Seniors Lead Cedarville Over Ohio Valley

By Josh Burris

The Cedarville Yellow Jackets defeated the Ohio Valley Fighting Scots Saturday night 99-71 on senior night. All three Cedarville seniors played great games.

J.C. Faubion lead the team in scoring with 27 points and grabbed six rebounds. Justice Montgomery scored 14 points and added six assists. Easton Bazzoli scored 10 points, grabbed 13 rebounds, and dished out eight assists.

Head coach Pat Estepp said the seniors have done a great job at impacting the culture of the team during their time at Cedarville.

“Our culture is different now, and spiritually it is a lot stronger because of what those guys have done over the last two years,” Estepp said. “We got a different culture on our team because of those guys. I’m really proud of them. Proud of the way they developed as players, but more importantly the way they developed as men.”

The Yellow Jackets (13-15, 5-7 G-MAC) out-rebounded the Fighting Scotts 58 to 34. Estepp said that was one of the biggest keys to the game.

“That is hands down for a game the best we have ever attacked the boards,” Estepp said. “I thought we had a lot of guys that were relentless on the boards, but in the first half in particular we did a really good job.”

Faubion got the game started with a 3-pointer. Justice Montgomery also hit a pair of 3-pointers to help Cedarville take an early 19-9 lead with 13:56 left.

Faubion hit back-to-back 3-pointers a few minutes later to keep Cedarville in the lead 29-21. Dazhonetae Bennett added a dunk later on to make the score 33-26.

Cedarville began to break the game open the rest of the half. Kwenton Scott hit back-to-back layups to give the Yellow Jackets a double-figure lead. Then he hit back-to-back 3-pointers later on to give Cedarville a 53-36 lead with 1:43 left.

Scott was hit and landed on the floor hard during a fast break on a later possession. He exited the game for the rest of the half and returned in the second half.

The Yellow Jackets ended the half with a 53-38 lead. Scott finished the first half with a team high 18 points and six rebounds. Faubion was the team’s next highest scorer with 13 points. The team also shot 8-14 from the 3-point line and out-rebounded Ohio Valley 27 to 13.

Robert Okoro scored the first six points for Cedarville in the second half to make the lead 59-43.

Evan Kraatz had a great sequence of plays as well a few minutes later. He started it by hitting a 3-pointer. Then he stole the ball and assisted Scott for a basket on a fast break at the other end to put Cedarville up 63-43.

Cedarville continued to build their lead to 30 points. Bennett threw down a dunk on an alley-oop pass from Bazzoli. Joey Morlan hit a 3-pointer to make the lead 83-53 with 8:25 left to play.

Faubion hit a couple more 3-pointers down the stretch to make the lead 98-67. All three seniors were taken out of the game at different times and received applause from the home crowd. The game ended with a 99-71 Cedarville victory.

Cedarville will compete against Malone in the G-MAC tournament on Thursday. Cedarville won the first meeting at home, but lost the second matchup away. The tournament will be played at Kentucky Wesleyan.

Josh Burris is a senior journalism major and the sports editor for Cedars. He is interested in sports broadcasting and reporting. He enjoys watching sports, lifting, and listening to rock and rap music.