Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

SOLON – With eight seniors including five that spent time in the starting lineup a year ago Solon has a roster loaded with experience.

Friday the Spartans transitioned the experience that exists on paper to good use on the court.

After letting an early lead slip away in a season-opening loss at Central DeWitt on Monday Solon made the key plays late in a 66-56 win over Clear Creek Amana in a WAMAC cross-divisional matchup in Solon.

“I thought we grew up tonight,” first-year Solon head coach Jared Galpin said. “We had to. We are a senior laden team, we bring back a lot of guys with experience and we just had to make that jump.”

Senior guards Carson Shive and David Bluder combined for 33 points and each hit big shots in the second half as Solon rebounded from a 61-56 loss in its opener.

Shive had a game-high 18 points while Bluder had nine of his 15 after halftime as Solon shot 48 percent from the floor in the final two quarters.

“We were hitting shots tonight and on Monday we didn’t hit the big-time shots,” Shive said. “Tonight, we hit those big shots and I’m proud of our team.”

Solon led by as many as nine in the first half before Clear Creek Amana (0-1) closed the second quarter on a 7-0 run to pull within 28-26 at the break.

Playing in its first game after an abbreviate preseason after spending time in online only classes, Clear Creek Amana trailed 10-3 just more than three minutes into the game and committed 11 of its 18 turnovers in the first half.

“It was definitely our fear going in is that you don’t have the time or the opportunity to knock the rust off,” Clear Creek Amana coach Brandon Clubb said. “It kind of looked like that for us early and then again late in the second half too.”

Trailing by just two at the break, the Clippers scored the first four points of the second half taking their first lead of the game on a steal and layup by Mike Potter with 7:01 left in the third quarter.

Unlike in Monday’s opener, Solon responded.

Solon rattled off a 12-0 spurt in less than two minutes to take a 40-30 lead it would never give up.

“We didn’t finish on Monday but I thought we grew up a lot tonight,” Galpin said. “In the regard of being able to finish, playing loose, playing confident and being strong with the ball and in control of the game.”

Shive started the run with back-to-back baskets and senior forward Ben Cusick and Bluder hit back-to-back 3-pointers in a span of 25 seconds to push the margin to 38-30.

“Last game we were a little complacent at the end we were on our heels,” Solon junior point guard Jake Quillin said. “Instead of sitting back tonight we got out and went. Some guys hit some shots and we just stepped on the gas.”

Kinnick Pusteoska capped the run with a put back in the paint that put Solon up 40-30 with 5:12 left in the third quarter.

Clear Creek Amana got as close as 42-40 but Bluder scored on a run out and Shive hit 1-of-3 free throws with no time left in the quarter to give Solon a 45-41 lead entering the fourth.

Solon led 47-43 when another senior hit another big shot for Solon as Bo Janssen splashed a 3-pointer from the corner.

Will Noonan and Shive each added 3-pointers in the quarter, Shive’s the dagger with 1:47 left, as the Spartans never let the lead shrink below four in the fourth quarter.

“I loved our guys’ confidence,” Galpin said. “They were stepping into shots when we took the right ones and they were big.”

Solon finished 9-of-24 from 3-point range while Clear Creek Amana was 2-of-8 from beyond the arc and just 16-of-27 from the free throw line.

“The did make shots and obviously we didn’t as far as jumpers and knocking down 3s which really hurt us,” Clubb said. “We score in the 50s with two 3s which isn’t really what we wanted but they scored 68 and I think that’s what we are more concerned with.”

Five different Spartans had at least seven points as Pusteoska finished with nine and Quillin and Janssen each had seven.

“Anyone of us can go out and get 15 or 20 on a night,” Quillin said. “It doesn’t matter who it is and I think that makes us a hard team to prepare for, a hard team to guard.”

Ryan Navara led Clear Creek Amana with 16 points and eight rebounds while Christian Withrow added 13 points and seven boards and Potter finished with 10 points.

Solon                                          14  14  17  21  –  66

Clear Creek Amana              10  16  15  15  –  56

Solon (66) – Jake Quillin 1-4 5-6 7, Will Noonan 1-6 2-5 5, Kinnick Pusteoska 4-5 1-1 9, Carson Shive 7-9 1-5 18, Ben Cusick 1-3 0-0 3, David Bluder 5-11 2-4 15, Bo Janssen 3-6 0-0 7, Drew Turner 1-5 0-0 2, Totals 23-49 11-21 66.

Clear Creek Amana (56) – Brock Reade 3-7 0-0 6, Kyle Schrepfer 2-5 4-6 9, Ben Swails 0-2 2-4 2, Christian Withrow 6-11 1-5 13, Mike Potter 2-3 6-9 10, Grant Kruse 0-1 0-0 0, Ryan Navara 6-9 3-3 16, Totals 19-38 16-27 56.

3-point field goals – SOL 9-24 (Quillin 0-1, Noonan 1-6, Shive 3-3, Cusick 1-3, Bluder 3-8, Janssen 1-2, Turner 0-1), CCA 2-8 (Reade 0-2, Schrepfer 1-2, Swails 0-2, Navara 1-2). Rebounds – SOL 29 (Cusick 7), CCA 28 (Navara 8). Turnovers – SOL 15, CCA 18. Total fouls – SOL 21, CCA 18. Fouled out – CCA (Schrepfer, Potter). Technical fouls – None.

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