Boys basketball: Clearview too much for depleted Black River

SHEFFIELD TWP. — The Black River boys basketball team had little room for error against Clearview. With just nine guys dressed and five others on the roster unavailable because of sickness, the Pirates gave the Clippers all they could muster but fell short 83-56 in Lorain County League play on Friday evening. The Pirates were without guards Parker Broadsword and Josh Stuart, while starters Austin Pamer and Hunter Varney were just returning to the lineup after kicking the illness. Clearview also was playing without starting forward Deacon Delgado. "We've been battling with this sickness for about a week now," Black River interim coach Mike Hazlett said. "It hit us at Keystone last week and we've been out a couple of guys this week. We were kind of dragging out there tonight. We came out, gave it our all, but there's only so much we could do." Black River (4-13, 1-10) got off to a good start, never trailing in the first quarter. Chase English scored five of his eight points during the opening five minutes and Zane Kristophel capped an 11-4 opening run with four points. Clearview (9-8, 5-5) ended the first outscoring Black River 8-6 and then turned up the defense in the second. The Clippers forced 10 turnovers and smothered the Pirates for the first 6:25, scoring 23 unanswered points. Zyan Griffin ended the run with a layup at the 1:35 mark as Clearview took a 43-19 lead into halftime. The Clippers also got strong production out of their bench with 53 points, including a game-high 27 from Quavion Grant and 10 from Corey Armelin. Jamarri Pickens also had seven off the bench. Cy Christensen led the starters with 23 points as Clearview finished with 14 steals, including 11 in the first half. "I thought in the first quarter we came out really strong," Hazlett said. "We slowed the game down and that was our intent. We did a great job with that in the first, but in the second quarter we got sloppy with the ball and didn't do the fundamental things right." Kristophel, who led the Pirates with a career-high 28 points and 11 rebounds, only had eight points in the first half, but exploded for 10 in the third quarter as Black River did everything it could to cut into the Clearview lead. While the Pirates scored 20 points — their best quarter of the evening — Clearview matched it point-for-point. "It was the talk at halftime," Kristophel said. "The coaches told our team we had to come out and play hard if we wanted to come back from this. We played hard, but I felt we could have played harder defense. We've got to work on our defense." Contact Chris Sweeney at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com. Follow him @CSweeney1686 on X. Clearview 83, Black River 56 BLACK RIVER&emsp;15 4 20 17 — 56 CLEARVIEW&emsp;12 31 23 17 — 83 Black River — Austin Pamer 2-0-5, Zane Kristophel 13-2-28, Chase English 3-1-8, Zyan Griffin 6-0-12, Hunter Varney 1-1-3, Wade Mangan 0-0-0. TOTALS: 34-9-83. Clearview — Cy Christensen 10-2-23, Tristin Ientile 1-1-3, Devin Jackson 0-0-0, De'Zonn Chapman 1-0-2, Kanyon Delgado 1-0-2, Nysir Huston 2-1-5, Quavion Grant 11-1-27, Jamarri Pickens 3-0-7, Corey Armelin 3-4-10, Montez Sanchez-Miller 2-0-4, Damir Mosley 0-0-0. TOTALS: 25-4-56. 3-point goals — English, Pamer, Grant 4, Christensen, Pickens. Rebounds — Black River 23 (Kristophel 11), Clearview 14 (Armelin 3). Records — Black River (4-13, 1-10), Clearview (9-8, 5-5). Junior varsity — No game.