Mapletown fends off Beth-Center in consolation game
CARMICHAELS – Mapletown wasn’t at its best on Friday night, but the Maples were good enough when they had to be against an improving Beth-Center squad. Joe Clites scored 14 of his 17 points in the second half as Mapletown defeated the Bulldogs 63-53 in the consolation game of the King Coal Lions Club Christmas Tournament held at Carmichaels on Friday night.
Coach Fred Morecraft’s Maples are now 6-2 on the season, while Beth-Center falls to 0-8.
“Our kids are playing hard, night in and night out, but I think we were kind of stagnant from the holidays and we weren’t sharp at all,” Morecraft said. “Our shooting was off from the field and from the free-throw line. Your routine changes when you’re not in school and sometimes that can throw you off. But give Beth-Center credit. They played hard, too.”
Mapletown fell behind 3-0 before using a seven-point run to go up by four. Baskets by Larry Booze and Matt Dearing knotted the score at 7-7 for B-C, but Andy Latusek banked in a shot off a nice move to the hoop to start a six-point run that put the Maples in front to stay.
Mapletown could never quite put the battling Bulldogs away, however.
The Maples led 13-9 after one period, 25-18 at halftime and 34-24 early in the third period.
Beth-Center used a seven-point spurt to pull within three, 34-31. Balas sparked the run with an assist on a Davis Slagle basket followed by a three-point play. Dearing then hit a layup, which forced Morecraft to use a time out.
“That’s one thing about this team … they’re not going to give up,” Beth-Center coach Barry Niemiec said. “Tonight they kept playing hard on defense and kept on pressuring, but Mapletown put some pressure on us, too, at key times. They used a half-court trap that forced us into a couple turnovers and we got out of tempo.”
Mapletown used that trapping defense after the timeout, igniting a 9-2 run to close the period with a 43-33 advantage. Clites had five points in that closing stretch, including one of his two 3-pointers on the night.
The Bulldogs could never get closer than nine the rest of the way.
“We played in a lot of spurts tonight,” Morecraft said. “Our press was very effective. We seemed to respond to the challenge when they got close to us. We’ve been like that all year. It seems like our team can turn it up when it has to. I just wished we could play four quarters that way. Then we’d really be effective.”
Latusek followed Clites, who was named to the all-tournament team, in the scoring column with 16 points and Joe Kovach had 10 for Mapletown. Chris Petrick contributed seven, Drew Denham chipped in with six and Andy Erjavek added five off the bench.
Balas scored a game-high 19 points for B-C. Brad Ferea, who was named to the all-tournament team, followed with 14 points and Dearing added 13.
Beth-Center lost to host Carmichaels in the first round on Thursday, 63-52.
The tournament results were a far cry from earlier meetings with the same two opponents. Mapletown and Carmichaels defeated B-C in their first go-arounds by scores of 76-44 and 61-36, respectively.
“There’s no doubt we’re improving and making strides,” Niemiec said. “If the kids keep doing that, we’ll be OK.”