SELLERSBURG — In overtime of his season opener, Clarksville’s Nathan Masters’ steal and layup with 15 seconds left gave the Generals a 60-58 lead over Rock Creek Christian Academy on Tuesday.

Masters then clinched the 62-58 victory with a long rebound off of a Jon Ashby miss in the waning seconds.

“That was a big steal on their last possession,” Clarksville coach Scott Matthews said. “Then he smothered the rebound. Those are the kinds of things we need.”

Rock Creek got control of the ball with 1:50 to play, following a Cory Brown free throw that tied the score at 58.

The Lions held the ball for the next 1:35, but Masters managed to poke the ball away from Ethan Hawn. Masters then out-raced the Lions to the loose ball and made the uncontested layup with 15 seconds to play.

With seven seconds remaining, Ashby’s potential game-tying 15-foot shot from the left wing bounced off the front of the rim. Masters controlled the rebound, raced to the other end. He missed the layup, but freshman Aidan McEwen tipped it in at the buzzer.

“That was a solid performance,” Matthews said of the Generals’ victory. “We beat a pretty good basketball team.”

Rock Creek had a chance to end the game in regulation. With the scored tied at 55 with 15 seconds left in the fourth quarter, Ashby dribbled the clock down to four seconds. He got the ball to Hawn on the baseline. Hawn got to the basket, but his finger roll fell off of the front of the rim.

“We should have put the game away in regulation,” said Rock Creek coach Chris Brown said, and he wasn’t only referring to Hawn’s miss.

The Lions led 22-10 at the end of the first quarter, 35-32 at the half and 49-44 at the end of the third, but they went 13-for-26 from the foul line and turned the ball over 23 times.

“We’re not going to win close games like that. We couldn’t hit a free throw and we didn’t make rational decisions,” Brown admitted. “We’re the worst team in the state at closing out quarters and closing out games. We just don’t concentrate. Hopefully, the kids will take a long look in the mirror and make the decision that they want to play (good) basketball.”

Rock Creek got its lead by going to seniors Dontale Mayes and Shawn Austin on the inside.

Mayes, who hit his first seven shots and went 8 for 10 in the contest, scored eight points in the first quarter and had 12 at the half. After surrendering its 22-10 first-quarter lead late in the second quarter, Austin hit back-to-back 3-point shots to give the Lions a halftime lead.

Austin finished with 18 points, but took just one shot in the second half and overtime. Similarly, Mayes took just one shot in the fourth period and overtime.

“I tried and tried and tried to get (the guards) to get the ball to the bigs,” Brown said. “The guards didn’t do a very good job of feeding the post. They’re not getting the job done right now.”

Even being down 22-10 at the end of one quarter, Matthews said he liked the way his team was playing.

“Actually, I didn’t think we played all that bad early,” he said. “We hung in there and weathered the storm. It’s great to see our team battled like that in Game 1. We could have very easily been out of the game by halftime.”

For the Generals, a star may have been born in McEwen.

The freshman had a game-high 25 points and helped bring Clarksville back in the second quarter with seven big points.

McEwen was clearly the Generals’ go-to player, even in his first varsity contest. He went 9-for-21 from the field and hit three of his eight 3-point shots.

“To be honest, I was hoping he would be that aggressive,” Matthews said. “(In last week’s scrimmage), I had him at point guard. Tonight, I moved (Masters) to point guard and took all of the decision-making out of it for him.”

Brown added 16 points. He also had four steals and two rebounds and Matthews gave credit to Brown and Jacob Carver, who had eight points and seven rebounds, for defending Mayes and Austin and turning the game around.

“The inside play of Carver and Brown was a major plus for us against a really good front line,” Matthew said.

For Clarksville, Masters finished with just six points, but he added four assists, four rebounds and three steals.

Mayes finished with a game-high 19 points and had 10 rebounds. Aron McGregory had seven points, three assists, two blocks, a rebound and a steal. Hawn scored eight points, had three steals and blocked two shots for the Lions, who travel to Borden on Saturday. The Braves lost 69-65 in overtime to Pekin Eastern Tuesday in their season opener.

Clarksville has a week off until it hosts South Central next Tuesday. The Rebels are 0-1 after Tuesday’s 46-37 loss to North Harrison, which is coach by former General assistant Greg Walters.



CLARKSVILLE 10 22 12 11 7—62

ROCK CREEK 22 13 14 6 3—58

Clarksville (1-0) — St. Clair 2, Masters 6, Brown 16, Farney 2, Combs 5, Carver 8, McEwen 25.

Rock Creek Christian Academy (0-1) — McGregory 7, Ashby 4, Hawn 8, Mayes 19, Austin 18, Garner 2.

3-point field goals — Clarksville 4 (McEwen 3, Combs); Rock Creek Christian Academy 3 (Austin 2, Hawn).