Sandusky falters late in road loss to Clay

OREGON — Sandusky has come a long way. From early-season disarray and lopsided losses to playing some of its best basketball over the final month of the regular season, the Blue Streaks have seen a lot this year. Fifth-seeded Sandusky won nine of its last 10 games entering Friday's game, but couldn't find the same success in a 50-46 Division III tournament loss to second-seeded Clay. "They just out-toughed us down the stretch," Sandusky coach DeMar Moore said. "I thought they did a great job of executing and we didn't. They beat us to every loose ball all night. You can't win these types of games without having mental toughness and physical toughness. "We lacked that tonight. They were the tougher team tonight." The Streaks finish the season with a record of 15-8. Sandusky won a share of the Sandusky Bay Conference Lake Division title, its fifth in a row. "I'm proud of these guys," Moore said. "We've come a long way from the start of the season. I thought tonight, the things that caused us problems early in the season reared its head again. I thought earlier in the season, we were getting out-toughed by good teams. Tonight was the same." The Streaks led by as many as nine points in the third quarter before Clay (17-6) made its move. Max Morrison picked a steal and scored before two buckets from Quimari Buffaloe cut the Sandusky lead to 33-31. Cam Jones answered with a massive triple for the Streaks, but Clay kept coming. Grant Oberdick and Morrison each scored to bring the Sandusky lead down to 36-35. Oberdick followed with a triple before tallies from Carson Vincent and Morrison gave the Eagles a 42-36 lead after three quarters. "We settled for a lot of jump shots in the second half," said Moore of his team that made just 7 of 29 shots in the second half. "I thought the first half we did a good job of getting downhill and getting to the rim. In the second half, I thought we were stagnant and settled for jump shots. "We're not a jump shooting team. I think tonight we shot more 3-pointers in a game than we did all year." Clay pushed the lead to 44-37 early in the fourth quarter, but Sandusky didn't go quietly. Jones snagged a steal and scored before his three-point play quickly brought the Streaks within 44-42. Both teams had opportunities, but it wasn't until Dale Johnson hit a turn-around jumper that Sandusky tied the game at 44 with 2:43 remaining. That didn't live long as Liam Cody scored just 19 seconds later. Again, each team had chances to take control, but Sandusky's timeout with 1:24 left calmed things down. The Streaks missed a handful of shots over the final 90 seconds. On the other end, Cody scored and a pair of split free throws allowed Clay to put the game away. "We gave up wide-open lay-ups," Moore said. "I thought for the most part we played two really good quarters and two really bad quarters. We had some spurts late where we thought we could make a run, but we just couldn't make it happen." Sandusky was a little slow out of the gate offensively. The Streaks had just two points in the first 4:35 of the game, but played well late in the first quarter. Ta'Varieon Myers scored, Johnson hit a jumper and Jones picked a steal and scored for an 11-6 lead. Sandusky pushed it further when Kymirr Hunter scored off of a Clay turnover. "We thought if we could defend, put some pressure on them and speed them up, we could force them into some turnovers," Moore said. "We wanted to use our defense to create our offense. They did a good job handling our pressure. They got easy buckets when we made mistakes defensively." Sandusky took a 13-8 lead into the second quarter, but Johnson got hot in the second quarter. He scored 10 of the Streaks' 14 points of the quarter. His bucket with 4:02 left in the first half pushed Sandusky up 24-14. "I thought in the first half we did a good job of playing as a team," Moore said. "We played together and we were sharing the ball. We were executing. In the second half, it was totally the opposite. We got selfish and starting playing one-on-one." The Streaks led 27-20 at halftime and went up 32-23 when Hunter scored on a putback bucket. Jones (seven rebounds) and Johnson (six rebounds) each scored 13 points while Hunter finished with nine points and nine rebounds. Anthony Redding, Johnson, Hunter and Dereon Scott are the seniors for Sandusky. "Those seniors were great," Moore said. "All season long they led us vocally. They're great seniors and I hate to see them go out the way we went out tonight. I love all four of those guys and I wish them all the best in the future." SANDUSKY (15-8) Anthony Redding 2 0-0 4, Dale Johnson 5 2-5 13, Ahmaj Woolfork 2 0-0 4, Cam Jones 5 1-1 13, Kymirr Hunter 4 1-2 9, Ta'Varieon Myers 1 1-2 3. TOTALS 19 5-8 46 CLAY (17-6) Aiden Berryman 2 0-0 5, Max Morrison 3 1-3 7, Carson Vincent 4 0-0 8, Liam Cody 3 0-0 6, Grant Oberdick 7 5-7 20, Quimari Buffaloe 2 0-0 4. TOTALS 21 6-10 50 Sandusky 13 14 9 10 — 46 Clay 8 12 22 8 — 50 Three-point goals: Sandusky 3 (Jones 2, Johnson); Clay 2 (Berryman, Oberdick)