by This game is brought to you by these fine sponsors https://keeonsports.com/sponsors/
CLEVELAND, Ohio– Buchtel maintained a comfortable lead for most of the second half against Lutheran East on Jan. 31. Senior point guard Noah Peeples scored seven of his 19 points in the fourth quarter, propelling the Griffins to an 88-82 win.
“We wanted to see if we can come out and beat other teams that are not in the city,” Peeples said. “It was more so something we wanted to prove to ourselves; that we were that team.”
After a back-and-forth first half, Lutheran East ended the second quarter on a high note. Senior guard BJ Busbee sunk a deep 3-pointer to tie the game at 44 apiece heading into halftime.
BJ Busbee (@BjBusbee) knocks down a 3 at the buzzer to tie the game at 44 heading into halftime.
Chris Livingston with 19 points to lead the way for Buchtel.
Jalen Knott with 13 for Lutheran East.@BHoopsShootout pic.twitter.com/UjXnfAurBK— Michael Trivisonno (@MichaelTriv_) January 31, 2021
Entering halftime with the game tied, Peeples and his teammates wanted to come out in the second half and make a statement.
That they did.
A Chris Livingston mid-range jumper pushed the Buchtel lead to 64-52 with just under four minutes left in the third quarter. The Griffins were able to capitalize on the Lutheran East missed opportunities, eventually pushing their lead to eight points heading into the fourth quarter.
“Everybody was involved, it wasn’t just the five players on the court,” Peeples said on the ability of his team to make a couple of runs to start the second half. “We made sure that we had our whole team involved, it was a team win and not necessarily a one-man job. Everybody pitched in so we decided that we had to come out of halftime with the same intensity and that really motived us to bring out the intensity.”
“We wanted to come out with the first bucket and come out mentally strong,” Chris Livingston added. “We just wanted to jump on them and have the same mentality starting the game.”
Lutheran East senior guard Sirr Hughes opened the fourth quarter with a layup, scoring the previous six points for his team and cutting the deficit to five points. But there were the Griffins to answer on the other end.
Peeples eventually pushed their lead back up to 12 points following an and-one layup with five minutes left in the game.
The Falcons then went on a 15-5 run in the next four and a half minutes to cut the deficit to two points with under one minute left in the game.
Collin Albert gets Lutheran East within two with under 1 min left in the 4th @BHoopsShootout pic.twitter.com/T26nkO5KjK
— Michael Trivisonno (@MichaelTriv_) January 31, 2021
Jalen Knott was unable to knock down a corner 3-pointer with 10 seconds left, forcing to foul Marcel Boyce Jr. where he eventually made both free throws, putting the game out of reach for the Falcons.
Chris Livingston led the way for Buchtel during the win– filling the stat sheet with a game-high 30 points, 18 rebounds, five assists and six blocks. Peeples added 19 points followed by 16 points from Boyce Jr. to round out the scoring.
For Lutheran East, Jalen Knott led the way with a team-high 19 points. Collin Albert added 15 points along with 14 points each from BJ Busbee and Sirr Hughes.
The loss ended a perfect start to the season for Sam Liggins and his team. The team drops to 7-1 following its last time on the court, a win against Willoughby South back on Jan. 12.
“We were playing catchup the whole game, didn’t have much rhythm and missed a couple of easy shots I thought we could’ve made,” Liggins said. “I felt like if we would’ve made a couple of those then the game kind of would’ve swung in our favor. We’ve been coming back a lot the last two years so these guys have fight in them.”
