Dec 27, 2024
Warren’s Nick Cressey, left, makes a move inside as Monroe Central’s Tucker Howell defends during Thursday’s game at Ban Johnson Arena. (Photo by Mike Morrison)
Jacob Fogle came off of the bench and poured in 14 fourth quarter points to lead the Monroe Central Seminoles to a 59-48 win over the Warren Warriors Thursday night in the final game of the opening day of the River City Classic at Ban Johnson Arena.
With the Seminoles leading by four points early in the fourth quarter and Warren senior standout Julian Stadelman catching fire, Monroe Central head coach Mason Lang was looking for some instant offense off of his bench and he got that and then some from Fogle.
Fogle made all five of his shot attempts including four from behind the arc in the final quarter as the Seminoles pulled away to the double-digit win to improve to 6-1 on the season.
“Jacob Fogle has been a great player for us and made a lot of big shots last year but has kind of struggled a little bit with his shot this year,” said Lang. “A lot of credit goes to him because he has really remained focused thru it all and when we got him in there tonight he did his job.”
Early on it was the combination of Tucker Howell and Chance Allen doing the bulk of the damage for the Seminoles as they combined to score 21 points in the opening half.
Warren’s Julian Stadelman (00) goes up for a jumper as Monroe Central’s Tyler Whiteacre defends during Thursday’s game at Ban Johnson Arena. (Photo by Mike Morrison)
Monroe led 13-10 at the end of the first quarter and maintained that lead (25-22) at the break.
Allen scored 12 points in the opening half and barely missed two more as his dunk in transition was ruled to go down just after the buzzer sounded to end the opening half.
The Seminole defense kept the dangerous Stadelman in check through the opening half as the Warren senior scored just six points.
“Stadelman is a great player and I feel like we had a pretty good game plan to kind of held him in check,” said Lang. “You are never going to completely stop him but our help was there and as long as we communicate we can be a pretty good defensive team.”
Stadelman began to come to life in the third quarter as he scored all 10 of the Warrior points to single-handedly keep his team in the game.
The Seminoles managed to out-point Stadelman by one in the third quarter and took a four-point lead into the final eight minutes of play.
Stadelman pulled the Warriors to within two with a pair of freebies and after a Corbin Farnsworth bucket for the Seminoles, Stadelman drove the baseline for two more to trim the lead to 38-36.
Allen traded two-pointers with Warriors guard Colin Anthony to keep the lead at two before Fogle made his presence known immediately after coming off of the Seminole bench and entering the game.
Fogle’s two-pointer pushed the lead to four and he brought the large contingent of Seminole fans to their feet when he knocked down back-to-back triples on consecutive Monroe Central possessions to give the Seminoles a 10-point lead.
Chase Lupardus’s inside bucket off of an assist from Nick Cressey briefly slowed the ‘Noles’ momentum before once again Fogle rang the bell from long distance.
A pair of freebies by Stadelman trimmed the lead back to nine with just over three minutes to play but once again Fogle answered from behind the arc to give Monroe Central its biggest lead of the game at 54-42.
The Blane Maddox-coached Warriors managed to get the lead trimmed back to eight but could come no closer the rest of the way as Monroe Central cruised down the stretch to notch a rather impressive win.
“They are a really good team and Coach Maddox does a good job with them so we were glad to get them on the schedule to prepare us for the tournament,” said Lang. “We talked all week about how important it is to play tough teams and in this moment they stepped up and showed what they can do and I’m really proud of the boys.”
Both Howell and Allen matched Fogle’s 14 points to lead the way for the winners.
Howell and younger brother Cooper Howell led Monroe Central in rebounds with eight and seven, respectively.
Stadelman scored 19 of his game-high 25 points in the second half to lead the Warriors while Cressey added 10 points, five rebounds and four steals.
The loss snapped a five-game winning streak for the Warriors (5-2), who will taje on Fairland on Saturday.
The Seminoles (6-1) will take on Parkersburg Saturday evening back at the Banjo as they close out the three-day classic at 8:30 p.m.
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