Athens played its final game of the 2019-2020 season against the Logan Elm Braves on Saturday night in The Convo.
In this district semifinals match of the state tournament, the No. 6 seeded Bulldogs fell to No. 7 seeded Logan Elm, 65-47.
Logan Elm led almost the entire game, although it was close early. After the first quarter, Athens only trailed 11-6, but the Braves blew the game wide open in the second quarter. They went on a huge run that took them to halftime with a 32-18 lead. The Bulldogs never recovered.
One of the biggest problems for Athens throughout the season was turnovers, and that problem remained true Saturday. The Bulldogs turned the ball over consistently throughout the game, which led to easy points for Logan Elm.
On top of that, Logan Elm was shooting 3-pointers at an incredibly high clip, which stopped any run Athens from going on any prolonged scoring runs. The Braves made a total of eight 3s.
The bright spots for Athens continued to be senior Brayden Markins, who has been one of the Bulldogs’ most consistent scorers all season. He scored 16 points in his final game with the Bulldogs.
This was also the final game for Andrew Stephens, Nate Trainer, Jack Cornwell, Reece Wallace and Isaiah Butcher, who are all graduating seniors this year.
While this was the team’s final game of the season, they did win the Tri-Valley Conference Ohio for the second year in a row. It was also the team’s second straight trip to The Convo by winning sectionals.
