BLACKSVILLE — The Clay Battelle boys’ basketball team knows what it needs to do in a game in order to give itself the best chance to win; get the ball inside and rebound.
On Tuesday evening against in-section opponent Wood County Christian, the ninth-ranked Cee-Bees (4-3) did just that to secure a 40-point win.
Three different players scored in double figures for head coach Josh Kisner’s squad on the way to their fourth win of the year.
“We took care of business down low (Tuesday),” Kisner said. “Our shot outside wasn’t falling (Tuesday) and we needed the big guys to step up and pick up the load rebounding and they did that.”
The Cee-Bees shot just 2 for 15 from beyond the arc in the game, but an efficient effort inside the arc (30/49) made up for the poor shooting effort Kisner alluded to.
C-B forwards Colby Barr and Preston Luzader combined for 35 points while shooting 15 for 21 from the field as a duo. Barr scored 17 points while providing one of the two triples. Luzader contributed 18 points of his own and seemingly didn’t miss anything he threw at the rim. Senior guard Kohlton St. Clair scored a game-high 20 points.
“There are still some things we need to clean up offensively today but it’s good to have the size we do, they do a great job when the outside shots weren’t falling,” Kisner said. “We were 60 percent inside and 12 percent outside so if the outside shot starts to fall it will do a lot for us. We have good shooters they just didn’t fall today.”
The defense of the Cee-Bees is also to credit, as they allowed only four points to their opponents in the second frame. A mix of a 2-3 zone, 1-3-1 zone, and full-court press gave the Wildcats problems on offense and didn’t allow them to get into a rhythm, making only 13 total baskets as a team.
The defensive mix is something Kisner says his team may use to its advantage going forward, especially as the level of opponent continues to increase.
“When teams get something figured out and it begins to work against our defense, being able to throw something else at them is something we want to do more of,” Kisner said. “This weekend in our next set of games will be with another sectional opponent in Tyler Consolidated and it includes James Monroe and Tucker County on the other side and we just have to be ready to play.”
C-B will travel to Tyler Consolidated this weekend for a tournament that includes the top two teams in the latest Class A rankings, James Monroe and Tucker County.
Clay-Battelle 71, Wood County Christian 31
C-B 21 22 21 7 – 71
WCC – 10 4 6 11 – 31
Clay-Battelle – Spears 6 0-0 4; Shriver 5 2-2 4; St. Clair 18 1-1 20; Kolat 2 0-2 2; Ponceroff 5 0-0 2; Barr 11 2-4 17; Luzader 12 0-0 18; Gadd 4 0-0 4
WCC – Joseph 3 0-0 6; Seigneur 5 0-0 6; Dimit 11 0-0 6; Parsley 9 0-0 3; Allman 7 0-0 8; Wise 2 0-0 2
3pt. goals – C-B 2 (St. Clair 1, Barr 1); WCC 5 (Joseph 2, Seigneur 2, Parsley 1).
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