By John Bombatch
CEDARVILLE — It looks like the two Route 72 neighbors will have to share the road.
Earlier this season, Greeneview claimed a 68-62 overtime win over Cedarville in Jamestown. On Friday, host Cedarville didn’t need any extra time to hand the Rams a 63-51 loss.
Josh Wilson, Jacob Gannon and Alex Zaage each scored in double figures to lead the Indians to the win. Cedarville was without at least two former starters for the game.
Greeneview standout Ethan Bradds had another solid outing for the Rams. The junior forward pulled Greeneview to within two points of the lead, (34-32) at the 4:39 mark of the third quarter, when he scored from the right side, was fouled, and converted a free throw.
Bradds then drew three consecutive charging calls on the Indians, but Greeneview failed to score on each of them. Instead, Cedarville increased the lead on Mason Cross’s 3-pointer from the right wing to put Cedarville in front, 37-31. Bradds was fouled, with 2:50 left in the third, and hit a pair of free throws while the game clock was still running! Officials caught the error, and put 2:34 back on the scoreboard.
Greeneview lost 16 seconds on the exchange, but it didn’t matter. Cedarville outscored the Rams, 21-16 in the final quarter of play to seal the win.
In a courtside interview with WBZI-AM radio, Cedarville coach Ryan Godlove said he was proud of how his kids played.
“Bradds, as well as he does on offense, I think he really affected us the first time we played. With that body, we don’t have anyone near that size. So when we were attacking in the first game, we were really tentative and were afraid of getting our shots blocked,” Godlove said. “I just thought tonight, the way Josh Wilson and Jacob Gannon attacked, they weren’t intimidated. I know we got some charge calls called on us, but I’d rather have that than for us to be scared and not taking the ball to them.”
Wilson fouled out with a team-high 20 points; Gannon finished with 19 points for the Indians. Alex Zaage, who didn’t score a point in the first meeting between the two schools, finished with 13 on Friday.
Godlove also said he appreciated the solid efforts of a pair of his freshmen — C.J. Pahl and Brandon Pollock — who stepped in to give the starters an occasional rest on Friday.
“I think down the stretch in the second half, they executed and we didn’t,” Greeneview coach Kyle Fulk said. “I’ll have to look at the film and figure out whether we got sped up or if we got pushed around, but we didn’t do the things that we need to do to win the game in the second half, and they did. That’s a credit to them.
“They’re a good team, and they played extremely well together tonight.”
With the win, Cedarville is now 9-7 overall, 4-6 in the Ohio Heritage Conference. They’re currently in fourth place in the OHC. The Indians play at South Charleston Southeastern at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Greeneview, 5-11 overall, 4-7 OHC, and mired in seventh place in the eight-team conference, has a 7:30 p.m. nonleague contest set for Saturday, Jan. 30 in Jamestown against Bellbrook.
