Crusaders hand Eagles 1st home loss

Disputed call, aftermath, shift momentum to a tough Dayton squad.

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By John Bombatch, Staff Writer 1:47 AM Saturday, February 11, 2012

MIDDLETOWN — Visiting Dayton Christian needed strong inside shooting, great hustle and dead-eye free-throw shooting in order to hand Middletown Christian its first home loss of the season Friday night. They got all three, and the Warriors won 74-61.

Dayton Christian coach Joshua Snyder said Jordan Jones’ late-game dive for a loose ball may have been the ultimate key. With 18 seconds left in the third quarter and the Warriors (11-6, 9-2 Metro Buckeye Conference) out in front 43-38, Jones dove for a loose ball with Middletown Christian’s Zach Wise.

From the MCS sidelines, it appeared that Jones dove into Wise, but it was Wise who was whistled for the foul — his fourth of the game. Jones missed the front end of his bonus free throw, MCS rebounded the shot and called timeout, and then Eagles coach Luke Gibson was whistled for a technical foul for arguing the call during the timeout.

Mark Lieberman hit the second and third of his 14 converted free throws for the game on the technical, Dayton scored on its next possession on a backdoor pass from Tanner Wall to Jay Zollars, and suddenly the Warriors had broken the game open and led after three quarters, 47-38.

Lieberman finished with a game-high 22 points, including 14 of 15 free throws. Jones finished with 18 points while teammates Zollars and Jake Nash both finished with a dozen.

“I don’t think either team had really established any momentum until Jordan made that play,” Snyder said.

Gibson said Jones’ play was big, but DC’s ability to score inside was a problem, too.

“They did a nice job penetrating inside tonight,” Gibson said. “We knew that that’s what they were going to do, but we just didn’t get the job done tonight.”

Wise led the Eagles (12-6, 7-4 MBC) in scoring with 21 points, and was a perfect 8-of-8 from the foul line. Zach Henderson finished with 16 points and Josh Hutson added a dozen in the loss.

Dayton Christian hosts Cincinnati Prep at 7:30 p.m. today. Middletown Christian next plays on Friday at Xenia Christian.

“If you’re going to lose a game like that to a good team like Dayton Christian, all you can do is try to learn from this, and try not to do the same mistakes in the tournament,” Gibson said.

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