Allen East’s Trey Hensley (5) and Deacon Jones (4) battle Temple Christian’s Dawson Clay for a rebound during the Mustangs’ 70-50 win over the Pioneers on Tuesday at Temple Christian.
Jackelyn Johnson | The Lima News
LIMA — Allen East’s 70-50 boys basketball win over Temple Christian on Tuesday night started out as a close game but quickly turned into something else.
The Mustangs led by only one point after the first quarter but took control of the game by scoring 21 unanswered points to start the second quarter. They were up 47-26 at halftime and never let their lead drop below 18 points in the second half.
Logan Helser and Ethan Young scored 17 points and Carson Clum had 12 points for Allen East (5-4). Young, who hit a school-record ten 3-pointers in a win over Delphos Jefferson last weekend, had five of them on Tuesday night.
Allen East hit 13 of 15 shots in the second quarter and shot 67 percent on field goals (30 of 45) in the game. Temple Christian shot 55 percent (21 of 38).
“Allen East is a really good basketball team. I thought we had some spurts where we played pretty well but the second quarter was the difference in the basketball game,” Temple Christian coach Bruce Bowman said.
“We talked about it in the locker room. It was turnovers and not being strong with the ball and letting Young get away from us a few times. Clum was getting to the rack and he’s either scoring or dishing it off to Helser. Those three things in that quarter led to our demise. Twenty points is a long way back. We played hard in that quarter, we just didn’t play well,” he said.
Allen East coach Gabe Young said, “I thought we played extremely hard tonight. We played as a team. I don’t know what we had assist-wise but I bet we had a lot of them. I thought we played extremely hard against a good basketball team. I’m really happy with our guys.
“We kind of got Logan going and that kind of helped open everything else up. They were face-guarding Ethan tonight and made it a little tough for him to get the shot off. Logan did a nice job inside of finding a position and getting to an open spot and we were able to find him,” he said.
Allen East’s four losses have been against undefeated Lima Central Catholic, Emmanuel Christian (9-1), Wapakoneta and Dayton Thurgood Marshall.
“I think playing the tougher schedule early in the year allows us to go into games with a ton of confidence and at a different pace that a lot of teams aren’t used to seeing. As we get deeper into our schedule it’s something our guys are prepared to do —- run, run, run. It definitely helps us out to play that style,” Gabe Young said.
Malachi Menke led the Pioneers (4-6) with 16 points. Dawson Clay and Derek Shultz each scored 12 points.
“I thought Malachi Menke played really well for us, not only scoring the basketball but getting us into our offense. Dawson Clay plays hard underneath. He’s a great battler for us. Derek gets a lot of attention paid to him (defensively). You’ve got to play 32 minutes, especially against good teams,” Bowman said.
Allen East 70, Temple Christian 50
Score by quarters:
Allen East 18 29 17 6 — 70
Temple Christian 17 9 17 6 — 50
ALLEN EAST
Ethan Young 17, Carson Clum 12, Deacon Jones 6, Trey Hensley 6, Logan Helser 17, Brady Brooks 10, Hunter Nickles 2. Totals: 30-1-70.
TEMPLE CHRISTIAN
Dawson Clay 12, Derek Shult 12, Isaiah Kiser 3, Malachi Menke 16, Alex Patrick 5, Quincy Seddelmeyer 2. Totals: 21-3-50.
Three-pointers: AE — Young 5, Jones 2, Brooks 2.
Records: Allen East 5-4; Temple Christian 4-6.
