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By Scott Hayes, Staff Writer 7:49 PM Saturday, January 21, 2012

CARLISLE — The last time Carlisle High School lost a boys basketball game was at Northridge on Dec. 16.

So the Indians found some sweet redemption Friday night when they handed the visiting Polar Bears a 66-53 defeat, improving to 8-4 (5-2 in the Southwestern Buckeye League Buckeye Division) with their seventh straight win.

Three different Indians scored in double figures in the win and a fourth — sophomore center Tyler Dean — scored nine points while grabbing 14 rebounds and blocking seven shots.

“The sum of our parts is greater than the individuals with this team,” Carlisle coach Jeff Waugh said. “As individuals, we’re not that imposing, but we play hard, we play together and as a group we can compete with a lot of teams out there.

“We challenged Tyler tonight, and I think he really manned up tonight. He was big in the middle and when we had a defensive breakdown he was there to contest their shots. He’s tall and lanky and tough to shoot over.”

Dean and the Indians harassed Northridge into a poor shooting night as the Polar Bears made just 21-of-74 shots from the field. However, Carlisle wasn’t able to put Northridge away thanks to 22 turnovers — many of which came while point guard Jon Back was on the bench in the second half with four fouls.

“Any time you sit on the bench and can’t contribute to the team your stomach is churning,” said Back, who led all scorers with 18 points. “But I had faith in my guys. I knew they’d keep us in it. We did a good job of getting out and guarding them tonight. They shot lights out the last time we played.”

Back returned to the game with 4:41 remaining in the game and the Indians clinging to a 45-41 lead. They finished the game on a 21-12 run, with Michael Kruse scoring half of his 14 points and Andrew Goodpaster scoring nine of his 11 in the final quarter.

“We lost composure and tried to come back all at once by shooting 3s,” Northridge coach Eric Glover said. “But Carlisle deserves a lot of credit. They came out and played us hard and have come together a lot as a team since our last game.”

The Polar Bears (4-7, 2-5) were led by Shawn Hardy and Robert Jenks who each scored 11 points, while Blake Addison scored 10.

Contact this reporter at (513) 696-4526 or scott.hayes@coxinc.com.

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