Bellefontaine’s boys basketball team was hoping to lock up an outright Central Buckeye Conference Kenton Trail division title Tuesday night against Benjamin Logan.
The host Raiders had different plans.
Benjamin Logan players celebrate after defeating Bellefontaine on Tuesday at Ben Logan High School. (EXAMINER PHOTOS | MATT HAMMOND)
Ben Logan stymied the Chiefs with a pesky zone defense to pull off a stunning 42-34 victory.
“These kids believe in each other and have confidence in each other,” said Ben Logan first-year head coach Matt McCurdy. “As the game went on, they continued to gain confidence as they saw the game plan was working.”
The Chiefs came in with a 15-3 overall record and a 10-0 mark in the CBC. But they looked confused from the start against a Ben Logan zone defense that forced Bellefontaine to play on the perimeter.
“We knew that they have had trouble against the zone,” said Ben Logan senior guard Mitchell Fink, who scored a game-high 13 points. “We wanted to make them have to shoot from the outside.
“Our goal was to play the game at our pace and I felt we did a very good job of doing that.”
It was the second-lowest scoring output of the season for the Chiefs.
“The blame falls on me,” said Bellefontaine head coach Jason Calton. “I could not find an offense in our arsenal to crack their zone. We tried about five different offenses and none of them worked. As the coach, it is my job to have our guys prepared to be successful and I didn’t have the right offense to counteract their zone.”
For the full story and game results,
pick up a copy of Wednesday’s Bellefontaine Examiner.
CLICK HERE to subscribe.
WEB EDITION STARTING AT $9.50 FOR 5 WEEKS!