XENIA — Moments after Legacy Christian’s 74-51 win over Metro Buckeye Conference boys high school basketball rival Yellow Springs, both coaches attributed the end result to teamwork.
One team had it. The other didn’t.
Legacy Christian coach Brad Newsome said his team’s ability to work together as a unit has been a work in progress, and he’s finally starting to see the results he’s been hoping for.
“I know that’s something that we focus on. We use our Wednesdays to talk about developing young men and leadership,” Newsome said. “You probably did see more of that tonight. We’ve had some games where it hasn’t been as prevalent. … We’ve been trying to develop that, and tonight it was there more than other nights.”
The host Knights led by 14 points (38-24) at the break. LCA then outscored Yellow Springs 21-12 in the third quarter to pull away.
Erik Uszynski led Legacy (4-1, 2-1 MBC) with 20 points, Keano Hammerstrom was next with 16 points, Josh Frueh scored 11 points and Josh Stemple finished with nine in the win.
In the loss, Yellow Springs’ Tony Marinelli scored a game-high 22 points, James Browning was next with 11 points and Andrew Clark finished with eight. The Bulldogs are now 2-3 overall, 1-1 in league play.
Yellow Springs coach Bobby Crawford didn’t hesitate when asked to explain the difference in Tuesday’s contest.
“Leadership. They’ve got a bunch of kids who are good leaders who play together well. And we’ve got some guys who didn’t show any leadership, and we didn’t play very well together tonight,” Crawford said. “You can preach all you want, but you can’t go onto the court to get them to box out for a rebound, you can’t get them to talk to each other on the floor, and you can’t get them to like each other. So yeah, we had a lot of individuals out there tonight, but not a team.”
The Bulldogs will play their next game at home. At 7 p.m. on Friday Dec. 15, Yellow Springs will host MBC foe Miami Valley.
Legacy Christian hits the road on Friday for a 7 p.m. league game at Jefferson Township.