At least one Athens-area team will move on to the next round of the Division III sectional tournament, as Nelsonville-York defeated River Valley 51-32 Friday night.
It was a cold evening in The Plains, but the Buckeyes were red hot, shooting more than 51 percent from the floor.
“It’s pretty simple for us,” Nelsonville-York coach Jay Kline said. “They start missing shots because we’re defending, and our transition game gets going.”
Nelsonville-York started the game slowly on defense as the Raiders came out of the gate shooting the ball well. But the Buckeyes responded in the second frame to take control.
“I thought that we turned up our energy defensively quite a bit in the second quarter,” Kline said. “I thought it was our best team defensive performance of the season.”
Another storyline also emerged, as Kline’s son Daniel led the scoring with 20 points to give the Buckeyes the push they needed on the offensive end.
“Daniel not only got it done offensively, but his defense was fantastic,” Jay Kline said.
Nelsonville-York outscored River Valley in every quarter despite the Raiders’ strong start. That led to a frustrating conclusion for River Valley coach Jordan Hill.
“We knew we were the underdog coming in,” Hill said. “The bottom line with us was we hit some shots in the first quarter that helped motivate us, but later in the second and for the rest of the game, the shots didn’t fall.”
Nelsonville-York will play Lucasville Valley on March 5 in The Convo.
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