Miners fall to Clay City

SWITZ CITY -- Jacob Tibbett (21) goes up for a jumper here in the fourth quarter against Clay City Thursday night. (By Travis David/Greene County Daily World). [Order this photo]

SWITZ CITY -- Through the first five minutes the Linton-Stockton Miners looked as if they may pull off an upset over Clay City in the losers bracket of the Greene County Invitation here Thursday night. The Miners led 12-7 just over halfway through the opening period, but the Eels offense got on track as they handed Linton-Stockton a 63-49 loss.

With the loss the Miners fall to 1-8 on the season, while the Eels improved to 5-4.

Linton-Stockton center Jordan Tharp connected for six points with three buckets inside the paint -- his second erased a brief 3-2 deficit. The Miners would lead the rest of the quarter until Clay City guard Braxton Griffith connected on his second trey of the quarter, from the right corner, to give the Eels a 17-16 lead. Braxton's first shot from distance gave Clay City a brief 3-2 lead early on.

The first eight minutes would end by the same score, and the Eels would open up the second frame on a 10-3 run to stretch their lead to 27-19 lead. Clay City would go on to outscore the Miners 22-7 in the second to open up a comfortable 16-point lead heading into the locker room.

"Once again there is a five or six minute stretch that we do not play good basketball and it ends up being the difference in the game," a somber Miners coach Darren Clayton said. "We just can not afford to have stretches like that and expect to win games."

Turnovers played a big part in the lapse as the Miners committed seven of their 12 first half miscues in the second frame. For the game Linton-Stockton gave away 22 possessions.

"We have to start taking better care of the ball as well," Clayton said. "We need to prize each possession."

The second half did not start too well for the Miners either, as they turned the ball over seven more times out of the locker room and the Eels stretched their lead to over 20 points. Clay City outscored the Miners 18-10 in the third to take a commanding 24-point lead going into the final eight minutes of play.

Linton-Stockton scored a flurry of points in the final minutes to make the final score more respectable. The Miners outscored the Eels 16-6 over the final eight minutes.

Reserve players Caleb Stuppy, Jacob Tibbett and Gunnar Passen came off the bench to combine for 13 of the Miners points in the final frame. Stuppy finished the game with nine points for the Miners.

Clayton coach only manage to scratch his head when asked what he felt was the reasoning for the Miners lapse in the middle parts of the game.

"I wish I knew, if I did we would get it fixed a lot quicker," Clayton said.

Evan Magni led the Miners with 11 points, while Chase Rhoten was the only other Miner to reach double figures with 10 points to go along with five rebounds and two steals.

Jordan Tharp paced Linton-Stockton with eight boards and scored eight points, all coming in the first quarter.

"I did not realize that Jordan scored all his points in the first period," Clayton said. "You definitely want to keep feeding him the ball when he is off to a good start like that. But you have to credit Clay City for making the adjustment on him."

Ross Gentry rounded out the scoring for the Miners with three points.

Will Kennedy came off the Eels bench to lead all scorers with 22 points and 12 rebounds. Griffith also reached double digits with 10 points.

Clayton remained optimistic about the rest of the season for his squad.

"We are not quite half-way through our schedule yet, so we still have time to get better. We just need to play better defense. You are not going to win games by giving up 63 points each night."

The Eels will play North Central Saturday in the fifth place game at 11:30 a.m. while the Miners will play Union (Dugger) (1-7) at 10 a.m. in the seventh-place game.

CLAY CITY (63) -- Braxton Griffith 3-10 1-2 10, D.J. Newton 2-4 0-0 5, Levi Seymour 3-6 3-4 9, Logan Higgins 2-5 0-0 4, Will Kennedy 9-19 4-7 22, Kyler Rhodes 1-2 0-0 2, Orry Heffner 3-4 0-3 6, Jordan Defore 2-6 1-2 5. Totals 25-56 9-18 63.

LINTON-STOCKTON (49) -- Caleb Stuppy 4-7 0-0 9, Keith Cunningham 0-4 0-0 0, Evan Magni 3-6 4-5 11, Ross Gentry 1-2 1-2 3, Chase Rhoten 1-6 7-8 10, Jacob Tibbett 2-4 0-0 4, Jordan Tharp 4-10 0-2 8, J.D. Fish 0-2 0-2 0, Gunnar Passen 2-2 0-3 4. Totals 17-43 12-21 49.

Clay City 17 22 18 6 -- 63

Linton-Stockton 16 7 10 16 -- 49

3-Pointers -- Clay City 4 (Griffith 3, Newton), Linton-Stockton 3 (Stuppy, Magni, Rhoten). Rebounds -- Clay City 34 (Kennedy 12), Linton-Stockton 25 (Tharp 8). Steals -- Clay City 10 (Defore 3), Linton-Stockton 8 (Cunningham, Rhoten 2). Turnovers -- Clay City 20, Linton-Stockton 22. Fouls -- Clay City 10, Linton-Stockton 14. Fouled out -- None.