Amelia's Tyler Stewart attempts a shot in the first half of the Barons' win over Batavia on Friday, Jan. 6, 2017.

Amelia's Tyler Stewart attempts a shot in the first half of the Barons' win over Batavia on Friday, Jan. 6, 2017.

By Garth Shanklin
Sports Editor

Two Clermont County boys’ basketball teams engaged in a defensive struggle on Friday, Jan. 6 when the Batavia Bulldogs faced off against the Amelia Barons.

The teams combined to score just 70 points total with the Barons taking the 37-33 victory thanks to a late rally.

The Barons led 19-14 at the end of the first half. Batavia’s defense, combined with an off-night from the field, held Amelia to just seven points in the third quarter. Batavia tallied 15 thanks to 5 points from Colin Sammons, helping the Bulldogs to take a 29-26 lead entering the final quarter.

In the fourth quarter, Batavia’s offense struggled. Batavia led 31-26 early in the period, only to see the Barons answer with five straight points to tie the game at 31 with 1:50 remaining.

Less than 25 seconds later, Batavia re-took the lead thanks to a basket from Sammons. Amelia answered, tying the game with 59 seconds remaining on a two-pointer from Cage Meyer. Matt Fletcher provided the winning margin with a pair of free-throws. Batavia had one last shot at tying the game, but the Bulldogs couldn’t hit the basket. Amelia rebounded the ball and added two more free-throws to finish scoring.

Amelia’s Brandon Gaynor led the team with 11 points. Meyer added 8 points and nine rebounds. Fletcher scored 4 points and grabbed 10 boards for the Barons. Sammons led Batavia with 13 points. He was the only Bulldog with double-figures in the contest.

Amelia head coach Craig Mazzaro said the team was short on players and rest during the game.

“We were running on a bit of fumes there, we were really tired,” he said. “We had a late night at Little Miami, we had a late practice Wednesday and we had a couple guys sick. One guy sat out this game. We had to reach down in that fourth quarter and some guys really stepped up.”

Mazzaro added that he was happy to see the players respond in the fourth quarter the way they did.

“That was good to see. Matt Fletcher came in, gave us a few good minutes,” he said. “Zane Massner gave us a few good minutes. Brandon Gainer and Cage Meyer hit some key shots and we defended real well. We didn’t have a good offense at all, we were very stagnant on offense, standing around. We held them to 33 points, and that’s what won the game for us.”

Batavia head coach Aaron Brose said the team’s shooting let them down in the game.

“We didn’t shoot as well as we could’ve,” Brose said. “We got some great looks, but outside of Colin Sammons we didn’t make a lot of shots. That hurts you. We had a five-point lead late, got a couple good looks and didn’t finish them. We had a couple chances to put pressure on them late and couldn’t. Those things happen, unfortunately.”

Amelia also had difficulties shooting the ball, though the Barons’ troubles came at the free-throw line. Amelia shot 50 percent from the foul line, making just 11 of their 22 attempts.

“We struggled mightily at the free-throw line,” Mazzaro said. “I know at one point we missed eight straight free-throws. We hit them and we close them out by eight or 10 points. We had to hang on and defend right at the end. We defended the whole game, so we were pretty confident in that.’

Brose added that the Barons have several good players in the post who were able to finish plays the Bulldogs could not.

“They’re good,” Brose said. “They have a lot of good players who can get low on the blocks and they finish well. Cage Meyer made some great plays late, we thought we had them defended well and he went up and finished. You have to tip your cap to him, he made the plays we couldn’t make.”

The Barons are off until Tuesday, Jan. 17 when they travel to Williamsburg for a 7:30 p.m. tip. Batavia visits Norwood for a 7:30 p.m. contest on Friday, Jan. 13.