The Bowling Green Christian Academy boys basketball team won its fifth straight contest with a 67-61 come-from-behind victory over Radiant Christian (Greenville, Ohio) on Saturday afternoon at the BG Community Center.
The non-conference game was the second of the day for both squads. Radiant downed Senedot, 41-25, just prior to playing BGCA.
The Lions, now 14-6 overall, rallied from a pair of seven-point deficits in the third quarter to earn the win.
BGCA trailed 49-42 with 1:17 left in the third before scoring the last five points of the period to close to within two points entering the final period.
The Lions would tie the game at 50 on a 3-point shot by junior Will Brose at the 7:38 mark, but the Knights would soon push their advantage to four points 100 seconds later.
Junior Brent Boton’s bucket at 4:48 tied the game at 56-56, but once again Radiant would regain the lead and go up by as many as three (59-56) with 3:05 to play.
BGCA then proceeded to go on an 11-2 run to close the contest. Brose hit a triple with 2:17 left to knot the score at 59.
The Lions would then retake the lead for good 60-59 on a Boston score from the charity stripe with 1:16 on the clock.
BG pushed its lead to six (65-59), its largest of the contest, on another Boston foul-shot score at the 40.4 second mark.
Radiant closed back to within four with 29 seconds left, but the Lions broke the Knights’ full court press with a fast-break layup by freshman Kole Evans (off a long in-bounds pass from junior Hudson Thomas) with 18 seconds to play to seal the victory.
The two teams were tied 20-20 after the first 8 minutes of action and BGCA held a 38-35 advantage heading into the halftime break. The game had 11 ties and seven lead changes.
Thomas turned in a team-high 17 points for BGCA, including nine points from beyond the 3-point line.
Junior Jaydin Pinkney added 14, Brose had 11 (3 triples), senior Bryce Oberlander continued his hot hand with nine (all in the opening period), Boston registered eight, junior Caleb Kunstmann dropped in six. and Evans had two.
As a team, BGCA made seven treys, including two each from Thomas and Oberlander.
Pinkney led the Lions on the boards with 11, including six on the offensive glass. Brose hauled down 10 caroms, while Boston, Kunstmann, and Thomas had six, five and four, respectively.
BGCA turned in a season-high 21 assists thanks to crisp, quick passing. Brose, Boston, and Kunstmann had four dishes each and Thomas set up three baskets. Boston also turned in a team-high four steals, one more than Thomas..
Brock Durst poured in a game-best 21 for Radiant and senior Zion Agle added 16.
Radiant closes the year at 11-5. BGCA resumes play on Thursday (Feb.9) when it concludes the non-conference portion of its schedule with a road game at Stateline Christian in Temperance, Mich.
The Lions will then host Grand Lake Christian on Saturday (Feb. 11) to end the regular season. Tip-off is set for 2:30 p.m. at the BGCC.
In the Lions’ first game Saturday, Bowling Green Christian came away with a thrilling 46-45 overtime victory against the Senedot Stripes (Chatfield, Ohio) at the Delores Black Gymnasium inside the BG Community Center.
Boston’s short jumper with 11 seconds to play in the extra session stood up as the winning basket and lifted to a 6-2 record in the Independent Christian Schools of Ohio Athletic Conference’s West Division.
Junior Jaydin Pinkney assisted on Boston’s bucket after pulling down a key offensive rebound with 15 seconds remaining.
The win clinched BG’s position as the second seed in the West for the upcoming state tournament to be held Feb. 13-27 in Mt. Gilead, Ohio.
The Lions, who have received a bye into the quarterfinals, will play the winner of the No. 6 East/No. 6 West game on Thursday, Feb. 23.
BGCA’s contest against Senedot featured 10 lead changes and five ties. The Lions’ largest lead of seven points came early in the third period, while the Stripes’ biggest margin came in OT, 45-42, before BGCA rallied for the game’s final four points.
Brose led BGCA in scoring with 14, while Oberlander had 13. Eleven of Oberlander’s points came in the fourth quarter. He hit three consecutive triples and was a perfect 2-for-2 at the foul line during that stretch.
The Lions led 6-5 after a low-scoring first stanza and took a 16-13 advantage into halftime. Senedot used its highest scoring quarter of the game (15 points) to take a 1-point lead (28-27) into the final period of regulation, but BG went on an 8-0 run to grab a 35-28 cushion 1:51 into the fourth.
The Stripes chipped away at the Lion lead and eventually tied the game at 40-40 on a hoop by Diezel Lepper with 19.8 seconds to play to force OT. Lepper posted a game-high 23 points, including 12 in third. Like Oberlander, he made three baskets beyond the arc.
A Senedot turnover with 1.5 seconds left in regulation gave BGCA a chance to win it, but an off-balance, running 3-pointer by Brose in front of the BG bench was off the mark as time expired.
Brose scored first in overtime to give BG’s its last lead before Boston’s game winner. Down by three, Brose hit a pair of charity shots to draw BG within one at 45-44 with 45.9 seconds to play.
A missed front end of a 1-and -1 by Senedot gave BG the opportunity for the victory. Immediately after Boston’s clutch hoop, Senedot called a timeout with 8.7 seconds left. The Stripes worked the ball to the right corner where Blyth Miller’s 3-point attempt fell short as the final buzzer sounded.
Besides Brose and Oberlander, Kunstmann assisted the offensive attack with eight points, while Pinkney had six. Boston finished with three points and Thomas contributed two to round out the Lion attack.
Pinkney had a team-best 11 rebounds, including eight on the offensive glass. Brose hauled down eight boards (5 offensive), while Thomas and Kunstmann had six and four, respectively.
Freshman Trent Thompson blocked one shot, as did Thomas, and grabbed three boards. Thomas was BG’s assist leader with four. Boston and Kunstmann paced the team in thefts with three apiece.
