Lynchburg-Clay fends off Whiteoak charge for 1-point win

DODSONVILLE — At one point in the third quarter, the Lynchburg-Clay Mustangs held a 21-point lead, and in the fourth frame, that lead was still as high as 18 points with just over 6:00 left in regulation. Then came a Whiteoak charge where the Wildcats put everything together, started making shots and took the host Mustangs to the brink. 

That said, Lynchburg-Clay (1-1, 1-1) fended off everything Whiteoak (1-1, 2-2) had to offer in the final minutes to defend their home court in Southern Hills Athletic Conference action to defeat the Wildcats, 64-63 Friday night.

Lynchburg-Clay’s win was the first for head coach Kyle Pertuset while at the helm of LCHS, as his Mustangs improve to 1-1 overall and have the same record in SHAC play early in the season. 

“It's good to get out here with the W,” Pertuset said. “We’ve got to take better care of the basketball in the second half, that fourth quarter. We got to take better shot selection. We’ve got to get better at situational basketball, and we are. We're continuing to move the right direction, and this is a great experience where you can win. 

“Everybody's happy you won. At the same time, we want to have our mind open to learning so we continue to get better so when the next time this comes around, we handle the situation a little bit better. But I'm proud of the kids for persevering through that relentless Whiteoak team.”

The fourth quarter began with WHS cutting the Lynchburg-Clay lead to 15 points with two points, but a 3-pointer from Jay Cordrey made it an 18-point LC lead with 6:09 left in regulation. WHS answered with a 3-pointer from Zander Roades — who totaled 10 points — and a layup with 5:00 on the clock by Jackson Tedford. 

Again, a 3-pointer for LCHS, this one by Denver Clinton, pushed their lead back to 16 points with 4:51 on the clock, but the Wildcats continued to pressure the Mustangs as they scored the next six points, including a basket by Brady Brandenburg for a 56-48 deficit with 3:53 remaining in the fourth. Brandenburg finished with 16 points, including seven two-point baskets, and he finished 2-of-3 from the free-throw line. 

Clinton finished with a double-double with 17 points and 10-plus rebounds in the win. 

“Denver Clinton did a real good job rebounding,” Pertuset said. “There at the end, he actually stepped up defensively and wanted to guard [Sawyer Blair]. The kid was hot, so we got him and kind of contested him a little bit. I thought him and [Trevor] Niehaus, and I mean, all the kids, did a really good job.” 

After a basket by LC’s Elam Faust, the Wildcats came back with a three-point play by Brandenburg, plus two points by Sawyer Blair with the assist from Tedford, leaving 2:53 left in regulation, putting WHS within five points of tying the Mustangs. Blair finished the game with 27 points, totaling five 3-pointers, three two-point baskets, and he was 6-of-8 from the free-throw line. 

Again, the Mustangs kept fending off the Wildcats with three free throws made on two trips to the free-throw line by LC’s Trevor Niehaus, lifting the LCHS lead back to eight points with 2:20 left in the game. Niehaus led the Mustangs with 24 points, including five two-point baskets, three 3-pointers, and he was 5-of-10 from the free-throw line. 

WHS came back with four points of their own, including two free throws made by Blair for a 61-57 score at the 1:39 mark of the quarter. 

Lynchburg-Clay answered with a put-back basket by Cordrey, and WHS had a free throw made by Brandenburg. That was equaled with a free throw from Niehaus of LCHS for a six-point Mustang lead. 

WHS kept the pressure of LCHS with a layup by Blair with 18.5 on the clock, and after four free throw attempts for LCHS that weren’t converted in the final seconds, the Wildcats cut the LCHS lead to one point after a free throw was made by Blair with 1.1 left in the game. 

Time eventually ran out for WHS, as the Mustangs held on for the one-point win. 

“You get down 18, dig a hole like that,” Whiteoak head coach Greg Patton said. “Lynchburg is obviously a very solid team. We finally started playing there, just probably about 30 seconds too late. Sawyer Blair hit some huge shots and Zander hit that one, and all the boys’ defense really picked up. That's what we've got to go with is our defense. It's going to turn into easier points for us.

“It’s nice to see. We're right on the edge, I feel like, of really breaking through and getting everything all the way together, but we're still not quite there yet. This obviously will go hopefully a long ways for us.” 

For LCHS, they had a very strong start in the first quarter with an 18-6 lead after eight minutes, followed by another 18-point frame in the second, while WHS scored 12 points in the same quarter for a 36-18 halftime lead for the Mustangs. 

In the first quarter, the Mustangs made three 3-pointers with Cody Bell sinking two and Niehaus making one, as the Mustangs jumped out to their seven-point lead with 3:45 left in the opening frame. Bell’s threes were consecutive baskets with 5:45 and 5:24 left in the quarter, which forced a timeout by the visiting Wildcats. LCHS eventually ended the first frame with an 8-0 run as they built a 12-point lead after one quarter. 

LCHS led by as many as 19 points in the second quarter with 2:06 on the clock following a 3-pointer by Clinton. The Lynchburg-Clay second quarter consisted of four 3-pointers made by Asher Faust, Cordrey, Niehaus and Clinton’s aforementioned trey. 

“Last year, I think they were something like 23 percent from three on the year,” Pertuset said. “We put a lot of time in the summer, emphasizing shots up and playing of pace and getting good threes, inside-out threes. It's been going well so far.”

For WHS in the second, Blair scored 10 of the 12 points added by Whiteoak, including two threes. Zach Igo added two points to the Whiteoak total in the second frame as Whiteoak trailed by 18 points at halftime. 

Whiteoak and Lynchburg-Clay played close to even in the third with the Wildcats outscoring the Mustangs 16-15. WHS in the third had two 3-pointers, both made by Blair, plus four points by Igo, six points from Brandenburg and a basket by Jonah Michael. 

The same third frame for the Mustangs had nine points scored by Niehaus (including a 3-pointer), plus six points off three baskets by Clinton. 

Other final scoring totals for the Mustangs included Cordrey with eight points, Bell with eight points, Asher Faust with five points and Elam Faust with two points. 

Final scoring totals for WHS also included Igo with six points, Tedford with two points and Michael with two points. 

Team stats for WHS included 17 two-point baskets, seven 3-pointers and they were 8-of-11 from the free-throw line. LCHS finished 16 two-point baskets, nine 3-pointers and they were 5-of-14 from the free-throw line. 

The win improves Lynchburg-Clay to 1-1 overall and 1-1 in the SHAC. WHS moves to 1-1 in the SHAC and 2-2 overall. 

LCHS is scheduled to play again Saturday, Dec. 7 on the road at Green with a 6 p.m. start. WHS is scheduled to play again Saturday, Dec. 7 on the road at McClain with a 7:30 p.m. start. 

BOX SCORE 
WHS    06 12 16 29 — 63
LCHS    18 18 15 13 — 64

LYNCHBURG-CLAY (64) — A.Faust 1 (1) 0-0 5, J.Cordrey 1 (2) 0-0 8, C.Bell 1 (2) 0-0 8, T.Niehaus 5 (3) 5-10 24, E.Faust 1 (0) 0-0 2, D.Clinton 7 (1) 0-4 17. TOTALS: 16 (9) 5-14 64. 

WHITEOAK (63) — Z.Igo 3 (0) 0-0 6, Z.Roades 2 (2) 0-0 10, S.Blair 3 (5) 6-8 27, J.Tedford 1 (0) 0-0 2, B.Brandenburg 7 (0) 2-3 16, J.Michael 1 (0) 0-0 2. TOTALS: 17 (7) 8-11 63. 

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