BEAVERCREEK — It may only be the their second game of the season, but Bellbrook looks to be the real deal.
The Golden Eagles rolled out to a seven-point lead in the first few minutes of Tuesday’s boys high school basketball game at Beavercreek High, squandered it, then rolled away to a solid 60-43 win.
In a game between two of the three winners at the season opening Benner Field House Classic (Springboro was the other), Bellbrook showed that its convincing season opening win over Legacy Christian was no fluke. They handled every Beavercreek comeback attempt the Beavers threw their way, and merely extended the lead in reply.
“I think we ran into a buzz saw today,” Beavers coach Steve Pittman said. “We ran into a well-coached team. … Let me rephrase that. Actually, we ran into an extremely well-coached team. They executed, and we didn’t. We kinda got away from our game plan, and we tried to make some adjustments. But it just didn’t go the way we wanted it to work out.”
Doing most of the executing was Bellbrook sophomore Ryan Chew who finished with a game-high 21 points. Chew hit all five of the Golden Eagles’ three-point shots in the game. Fellow sophomore Gabe Pavlak scored 14 points and senior Evan Lakins scored 13.
Bellbrook (2-0) led by seven points — 21-14 — after one quarter of play.
After Beavercreek (1-2) pulled within three points, thanks to a pair of Yousef Saleh free throws and a goaltending call against Pavlak, Bellbrook finished the half with a 15-4 run to lead 36-22 at the break.
A 6-0 run in the first two minutes of the second half gave the Golden Eagles their largest lead of the game (43-22), thanks to scores from Lakins, a 3-pointer from Chew and then a baseline drive for a score, also from Chew.
A Yousef free throw with 3:10 left in the contest pulled the Beavers to within 11 points of Buzz saw Bellbrook (51-40), but that was as close as they’d get. Bellbrook outscored the hosts down the stretch, 9-3, to seal the win.
Yousef led Beavercreek with 14 points scored. The Beavers will begin Greater Western Ohio Conference play on Friday, Dec. 6. That’s when Beavercreek will head over to Huber Heights for a 7:30 p.m. contest against Wayne.
Golden Eagles coach Donnie Tate says the intent is for his team to play tough competition throughout the regular season, with the postseason in mind.
“We stack our schedule with Division-I schools. … We’ve got 10 nonleague games, and five of those are against D-I teams. These games are good for getting us ready for the tournament,” Tate said. “Our eyes are on the tournament. We wanna be at our best after 22 games. That’s a really good Beavercreek team that we just beat. There’s plenty of talent on that squad.
“This is a good road win for us against a solid opponent.”
Bellbrook begins its league season on Friday as well. The Golden Eagles will host Monroe at 7:15 p.m. Dec. 6 at BHS.
