ARCANUM – The Arcanum Trojans broke away from the Dixie Greyhounds in the third quarter on the strength of 6 of their 11 triples on the night and then closed out the game strong to earn a 67-49 non-conference win on Hall-of-Fame Night.
Arcanum got off to a great start with Carter Gray hitting two triples and 8 points in the first quarter and added a Triple from Chad Pritzer and fielders from Cameron Burke, Ian Baker and Chase Werling to take a 17-9 first quarter lead.
In the second quarter Arcanum extended the lead to 22-13 on a triple from Pritzer at the 4:52 mark for the largest lead up to that point.
But the Greyhounds made a run of their own and closed the gap to 22-19 by the 3:21 mark which prompted first year Arcanum coach Roger McEldowney to use a timeout.
“I wish we could play more consistently and we haven’t done that much up to this point but we are playing better for longer stretches, so we are making some progress,” McEldowney stated on the loss of focus in the 2nd quarter.
The Trojans though regained their focus and closed out the quarter strong extending the lead back to 9-points leading 32-23.
The third quarter was a three fest for the home team as Carter Gray got hot connecting on 3 straight trifecta’s … but not to be outdone, Logan Todd added one and Jake Goubeaux had two more that included one as the horn sounded from 40’ near the score table and a man in his face that brought the crowd to their feet and the players off the bench.
“We did make shots in the 3rd quarter and it makes coaching easier when that happens and even some into the 4th quarter where I wanted to slow down a bit … but when the ball is going in your kind of like uhm yeah!” McEldowney exclaimed.
“That’s all good but we have to learn to manage late game when you got a lead and stay patient and take layups, or let them come foul us.” McEldowney said.
Arcanum took a 56-42 lead into the final stanza and coach McEldowney would use that lead to his advantage to teach game management on how to control the tempo, spread the floor and close out the game. Arcanum would go 6-for-7 late from the stripe and finished the game off with a 67-49 win.
McEldowney was pleased with the teams play overall and it was a welcome sight to see 67 points on the board.
“Early in the year the ball wasn’t going in the hole and I never thought when we were struggling just to score 35 points we would score 67 like we did tonight,” McEldowney sighed.
“Carter is coming back and he’s healthy now, Grant is playing well for us on the board and did great things defensively. Jake Goubeaux is a sophomore and getting better offensively as well. It’s a process we are playing a lot of young kids; Ian Baker, Chad Pritzer and Werling off the bench are sophomores so we have a lot of guys who didn’t have a lot of varsity experience last year and learning on the job and getting better. I like where we are now compared to a month ago and that’s all we can really asked for,” McEldowney concluded.
Gray led all scorers with 25 points on 5 triples and Jake Goubeaux had 10 points as well.
Arcanum improves to 6-4 overall and is 3-1 in the Cross County Conference and will play at Ansonia on Tuesday night.
Scoring Summary:
Score by Quarters:
DIX … 09 … 14 … 19 … 07 – 49
ARC .. 17 … 15 … 24 … 11 – 67
Individual Scoring:
Dixie: Mullens 1, Grubb 4, Butts 22, Stout 2, Huffman 11, Thompson 7, Brown 2;
Totals: 5-15-4/5 – 49
Arcanum: Jake Goubeaux 10, Carter Gray 25, Logan Todd 5, Chad Pitzer 6, Cameron Burke 8, Ian Baker 7, Chase Werling 2, Grant Delk 4; Totals: 11-12-10/14 – 67
