Logan Elm had a strong start to the second half to get an edge on host Amanda-Clearcreek on the way to a 35-25 win Tuesday night.

The win came on night when LE was without three of its regular players — Ashton Fox, Riley Schultz and Karlee Thomas — who account for nearly 16 points per game.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been more proud of a group of kids than these kids right here. We knew late yesterday after practice that we weren’t going to have three of our players,” LE coach John Denen said. “We talked about it at the pregame meal that people were going to have step up and play good roles.

“I thought Bri Sowers — here’s a kid we’ve asked to play a role for us and tonight she ends up in the starting lineup and probably plays 18 minutes. I’m so proud of her. Abby Hardin hit the big three early in the game that was important to us. We had a couple of JV kids plays in the game – it was a great win for us.”

Leading 15-12 coming out after halftime, the Braves got the ball inside to 6-4 post player Brynn Griffith three times in the first 80 seconds to get a 21-12 advantage. By the end of the quarter, LE was up 25-17.

AC kept itself in the game and had LE’s advantage at six points after a Gracie Hymes  three-pointer with 1:43 left in the game.

The Braves sealed the contest though as Griffith capped a 14-point effort with 1:06 left and then Abby Hatter finished off a 16-point night by sinking a pair of free throws with 16 seconds on the clock.

“So many people in our conference are coming after Abby Hatter and I thought Abby Hatter played a great game in the second half. I’m proud of her,” Denen said of LE’s all-time leading girls scorer who now has 1,198 points in her career. “Brynn is a competitor. She’s learning to hold her composure. She played real well for us.”

“Logan Elm is smart. Coach left their player in the paint and we can’t get rim attacks that way,” AC coach Cary James said. “They’re bigger than us at the guard spots and put pressure on our guards. So it was difficult for us to get into something and then when we did get into something, they had someone standing there in the paint. They defended us well and took away how we could score.”

After hitting only one shot from the field in the first quarter, the Aces bounced back in the second quarter to hit a couple of shots and play even with the Braves.

“We’re just like any other team — when we make our shots, and some games we do, we’re pretty good. If we don’t make our shots, then we struggle,” James said. “We made a few shots in the second quarter, but we didn’t in the other quarters.”

Lexi Snider led the Aces with 10 points and Kaitlynn Connell added six.

AC ended the night with a 24-20 rebounding edge with Anna Johnson grabbing six for the Aces.

Griffith led the Braves with five rebounds and had three blocked shots to go with her 14 points.

“We didn’t have much answer to that,” James said. “We don’t have the size in there to guard her and the one post player (Emma Butterbaugh) we have got hurt. We really didn’t have any size in there to keep it out of there and that makes it hard for us.

Logan Elm (12-7, 6-6) hosts unbeaten Circleville Saturday while the Aces (12-7, 7-5) head over to Liberty Union.

• AC was a 35-31 winner in the JV game.

Emily Buckley led AC with 10, Megan Toill had nine, Hannah Kemmerling had seven, Carly Singleton had six and Sara Sharp added three.

Annie Karshner led LE with eight, Kaitlyn Fultz had six, Camryn Ross had five, Hannah Taylor and Sidney Fultz each had four and Zophia Karshner and Breanne Williams each added two.

Logan Elm 35, Amanda-Clearcreek 25

Logan Elm — Hatter 5-5-16, Hardin 2-0-5, Griffith 7-0-14. Three-point goals — Hatter, Hardin. Total — 14-29 5-5 35.

Amanda-Clearcreek — Guiler 0-3-3, Hyme 1-1-4, Johnson 1-0-2, Connell 3-0-6, Snider 4-0-10. Three-point goals — Hyme, Snider (2). Total — 9-41 4-5 25.

Quarter scores  1  2  3  4  F

Logan Elm  6  9  10  10  35

Amanda-Clearcreek  3  9  5  8  25