The Chillicothe Cavaliers were able to contain a much larger front line of Thomas Worthington to come away with a 41-37 win at the Stephen Gussler Invitational on Friday at Thomas Worthington High School.
After the inside size of the Cardinals took control early in the game on multiple second chance opportunities, the Cavs were able to get the lead late in the first quarter after finishing the quarter on a 4-0 run and led 12-8 at the end of the quarter. The Cavs never gave up the lead after that.
Chillicothe showed good patience on offense and according to Coach Huffer "We had to rely on our toughness to handle their inside guys and we did a good job of that as the game went on."
The trio of Jason Benson, Will Roderick and Brandon Noel slowed the inside game of the Cardinals and the Cavs were able to maintain a four-to-six-point lead throughout the second half.
Chillicothe was able to stretch that lead to 35-26 with 4:45 to go in the game, when Thomas Worthington went on a 6-0 run for the next three minutes to cut the margin to 35-33. Brandon Mauggmer nailed a jumper on the next possession to extend the lead to 37-33 with 1:40 left.
The Cardinals never recovered and the Cavs sealed the win making four free throws down the stretch. Two of those came from Brandon Maughmer and two by Jayvon Maughmer.
Chillicothe was led in scoring by Brandon Maughmer with 14 points, Jayvon Maughmer with 10 points and Brandon Noel also with 10 points.
The Cavs are (8-3) overall and travel to Logan Elm for a game on Saturday night, which will be broadcast on News Radio WBEX & iHeart Radio, with Dan Ramey and Lou Postage courtside.
WBEX Sports Analyst Lou Postage talked with Cavs Coach Eric Huffer after the win Friday night. Listen to those comments in our podcast below...