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Eels 'impose their will' in homecoming win over Dugger
Riding a four-game losing streak, Clay City’s boys basketball team entered the Eel Dome Saturday night to a full capacity crowd on hand to root on the home team while celebrating the 2022 homecoming festivities.
Clay City was originally scheduled to play Southwestern Indiana Athletic Conference rival White River Valley, but due to ongoing COVID-19 issues within the program, the opponent was changed to Dugger Union, a 13-win group that has improved significantly since last year.
With little time to scout the Bulldogs and needing a win in the worst way, Clay City got back to the fundamentals, head coach Chris Ames said afterwards.
That led to the Eels building a seven-point lead late in the second quarter that was quickly dropped to two before the horn sounded to end the first half.
The way his group finished the final minute of the second quarter left Ames irate, knowing they could have potentially squandered a chance to pull away from Dugger.
During the 10-minute intermission, Ames scribbled, ‘Impose your will’ on the whiteboard inside the locker room. He was upset with the defensive intensity the Eels were playing with and knew if that changed, a win was possible.
He was right.
Clay City held Dugger to 11 second half points, including a scoreless drought from the 3:32 mark of the third quarter until the 1:37 mark of the fourth quarter that saw its lead grow from one to 19.
The Eels closed out the final 97 seconds to come away with a 52-32 homecoming win.
“We had a really bad end to the first half. We had some separation and then we had three really bad possessions to end it. I wasn’t happy with how we did that. I challenged them at the half and told them to force their will. That’s what I put on the board and that’s all we talked about. We were fine offensively but we needed to get stops and get rebounds. They did a great job of that [in the second half],” said Ames.
“I’m just really proud of how they responded there in that second half because we really needed that. They needed to feel good about something.”
During the 18-0 game-changing run that spanned from the midway point of the third quarter until the tail end of the fourth quarter, it was the offensive play of Zach Swearingen and Reilly Myers that led the way.
Swearingen scored 11 of his game-high 16 points during the stretch while Myers added seven of his 14 points to close it out.
“I thought they were going to be a tough cover with us playing inside-out. Those guys move their feet and they’re hard to guard with good ball movement. They got to the rim, which was what we needed them to do,” said Ames of Swearingen and Myers. “Their big guys got into foul trouble, and they still had to guard our big guys in the post which opened up lanes for them and they took advantage of them and got to the line.”
The run significantly altered the shooting percentages of the Eels Saturday night as they came out of the gates ice cold.
Clay City shot 2-of-12 in the first quarter, putting up just six points.
Ames couldn’t put his finger on what the issue was, but noted that once Brody Shaw, who had an 11-point, 9-rebound night, got a shot to fall through the net, things began getting back in sync for his group.
“What happened was we scored a couple of baskets early and then we turned it over. Their first baskets were on two turnovers and an offensive board. We started to feel sorry for ourselves. We didn’t bring the right mindset to get stops and then the ball wouldn’t go in the basket, but in the second quarter, and I made a comment to our coaching staff, ‘Ok. We’re fine now. The ball went in.’ Sometimes you’ve got to see the ball go in and then guys are like, ‘Ok. We’re fine again,’” said Ames.
From that point on, the Eels were steady on offense and continually got better on the defensive side of the basketball, leading them to their first win in 21 days.
Ames said the month of January has been one of the toughest stretches he’s been a part of since taking over the boys program in 2019, noting it has had little to do with the wins and losses and more to do with the health and availability of his student-athletes.
He’s hoping Saturday’s win over the Bulldogs will serve as a springboard into a more fruitful February as they ramp up for the state tournament.
“[Friday’s game at North Daviess] was the first time since the accident that we’ve had everybody. We hadn’t practiced much. Thursday night was the first night we had everybody back. We’ve had COVID problems, Brody busted his eye and had to get stitches and so he was out. We only had four varsity guys the other day at practice, so it’s been nice to get back at it,” Ames said. “It’s been a rough January. We’re hoping we can use this as a springboard into February as we get healthy and get ourselves back to where we were playing after Christmas break.”
DUGGER UNION (32) — Hall 3-7 1-2 8, Martin 3-9 2-4 10, Colvin 1-4 1-2 3, Racey 2-9 0-2 4, Gilstrap 3-4 1-1 7, Wright 0-0 0-0 0, Nesbitt 0-1 0-0 0, Murley 0-2 0-0 0, Brewer 0-0 0-0 0, Delph 0-0 0-0 0. TOTALS 12-36 FG, 5-11 FT, 32 TP.
CLAY CITY (52) — Rogers 0-2 4-6 4, Myers 4-9 5-6 14, Swearingen 5-12 3-4 16, Atkinson 1-5 2-3 4, Shaw 4-10 3-4 11, Adams 1-4 0-0 3, Patterson 0-1 0-0 0, Baumgartner 0-0 1-2 1, Bettenbrock 0-0 0-0 0, Garcia-Toro 0-1 0-2 0, Tucker 0-0 0-0 0, Stoelting 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 15-44 FG, 18-27 FT, 52 TP.
Dugger Un. 8 13 7 4 – 32
Clay City 6 17 10 19 – 52
3-point shooting — Dugger 3-17 (Hall 1-4, Martin 2-6, Racey 0-4, Nesbitt 0-1, Murley 0-2), Clay City 4-18 (Myers 0-2, Swearingen 3-8, Atkinson 0-1, Shaw 0-2, Adams 1-3, Patterson 0-1). Rebounds — Dugger 26 (Colvin 8, Martin 5), Clay City 27 (Shaw 9, Atkinson 6). Turnovers — Dugger 21, Clay City 10. Total fouls — Dugger 20, Clay City 13. Fouled out — Hall, Martin.
Next — Clay City (6-10) hosts Shakamak Thursday. Dugger Union (13-5) takes part in the Little Okaw Valley Conference tournament Friday.