High school basketball: Early shooting woes costly for Cloverleaf boys against Chippewa

DOYLESTOWN — When you're running uphill all game, it's hard to find extra gas. Cloverleaf's boys basketball team dug a hole it never climbed out of Tuesday in a 55-47 non-league loss to Chippewa. "We were kind of just drained," Colts guard Philip Hamilton said. "Everyone was against us, and the crowd was into it. This was a new environment, especially for our young faces. At the end of the season, they'll be used to it and we'll be back." While both teams played poorly in the first quarter — they shot a combined 4-for-27 — the Chipps (2-0) did a lot right in the second to jump to an eight-point lead at the break. That left the Colts (1-1) playing catch-up the rest of the way. While they were able to tie three times in the third quarter, they were never able to take a lead against a scrappy Chippewa team. That energy showed in the fourth quarter, when the Chipps opened the first 2:24 on an 8-2 run. "It can be a lot of that, but also we were down one of our starters in (Dylan) Pavlovicz," Cloverleaf coach Jack Banks said. "Pavlovicz is probably our leading scorer, so having one guy down, we just need for someone to score and get some defensive stops. We were only running seven or eight guys. We made a great run in that third quarter and just didn't have the legs in the fourth." The Colts had four players in double figures in Logan Forbes (12 points), Blake Benko (10), Ashton Newton (10) and Hamilton (10), but every time they needed a dagger, they couldn't pull the trigger. The Chipps had their ace in Caleb Gasser, who was coming off a 32-point game against Ravenna. While the junior didn't match that total, he led all scorers with 21 points. Virtually every time Cloverleaf crawled back into contention, the shooting guard had an answer. "They run a lot of stuff for him, and I can see why now," Banks said. "He can get his shot off very quickly. On top of it, he can go up off the dribble. He's multi-faceted. He's one of the better kids I've seen in the last couple years. He can score from anywhere on the court." Held scoreless in the first quarter, Gasser scored 12 of Chippewa's 21 second-quarter points and put the Chipps up twice in the third quarter after Cloverleaf forged ties. "He was just knocking down shots and being the great player that he is," Forbes said. "He's tough to guard. He's just a great player." As tough as he was to guard, Garrett Hillyer provided the dagger for the Chipps after the Colts trimmed Chippewa's lead to two with 6:31 left on a bucket by Newton. Hillyer set himself in the corner 30 seconds after that and hit a 3-pointer. On the next trip, the senior guard connected on another trey to put Chippewa up 47-39. They were his only two baskets in four attempts but arguably the difference. "Those two threes were huge, and they came from a great senior," said Chipps coach D.J. Schrock, who coached at Wadsworth and is a 2003 graduate of the school. "We count on him to be a nice role player, and he stepped up and hit two huge shots for us. That was a big difference in the fourth." Contact Brad Bournival at bournival929@gmail.com. Chippewa 55, Cloverleaf 47 CLOVERLEAF 5 16 16 10 — 47 CHIPPEWA 8 21 10 16 — 55 Cloverleaf — Blake Benko 4-1-10, Dylan Bresnahan 0-0-0 , Logan Forbes 5-2-12, Ashton Newton 4-2-10, Philip Hamilton 4-0-10, Connor Baith 0-0-0, Steven Manbeck 1-0-2, Marty Moran 1-0-3. Totals: 19-5-47. Chippewa — Christian Moyer 0-0-0, Owen Riggenbaugh 0-1-1, Logan Toler 3-2-9, Caleb Gasser 6-7-21, Garrett Hillyer 2-0-6, Brayden Braswell 2-2-6, Nick Tsimpiris 0-2-2, Ethan Douglas 2-0-4, Tillman Brown 1-0-3, Max Butcher 1-0-3, Russell Gabor 0-0-0. Totals: 17-14-55. 3-point goals — Hamilton 2, Benko, Moran, Gasser 2, Hillyer 2, Butcher, Toler, Brown. Rebounds — Cloverleaf 26 (Forbes 8), Chippewa 29 (Braswell 7). Assists — Cloverleaf 13 (Bresnahan 3), Chippewa 13 (Riggenbaugh 5). Records — Cloverleaf (1-1), Chippewa (2-0). Junior varsity — Chippewa 55, Cloverleaf 36 (Clo.: Ty Novak 13 points)