee hit two 3-pointers in the fourth quarter, but the Sterling High School boys’ basketball team was already too far ahead for Ellinwood to catch up.
The Eagles finished strong but lost to the Black Bears, 51-37.
“Going out there, with the rough loss we had last night,” Eagles head coach Shane Duncan said, “it’s very impressive with the lack of experience with our kids, to be able to put that behind them and come out against an excellent team and give the type of effort they did.”
Ellinwood, which measures its tallest player at 6-foot-3, had not answer for Sterling’s 6-4 post players Guy Oden and Austin Maxwell, who combined for 18 points.
“I know that Sterling is going to be one of the top teams we play all year long,” Duncan said. “We may play another team that is as deep and as athletic and as tall, and I really felt with what we have, when you look at our size and our inexperience, that we played a very good basketball game, especially in the second half.”
Duncan said that he made some changes to his team’s play in the second half and that he was proud how his team came out and played a more physical team.
“We tweaked the defense a little bit in the second half to try to take away the high post,” Duncan said, “because they just annihilated us for the first 16 minutes on the high post. It put us in better rebounding position, and we were able to get it down the court and get it set up without them setting up their defense.”
Blakeslee finished with a game-high 14 points,
“Blakeslee, finally, that was the breakout quarter that we’ve been waiting for,” Duncan said of the 6-1 sophomore. “That was really the quarter we’ve been looking for with Kyle because he hadn’t really let the game come to him.
“The first few games, we’ve been putting a lot of pressure on him. I thought he had a great fourth quarter.”
Kyle Corbett added 12 points, including 3 of 4 from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter.
