Riverside landed the first flurry of punches Friday before Benjamin Logan came off the ropes to dominate the rest of the action in their boys basketball season opener Friday night.
The Pirates raced to a nine-minute lead just over 10 minutes into the game, but the host Raiders ended the first half on an 11-0 run to take a two-point lead at halftime and they led the entire second half for a 58-40 victory.
“Give credit to Riverside,” said Ben Logan head coach Cam Saylor. “They came out with a lot of energy and made things frantic. They trapped us and turned us over, and got some easy baskets. When we were able to get up to their pace, we got the ball to the spots we wanted and we got some easy baskets of our own.”
The Pirates held a 17-14 lead after one quarter and opened the second period on an 8-2 run to build a 25-16 advantage.
The tide then changed, with the Raiders warming up on the offensive end and the Pirates going cold.
Ben Logan shut out Riverside 11-0 over the final five-plus minutes of the first half to lead 27-25 at the break.
“We ran out of energy,” said Riverside head coach Seth Bodenmiller. “We tried to put a lot of pressure on them early on, and when you play like that, especially in the first game, you worry about getting fatigued. We gave up some easy baskets on defense, we missed some layups and we came up short on a lot of shots. We just didn’t have the legs.”
The momentum stayed on Ben Logan’s side to start the second half. The Raiders scored the first six points to open up an eight-point cushion and the hosts maintained that lead (40-32) at the end of the third quarter.
Ben Logan continued to pull away in the final stanza.
“It just feels great to be able to get to play a game,” said Saylor. “Not knowing from one day to the next if you are going to be able to get on the floor, we are glad to have the opportunity to play. To be able to get a win is a great feeling.”
The Raiders used a balanced scoring attack to get the win. Mitch Vance led the way with 16 points, Landen Hunt had 14 points, Davonte Fahle score eight and Trey Allen and Keaghan Stahler each added six points.
“There are three guys we count on to do a majority of the scoring for us and they struggled a little bit tonight,” said Saylor. “We had some role guys step up for us. Mitch Vance did a great job and Landen Hunt also had a great scoring effort. When everybody plays their roles, we can be pretty tough.””
Kaden Burk led the Pirates with 13 points, John Zumberger had 10 and Ethan Jackson chipped in eight.
“We have a couple guys out because of quarantine,” said Bodenmiller. “When we have everybody together and get all of our depth, it should make a big difference.”
In Friday’s junior varsity game, Ben Logan won 54-30. Kameron Allen led Ben Logan with 16 points and Austin McGowan had 14. Dominik Stotler led the Pirates with seven points.
Riverside returns to action tonight at home against Tri-Village, while the Raiders are at Urbana on Friday.
BEN LOGAN 58
RIVERSIDE 40
RIVERSIDE (0-1)
Zumberger 4 1-2 10; Stewart 2 0-0 4; Jackson 4 0-0 8; Rhoads 2 0-0 5; Burk 6 1-2 13.
TOTALS: 18 2-4 40.
BEN LOGAN (1-0)
Fahle 3 0-0 8; Burrey 1 0-0 2; Allen 2 2-2 6; Arn 3 0-0 6; Hunt 6 0-0 14; Vance 8 0-1 16; Stahler 2 2-2 6. TOTALS: 25 4-5 58.
Pirates 17 8 7 8 —40
Raiders 14 13 13 18 —58
Three-pointers: Riverside 2 (Rhoads, Zumberger); Ben Logan 4 (Hunt 2, Fahle 2).
Personal fouls: Riverside 11; Ben Logan 10.