Clay at Symmes Valley 1 - 4 -11

[rockyraccoon]

Clay travels to Symmes Valley to play their second SOC conference match. They looked good in their loss to Lucasville Valley. How do you think it will play out in Symmes Valley.

[Livin LRG]

This will not be an easy win for either team, both have good size and run pretty well. Symmes has the ghome court advantage and Clay is coming off a loss to the Indians. I'll take the panthers in OT by 2

[Eaglesnest]

Impossible to win at Symmes Valley. Best of luck to the panthers, but I say Vikings by 8.

[rockyraccoon]

In the past two years they have split, with Clay winning last year at home 58 - 56 in OT, and losing at SV 55 - 47. Two years ago Clay won at SV 59 - 55 and lost at home 56 - 52. So going on the fact that Clay has basically all their players back from last year and most of them played varsity 2 years ago, I will have to give Clay the advantage, but as in the past it will be a close game.

[WestBuckeye]

Vikings win at home tonight!

[TripleDouble]

SV in a close one. Home court will be the advantage.

[TripleDouble]

Any score from this game?

[Livin LRG]

Clay wins 61-51. They lead 22-20 at half and came out in the third and was up 19 at one point. They almost lost control about half way through the 4th quater but regained composure and stuck it out the rest of the game.

[rockyraccoon]

Clay 11 11 16 23 61
S. V. 8 12 5 26 51

Clay held the lead most of the night. They had the at 22 to 17 lead with 1 minute in the half and tried to hold the ball for the last shot. Never seems to work for them, they had a shot blocked with 7 seconds and SV runs down and hits a three at the buzzer for a 22 to 20 halftime lead.
The second half was all Clay, outscoring SV 16 to 5 in the 3rd quarter to go up 38 to 25. They ran the lead up to 19 at 51 to 32 with around 4 minutes before SV went on a 8 - 0 run to cut it to 51 - 40 with 2:00 in the fourth. Clay tried to stall and SV pressed hard and caused several unforced errors. Foul shooting was a major factor. I was told Clay hit 19 of 22 in the fourth after SV had to start fouling to try and get back in the game. Clay has been shooting about 65% as a team from the foul line this year.
At 58 to 46 with about :50 Clay finally got to bring in their bench. These boys haven't seen the floor much, if at all this year. I don't know how that is going to play out next year having three or four boys who will be seniors next year, getting no playing time at all this year.
Clay plays Eastern at home Saturday night in a big SOC I showdown. Could be a very pivotal game in the SOC standings.
Good balanced scoring again tonight with 15, 13, 11, 9, 8 and 5 point scored by the 6 seniors. That's what we expected to see this year. Any given night any one of these boys can be lead scorer. That should fair well for them the rest of the year.

[claypantherfan]

Sounds like clay is really making a push this year for SOC