PORTSMOUTH – The cards appeared stacked against the Green Bobcats.

Saturday, December 11, 1999

PORTSMOUTH – The cards appeared stacked against the Green Bobcats. Fortunately, they were able to draw the trump card.

Green was playing its opener, on the road against a good team with three games under its belt, and without two starters. But the Bobcats rose to the challenge as they beat the Portsmouth Notre Dame Titans 52-46 Friday in a Southern Ohio Conference game.

Missing were starters Michael Riffe and Alex Poe, the 6-foot-3 center who suffered an injury the night before in practice.

With a bulk of the offense missing, Chris Williams stepped up and scored 27 points and Kyle Dyer had 13 points and 13 rebounds. Kyle Darnell and Williams had seven rebounds each and freshman Ben Dyer had five assists.

"Any time you can go on the road and get a league win is important," Green coach Kevin Lewis said. "To go down there and get this one, well I’m pleased. That was our first game and their fourth game. I was concerned."

Doug Montavon scored 15 points and Adam Dugan 14 to pace Notre Dame.

Williams scored 7 points and Kyle Dyer 5 the first quarter as Green jumped in front 15-8. But the offense went cold the second quarter as Notre Dame rallied to take a 24-20 halftime lead.

Williams broke loose with 10 points the third quarter and Kyle Dyer scored 6 more as Green regained the lead at 38-37.

"We only had 11 turnovers so that’s pretty good. Ben Dyer did a nice job getting us into our offensive sets, and we got good bench play from Joe Salyers," said Lewis. "And Chris got hot the third quarter and the kids looked for him. He hit some big shots."

Green started to open up the lead in the fourth quarter, but Notre Dame battled back and got within one with 4:20 to play. The Bobcats defense then tightened and Williams scored 10 points in the quarter.

Green sank five free throws over the final 1:30 to clinch the win.

"We did a nice job defensively the fourth quarter," said Lewis. "Our kids really responded. Dyer and Darnell did a nice job on the boards, Darnell had some nice interior passes, and Jeff Dixon did a good job working our perimeter game."

Green hosts Portsmouth Clay Tuesday in an SOC game.