RAWSON – Wednesday night a back and forth Blanchard Valley Conference battle raged inside the Hive with the visiting Vikings pulling out a 59-55 victory.
Grant Bacon led the Cory-Rawson offense in the first period with a nine point outburst that saw him give his team multiple leads while working inside the paint and through the Vikings defense.
Trailing 11-5 and following a timeout from head coach Chris Kuhlman the Vikings offense raced into high gear to pull within 11-8 on a three point goal by Mason Brandt, and then to even and ultimately ahead for the first time at 15-13 on a five point run by Jaden Siefker and a basket by Paul Maag at 1:08 remaining.
Bacon continued to dominate the output for his squad in the second quarter as he amassed a quartet of baskets that would push the Hornets into the halftime lead late in the period. Senior forward Lance Kisseberth’s back to back three pointers tied the game in the middle of the period at 19-19 and gave the hosts a 22-19 advantage.
Similarly to what his Cory-Rawson counterparts were doing, Jaden Siefker struck from deep on a pair of threes and a pair of free throws to tie the game twice in the stanza at 22-22 and 26-26 on his way to 13 first half markers.
In the third quarter the two teams traded the lead back and forth in an eight minute span that saw the Hornets account for just three baskets that included the only basket of the game by Michael Bixler to put his team ahead 32-30 with just over five minutes to go. Leipsic forward Lorenzo Walther who was forced to sit with foul trouble in the first half tied the contest at 30-30 early in the quarter with a free throw before teammate Paul Maag tied the game back up with a pair of his own charity tosses.
Three point goals by Jaden Siefker and Mason Brandt helped the Vikings to take an eight point lead heading into the final stanza.
Behind free throws from Maag and Brandt and the final two of six triples by Siefker the Vikings continued to keep their opponents at arms length on the scoreboard despite repeated baskets to get as close to a pair of points by Leo Miracle, Lance Kisseberth, and Grant Bacon and a late set of triples by Honorable Mention BVC guard Matthew White.
“It was a good win tonight. We needed it to try and keep pace in the BVC. Jaden and Mason continue to pace our scoring but we really needed every point from everyone else. We feel like we are normally a fairly deep team, but with Dillan (Niese) and Sicky (Tyler Sickmiller) out, and with having Trey Schroeder and Lorenzo in foul trouble early we really got tested” said Leipsic mentor Chris Kuhlman.
Cory-Rawson falls to 6-5 on the season and 4-2 in Blanchard Valley Conference play were led by Grant Bacon with 19 and Matthew White with 12. Next up for the Hornets is a Friday night date hosting Arcadia.
Leipsic (12-2, 6-1) has now defeated the Hornets 15 straight times and will host Toledo’s Emmanuel Christian on Saturday in a non-conference affair. Jaden Siefker led Leipsic in scoring with 24 markers while Mason Brandt chipped in 17 as the duo connected on nine three point goals.
Scoring:
Leipsic (59):
Mason Brandt 17
Trey Schroeder 1
Jaden Siefker 24
Paul Maag 8
Lorenzo Walther 7
Kaleb Gillespie 2
FT: 12/15
3PT: 9 (Siefker 6, Brandt 3)
To: 13
Cory-Rawson (55):
Matthew White 12
Michael Bixler 2
Keevan Lee 4
Lance Kisseberth 9
Leo Miracle 9
Grant Bacon 19
FT: 1/3
3PT: 8 (Kisseberth 3, Miracle 3, White 2)
TO: 8
JV: Cory-Rawson 44-36