ARCANUM – Arcanum Trojans earned a Senior Night 53-40 WOAC win over the visiting Newton Indians with all seven seniors scoring to close out regular season play.
“We said before we went out – you’re going to remember your last one, you’ll always remember your last one at home, anybody that plays the game will always remember their last game at home no matter what sport you play,” said Arcanum coach, Kevin Brackman. “They will always remember this and what goes along with that, they will always remember everyone scored in a close game, in a game a good Newton team came over here and play a good game – it wasn’t a lopsided game where everybody got to score because we’ve all seen those, this was a hard-fought game from start to finish and everyone contributed.”
Seniors playing their final home game for the Trojans: No. 0, Brady Lock; No. 4, Nathan Koller; No. 10, Braylen Etherington; No. 12, Rylan Murray; No. 24, Caleb Burke; No. 34, Luke Henninger; and No. 40 Landon Byrne.
A Newton scorebook uniform number error had the game starting with Arcanum senior Landon Byrne knocking down back-to-back free throws giving the Trojans a 2-0 lead with no time off the first quarter clock.
“They all got in the book, they were all able to put the ball through the rim,” Coach Brackman said of his seniors. “To start the game Landon Byrne, a guy that hasn’t played a lot of minutes for us but he’s a locker room guy and everybody loves him. They had a situation with an incorrect number so we felt confident putting him at the line and he was able to start the momentum swing knocking down the first two.”
Arcanum sophomore Regan Christ drained a 3-pointer at 1:06 giving the Trojans a 14-8 advantage on the way to an Arcanum 16-11 after one complete.
Braylen Etherington paced the Trojans with eight first-quarter points including two 3-pointers.
Newton battled back to grab a 20-19 lead at the halfway point of the second quarter with Arcanum senior Luke Henninger getting a 21-20 lead back with a driving layup. Five unanswered Indians points had the visitor leading 25-21 at 1:48 in the second before an Arcanum Matthew McCans layup knotted the score at 25-25.
Arcanum took a 27-25 lead to the halftime break with Landon Flatter and Luke Henninger each scoring four second-quarter points.
Etherington and Regan Christ drained 3-pointers in the opening minute of the third giving Arcanum a 33-25 lead. A Brady Lock slam dunk at 2:45 gave the Trojans a double-digit 40-29 advantage on the team’s way to a 42-33 point lead with one period to play. Lock led Arcanum with six third-quarter points.
“We were able to outscore them 15-8 and hit some big threes,” Brackman said of Trojans’ third-quarter play. “Newton is extremely well coached and he knew everything about us. He has their guys playing at a high level so we talked at halftime going back out the score was 0-0 and we had to make a push, we couldn’t let them hang around into the fourth. We trusted our shooters, we were able to move the ball effectively and our guys had the courage to take shots in that situation.”
Nathan Koller drilled a fourth-quarter triple upping the Trojans’ lead to 45-33 and Rylan Murray’s drive to the basket at 4:59 gave Arcanum a comfortable 51-36 advantage on the team’s way to a 13-point conference win.
“For us, there was a lot at stake,” Coach Brackman noted. “It was 13 guaranteed wins. Last year we ended the year with 12 so that’s a step in the right direction and it puts us at fourth in the conference. For those guys to work all season long to make improvements and to see that come to life, I’m proud of them, I’m proud of their effort. They are a good group of kids who put a lot of time into it. Their families have put a lot of time into this sport and to see themselves rewarded for their hard work is fun to see as a coach.”
Coach Brackman took a moment to share his thoughts on the future of the Arcanum Trojans boys basketball program.
“It’s encouraging,” he said. “Our JV B team won the WOAC title today, they finished the regular season 15-0. Our JV A team is 21-1 and we’re (varsity) now sitting at 13-9 so I feel like our program is in a good spot with guys that love being in the gym.”
“Our goal as a coaching staff and as a program with our kids is to show up every day and keep getting better,” Brackman continued. “Stacking our days and building and building and learning from experiences and being able to reference experiences. A lot of young guys are eager to learn and eager to get better.”
Arcanum improves to 13-9 overall and 7-4 in WOAC play to close out regular season play.
BOXSCORE:
ARCANUM 53, NEWTON 40
ARCANUM – B Etherington 11, R. Christ 11, B. Lock 10, L. Flatter 4, C. Burke 4, N. Kollar 3, R. Murray 2, M. McCans 2 – TOTALS 12 8-13 7 53
NEWTON – Cornett 12, Peters 10, Schaur 7, Wackler 7, Tipple 7 – TOTALS 14 02 4 40
3-POINTERS
Arcanum 7 (B. Etherington 3, R. Christ 2, N. Kollar 1, C. Burke 1)
Newton 4 (Cornett 2, Schaur 1, Wackler 1)
SCORE by QUARTERS
16-11-15-11 53 Arcanum
11-14-08-07 40 Newton
