Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

SOLON – For much of the regular season Solon struggled with closing out tight games against quality opponents.

In its regular season finale on Friday the Spartans showed they are reversing that trend at just the right time.

Solon came up with big plays down the stretch to hold off Clear Creek Amana 62-53 in a WAMAC Conference cross-divisional matchup in Solon.

The win was the third in last four games for Solon which closed the regular season 7-14.

“It was tough this year, we’ve been so close in so many games but we did a good job of keep positive and came out with a big win tonight,” Solon junior Carson Shive said. “I think we kind of proved something tonight.”

Solon lost five games by two points during the regular season and dropped two more games in overtime. Two of those two-point losses came to top-five opponents Marion and Mount Vernon.

The common theme in all those losses for the Spartans seemed to be a lack of late-game composure.

On Friday it was the exact opposite for Solon.

The Spartans hit four straight four-quarter free throws after Clear Creek Amana cut the lead to 46-42 with 5:58 left and never let the Clippers get close than five points the rest of the way.

“We didn’t turn the ball over, we finished and we missed a couple of free throws there at the end but it was a different feel tonight, it was a different look,” first-yaer Solon coach Matt Lesan said. “We were the ones that were under control, we ran through possessions, we weren’t in a hurry, we were strong with the basketball and that’s a huge credit to these guys and that learning process we’ve gone through this year.”

Shive scored 18 points and sophomore point guard Jacob Quillin hit eight fourth-quarter free throws and finished with 11 as the Spartans snapped a seven-game Clear Creek Amana winning streak.

The Clippers dropped to 15-5 on the season with their first loss since falling at Williamsburg on January 21.

“That Clear Creek Amana team is a scary bunch, they really are,” Lesan said. “That’s a good ball club and they are well coached so I’m proud of the way our kids competed tonight.”

The game got off to a sentiment start with the team’s trading uncontested baskets by seniors Aaron Cullen for Clear Creek Amana and AJ Coons for Solon.

Solon took control with an 11-0 run that spanned three minutes in the opening quarter and gave the Spartans a 16-9 lead they would never give up.

“Early in the year we had a ton of close games and we weren’t able to close some of those games out,” Quillin said. “We stuck together as a team and won one for us.”

Solon led 30-25 at the half and 46-38 after three quarters.

Clear Creek Amana put the pressure on early in the fourth quarter.

Back-to-back baskets by TJ Bollers cut the Solon lead to 46-42, getting the Clippers as close as they had been since the opening quarter.

“After we got sped up a little bit we took a timeout and I just reminded them that every day in practice we’ve been working on this,” Lesan said. “We’ve put a 1:30 on the clock every day to work on these situations and they perform time and time again so I just reminded them they’ve done it and man did they respond.”

After turning the ball over on its first three possessions of the fourth quarter the Spartans didn’t commit another turnover the rest of the game.

Meanwhile Solon hit 9-of-11 free throws in the four-minute span after Clear Creek Amana cut the lead to four pushing the margin back to 57-47 with 1:10 left.

“We took care of the ball,” Shive said. “Normally it’s a turnover fest but tonight we took care of the ball, handled it well and were very composed when they pressured us.”

Quillin hit all eight of his fourth-quarter free throw attempts as Solon finished 14-of-21 from the free throw line in the final quarter.

The Spartans had just nine turnovers while forcing the Clippers into 15.

“We made our free throws and we didn’t turn the ball over,” Quillin said. “Coach told us to calm down and take care of the ball and we were able to pull it out.”

Playing without leading scorer David Bluder for the fourth straight game Solon had six players with five or more points.

Will Noonan had nine on 3-of-3 3-point shooting while Bo Janssen had seven points and senior Cam Miller had six points and six rebounds.

“When you are missing some key players its very important for everybody to start clicking,” Shive said. “We were clicking tonight, I can’t thank my teammates enough.”

Solon                          16  14  16  16  –  62

Clear Creek Amana    9   16  13  15  –  53

Solon (62) – Cam Miller 2-7 0-0 6, Jacob Quillin 1-5 8-8 11, Will Noonan 3-3 0-0 9, Carson Shive 4-11 8-13 18, Ben Cusick 1-3 3-5 5, Bo Janssen 3-8 1-2 7, Kinnick Pusteoska 2-5 0-2 4, Drew Turner 0-1 0-0 0, AJ Coons 1-1 0-0 2, Totals 17-44 20-30 62.

Clear Creek Amana (53) – Brock Reade 3-5 0-0 7, Aaron Cullen 1-1 0-0 2, Nick O’Connor 2-9 0-0 6, Tyler Schrepfer 4-13 6-8 18, Christian Withrow 3-9 3-4 9, Mike Potter 3-4 1-5 7, TJ Bollers 2-3 0-5 4, Totals 18-44 10-22 53.

3-point field goals – SOL 8-21 (Miller 2-6, Quillin 1-4, Noonan 3-3, Shive 2-4, Cuscik 0-2, Janssen 0-2), CCA 7-22 (Reade 1-2, O’Connor 2-8, T. Schrepfer 4-11, Potter 0-1). Rebounds – SOL 30 (Miller 6), CCA 34 (Bollers 10). Turnovers – SOL 9, CCA 15. Total fouls – SOL 17, CCA 24. Fouled out – CCA (Potter, O’Connor). Technical fouls – None.

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