Delphos St. John’s Cameron Elwer (11) drives against Spencerville’s Evan Osting (5) during the Blue Jays’ 65-60 win over the Bearcats on Saturday night at Spencerville. Elwer, a sophomore, went over 1,000 points in his career in the game.
Richard Parrish | The Lima News
SPENCERVILLE – Cameron Elwer picked a great time to have a historic night and Spencerville picked a bad time to have a bad minute.
Elwer scored 41 points to lead Delphos St. John’s to a 65-60 boys basketball win over Spencerville on Saturday night and went over 1,000 points in his career in only his 41st high school game.
The 6-foot, 1-inch sophomore guard scored 28 of the Blue Jays’ 34 points in the second half, including a bucket which put them ahead to stay at 61-60 with 1:03 left in the game.
Spencerville had taken its first lead since the first quarter at 60-59 on Carder Orr’s inside shot with 1:15 to play.
But the Bearcats did not score again and turned the ball over three times in the last minute of the game.
The most costly of the three might have been with 21 seconds remaining on the clock and St. John’s leading 62-60. Spencerville called a timeout after advancing the ball to the front court but the Blue Jays’ Aaron Moenter got a hand on the inbounds pass and a teammate recovered the ball.
St. John’s improved its record to 14-2 with the win, which came one night after a tense 49-47 win at Versailles.
Owen Sensabaugh scored 22 points to lead Spencerville (11-4). Carter Sudhoff scored 15 points and pulled down 14 rebounds. Evan Osting had 12 points – all of them in the second half.
“It was a heck of a game. I told Coach Sensabaugh that was two really good teams playing a high level of basketball with a lot of skill, a lot of experience, a lot of will to win,” St. John’s coach Aaron Elwer said. “The packed crowd that was here saw a great high school basketball game.”
Spencerville coach Kevin Sensabaugh said, “I thought those were two pretty good teams. We put ourselves in a position to win but just had some miscues down the stretch. That was tough. But that’s how you learn. You don’t learn much in blowouts, you learn in a tight game.”
Elwer crossed the 1,000-point mark with a 3-point bucket in the fourth quarter. He said he never thought about reaching that milestone when he began his high school career last season.
“I just wanted to have a successful high school career and see what came my way,” he said. “It’s a great accomplishment. I (want to) thank all my coaches, my parents, and the players.”
He said something else was most prominent in his thoughts Saturday night, though.
“I really wanted to win the game and come out with a “W” and I did everything I could to win,” he said.
Aaron Elwer looked at his oldest son’s accomplishment this way: “You don’t think of stuff like that (1,000 points) but he’s a unique player and a hard worker and when the lights are on, he’s a gamer. He loves to compete, he loves to win and he’s going to try to make the right play that gives us the best chance to win.”
When Sensabaugh was asked if there was any defense that might have slowed down Elwer, he said,
“Not when he’s got it going like he did tonight. He was pretty darn good in the second half tonight.
“We did a great job on him in the first half and I really don’t think we did a bad job on him in the second half. He just made shots. He made contested shots. He’s good, he’s as advertised. That’s for sure,” he said.
Delphos St. John’s 65, Spencerville 60
Score by quarters:
St. John’s 18 13 16 18 – 65
Spencerville 15 12 14 19 – 60
Delphos St. John’s
Cameron Elwer 41, Aaron Moenter 9 points, Austin Moenter 2, Andrew Elwer 3, Tyce McClain 5, Joel Shrader 5. Totals: 24-12-65.
Spencerville
Owen Sensabaugh 22, Carder Orr 2, Carter Sudhoff 15, Will Sensabaugh 9, Evan Osting 12. Totals: 23-9-60.
Three-point goals: DSJ – C. Elwer 2, Aaron Moenter 1, A. Elwer 1, McClain 1; S – Osting 3, O. Sensabaugh 1, W. Sensabaugh 1.
Records: Delphos St. John’s 14-2; Spencerville 11-4.
