BEAVERCREEK — As the calendar turns to February, Bellbrook and Beavercreek provided a solid test for one another as tournament time approaches.
Beavercreek used several runs over the course of the second half to fend off a pesky opponent 64–49 on Tuesday in a non-league home game.
The Golden Eagles had entered the contest winners in three of its last four and were looking to build upon some of that recent success, but ran into the twin towers of the Beavers front line, Adam Duvall and Gave Phillips, which was too much to overcome.
“It’s just a journey through the season from game to game,” Bellbrook head coach Donnie Tate said. “This should hopefully be some good film for us for sure. We’ll be able to see the nice things that we did defensively. Obviously they’re a big and strong team and you don’t see too many teams like that, so it was nice to be able to have them on the schedule. We’re going to get better because of this game.”
The Beavers led by eight at halftime and opened up the third quarter with a 10-3 run to build its largest lead of the game, but Bellbrook (12-7) would not go away.
The Golden Eagles closed the quarter by scoring the final six points to trim the deficit to seven.
As it did to open the half though, Beavercreek’s size and strength on defense stifled the Bellbrook offense by holding them without a point for more than four minutes. A 9–0 run broke the game back open and little to no time for Bellbrook to try and recover.
“We never really got down,” Tate said. “We have some good shooters on the team and missed some shots that could’ve led to a run of our own. There were a couple of times the ball just didn’t bounce our way. Our guys were playing physical and working really hard, but the ball just didn’t go the way we needed it to.”
Phillips led all scorers with 23 points, and Duvall had 14 for Beavercreek (10-8). Phillips also surpassed 250 career blocks shots during the game.
Gabe Pavlak had 15 points for Bellbrook, with Austin Webb and Carson Labensky adding 10, respectively.
The upcoming schedule doesn’t get easier for Bellbrook, which is still in the hunt for a SWBL East Division title, with a visit from Oakwood on tap for Friday. Beavercreek meanwhile will next prepare for a home game against Miamisburg on Friday.
Students from both Beavercreek and Bellbrook in attendance wore green in remembrance of Beavercreek student Hudson Lee who recently passed away.
