By Staff
SOUTH BEND, Ind. – The Niles boys' varsity basketball team fell to 1-4 with a non-conference loss at powerful South Bend Clay on Saturday night, 73-53.
The Vikings trailed by three after one quarter, 13 at the half and gradually wore down under Clay's relentless full court pressure.
Niles ended with 26 turnovers that resulted in many easy baskets.
David Garner led Niles with 17 points, Terrell Farrow had 11 and Zach Pearson added four points and eight rebounds.
Brad Cameron scored a game-high 31 points to lead Clay. Cameron had 20 of those points in the opening half.
South Bend also got 17 points from George Jones.
Niles travels to St. Joseph on Tuesday.
The Niles junior varsity squad dropped a tough 65-58 decision to Clay in overtime on Saturday night. The Vikings were led by Austin Parks' 23 points. Matthew McLaughlin added 15 points.
"I couldn't be happier with the way our kids competed tonight," Niles coach Josh Bourne said. "We haven't had a game in two weeks and you wouldn't really be able to tell. We did so many good things against a very good Clay team. They were by far the best team that we have seen so far.
"Rebounding was a key going into the game and if we were able to hold them to one shot offensively we would be pretty successful. Unfortunately, we were not able to do that. Their kids were always in the right place and we weren't able to get them off the boards. The biggest stat of the night was that most of the time when they got a weak-side rebound we ended up fouling. That led to them shooting 23 out of 28 from the free throw line and that is nearly impossible to overcome," he added.
NILES 53
David Garner 6 3-4 17, Andrew Brawley 1 1-2 3, Asaad Ali 2 0-0 4, Zach Payne 3 0-0 6, Zach Pearson 2 0-0 4, Terrell Farrow 5 1-2 11, Conrad Muhumza 1 0-1 2, Javier Smith 2 2-4 6, A.J. Moore 0 0-0 0, Mitch Peterek 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 22 7-13 53
CLAY 73
Andrew Adeniyi 0 0-0 0, Chris Burke 2 0-0 5, George Jones 7 2-3 17, Brad Cameron 12 4-6 31, Kameron Stevens 1 2-4 4, Dmitri Hamilton 1 1-2 3, Terrance Jackson 2 0-0 5, Alex Bauters 1 0-0 2, Charles Hart 1 0-0 2, P.J. Ellis 1 0-3 2, Jurod Wooden 1 0-0 2, Donovan Campbell 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 29 9-18 73
Niles 11 28 47 53
Clay 15 40 66 73
3-point goals: Niles 2 (Garner 2), Clay 6 (Cameron 3, Jones, Burke, Jackson). Total fouls: Niles 17, Clay 19. Varsity records: Niles 1-4, Clay 9-3