Stebbins hasn’t beat Shawnee since 2011.
“We knew that (Stebbins) was much improved and were playing well coming into this with a four-game winning streak,” Shawnee coach Chris McGuire said. “We knew we were going to have to control the boards because they do a great job at offensive rebounding, and I thought we did a good job at that.”
Shawnee went on a 6-2 run over the first 2:30 of the third quarter to take a 29-23 lead. Stebbins came back and tied the game 34-34, but Camden Van Velzor hit a 3-pointer and Trey Miller made a layup in the final minute of the third to give Shawnee a five-point lead.
Mickael Mayo hit a 3-pointer for Stebbins with about two minutes left in the fourth to tie the game 43-43, but Shawnee made three foul shots and one layup over the next minute to take a 48-43 lead.
Stebbins cut Shawnee’s lead to 50-47 on a 3-pointer by Mark Perkins with 21 seconds left, but Van Velzor hit two foul shots a little later to put the game away.
Van Velzor led the Braves with 17 points, while Miller finished with 10.
Mayo led Stebbins with 18, and Chris Davis added 12. Jonathan Mpanzu, who leads Stebbins with an average of 12 points per game, scored five on Tuesday.
“We knew they wanted to get a lot of penetration to score inside or dump it in to (Mpanzu), and we knew if we could kind of pinch on a lot of that and kind of force them on the perimeter, it would give us the best shot to win,” McGuire said. “We did a good job making them shoot jump shots.”
The win improved Shawnee to 5-8 overall and boosted the team’s sprits. The Braves lost by one point on Saturday night to Fairborn, and McGuire said coming back with a win shows how the team has matured since a 1-7 start.
Shawnee’s next game is at home on Friday against Bellefontaine. The Chieftains beat Shawnee by 19 points when the teams first met in CBC action on Dec. 9.
Stebbins returns to the court on Friday for a road league game against Tippecanoe, which also left the CBC for the GWOC this season.
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