Sidney at Xenia

Final Score
Sidney 69
Xenia 47

Sidney made the trip down I-75 on Thursday evening for a Miami Valley League showdown with Xenia. Xenia was looking to rebound after a close 1-point loss to Piqua. Sidney was trying to continue their start after beating Tecumseh just a few days earlier.
 
Right off the bat, it was clear Sidney had plenty of consistency from beyond the arc. A’zon Steele (Jr) got rolling early with a few jumpers and slashes to the rim. Jayden Daniel (Jr) knocked down 2 early 3’s as well as the Yellow Jackets jumped out of the gate. Xenia struggled from the floor. While they were getting some shots in the paint, there were more misses than makes. Even with the struggles, Sidney took an early 16-8 lead in the 1st.
 
Sidney continued to feed off of Daniel’s shooting, but began to find a rhythm as well from Julius Spradling (Jr), who found a groove both off of turnovers and in the halfcourt. Xenia’s Alijah Winters (Sr) consistently found success offensively with explosiveness on the drive and some floaters in the paint. Even with Winters’ scoring, the Buccs struggled with turnovers and allowed Sidney to get out on the fast break far too many times. Going into the half, Sidney extended the lead 33-18.
 
Sidney exploded out of the 2nd half on a 9-2 run behind hot shooting from Steele and Spradling, forcing the Buccs to burn a timeout. Out of the timeout, Xenia began bringing more ball pressure which visibly gave the Yellow Jackets some problems. The Buccs were able to run even the rest of the quarter but offensively the flow and missed shots continued to be the theme. Sidney ended the quarter up 52-30.
 
Xenia found some fire in the 4th quarter and came out on all cylinders behind Winters. The Buccs were able to get the deficit down to 17 points, but Sidney would find a way to respond, typically with a forced turnover. The Yellow Jackets would end the game with a 69-47 win. Steele, Spradling, and Daniel combined for 55 points. Winters finished with 17 points for Xenia.
 
Sidney will go to Stebbins next Tuesday in their next game. Xenia will take on Coopersville (MI) on Saturday morning at the Nutter Center.