Youthful Panthers open with win over Mustangs

Published 1:30 am Sunday, December 5, 2021


Chesapeake Panthers’ guard Ben Bragg (32) goes high in the air to hit a jump shot in a 60-50 win over Lynchburg-Clay on Saturday. (Photo by Tim Gearhart)

Jim Walker

jim.walker@irontontribune.com

 

CHESAPEAKE ­— It is usually the case that a young team is very inconsistent.

The Chesapeake Panthers are a very young team.

The youthful Panthers showed their inconsistency but managed to pull together and beat the Lynchburg-Clay Mustangs 60-50 on Saturday.

Levi Blankenship scored 10 points and Dannie Maynard had 8 points as Chesapeake jumped out to a 20-0 lead before the Mustangs cut the deficit to 22-10 at the end of the quarter.

“We got out of the gate pretty good, but we’re just so young and we don’t have a lot of stamina right now,” said Panthers’ coach Ryan Davis.

Lynchburg-Clay (1-3) turned the tables in the second quarter. Brady Chisman got 7 points, Logan Shope 6 and Bryce Binkley 5 as the Mustangs got within 34-33 at the half.

Chesapeake (1-0) had only 12 points with J.D. Daniels and Maynard getting 4 points each.

But the Panthers resumed their offensive output in the third quarter as Maynard and Blankenship each hit a 3-poitner and scored 7 points to push the lead to 54-42.

Both teams struggled with their offenses in the fourth quarter as the Mustangs outscore the Panthers 8-6. Maynard had 4 points but the Panthers converted only 4-of-13 at the foul line.

The Mustangs were 4-of-4 at the line in the quarter.

Maynard finished with a career-high 23 points. Blankenship had 19 points and Ben Bragg scored 11.

Shope had 15 points while Ian Waits and Chisman had 11 each.

On Tuesday, Chesapeake will visit Rock Hill in an Ohio Valley Conference game.

Lynchburg       10        23        9          8          =          50

Chesapeake     22        12        20        6          =          60

LYNCHBURG-CLAY (1-3): Trey Pitzer 1 0 0-0 2, Ian Waits 1 3 0-0 11, Landon West 0 0 0-0 0, Logan Shope 6 0 3-3 15, Bryce Binkley 3 1 0-0 7, Brady Chisman 3 1 2-2 11, Kyle Bennington 2 0 0-0 4, Jacob Allen 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 15 5 5-6 50. Foul: 19. Fouled out: None.

CHESAPEAKE (1-0): Caleb Cox 0 0 0-0 0, Levi Blankenship 7 1 2-2 19, Dannie Maynard 8 1 4-11 23, Cameron Shockley 0 0 0-0 0, J.D. Daniels 3 0 1-2 7, Austin Henderson 0 0 0-0 0, Braxton Oldaker 0 0 0-2 0, Ben Bragg 5 0 1-2 11. Totals: 23 2 8-19 60. Fouls: 13. Fouled out: None.