CLAYTON – The Versailles Tiger varsity boys basketball team dropped out of OHSAA D-III tournament play with a 57-47 loss to the Cincinnati Hill Christian Academy Eagles.
CHCA earned the school’s first ever district boys basketball championship with the Saturday night win over the Tigers at Northmont High School.
A CHCA Billy Southerland 3-pointer opened scoring on the night to give the Cincinnati private school a lead and would never trail in the district game.
CHCA senior guard Blake Lloyd stepped up second quarter play scoring eight points in frame to give the Eagles a 10-point lead with the teams heading to the halftime break.
Cincinnati led by as many as 12-points in the second half only to have Versailles battle back to trail by as little as three throughout second half play.
Versailles senior guard Michael Stammen scored a team-high 20-points helping to make it a 38-35 game early in fourth quarter play with an old fashioned three point play and a drive and dish in the lane to Tigers forward Ryan Martin.
CHCA senior guard Blake Lloyd drive to the basket gave the Eagles a 40-35 lead with 4:58 in regulation play and Versailles would get no closer over the final minutes of action with Cincinnati securing the win with 13 free throws over the final two minutes of play.
CHCA senior guard Cole Fisher, the reigning Miami Valley Conference Player of the Year finished the night with 17-points for the Eagles.
The Eagles feature three scorers averaging double figures on a nightly basis during the current season and the championship game would be no different.
Senior Billy Southerland finished the night with 13-points, Fisher added 17-points including three triples and Moeller transfer from last season Blake Lloyd connected on a game high 22-points with the Eagles winning their 21st consecutive game of the season.
Playing their final game for the Versailles Tigers basketball program: No. 5 Michael Stammen, No. 11 Ryan Martin, No. 12, Hunter Trump, No. 13 Connor VanSkyock, No. 24 Dakoda Naftzger and No. 33 Austin Toner.
BOXSCORE:
CINCINNATI HILLS CHRISTIAN ACADEMY 57, VERSAILLES 47
CHCA – B. Lloyd 22, C. Fisher 17, Billy Southerland 13, Ben Southerland 5 – TOTALS 15 21 57
VERSAILLES – M. Stammen 20, C. VanSkyock 9, B. Ruhenkamp 8, A. Toner 5, D. Naftzger 3, R. Martin 2 – TOTALS
3-POINTERS:
CHCA 6 (C. Fisher 3, B. Lloyd 2, Billy Southerland 1)
Versailles 5 (M. Stammen 1, C. VanSkyock 1)
Versailles closes out the season with a 27-3 mark. CHCA improves to 23-2 on the year.