As the clock hit zero in the Cintas Center last Friday, the Elder Panthers saw their season come to an end after a tough loss to the Middletown Middies. The Panthers lost 54-47 in a game that was close throughout, but Elder just couldn’t hit shots when they needed to down the stretch.

The loss came at the hands of the #5 seed in our section, Middletown, led by their star forward Vincent Edwards. Edwards, a Purdue commit, is the second ranked player in the state of Ohio and was the main focus of the Elder defense. The Panthers did a fine job of shutting him down, limiting Edwards to just nine points thanks to some lock down defense from sophomore Peyton Ramsey and senior Austin Cipriani. But Elder’s defense wasn’t so successful in guarding the rest of the Middletown squad, as they had four double digit scorers.

The Panthers were led by their leading scorer, Brad Miller, who had 18 points while Devin Pike and Frankie Hofmeyer added 12 and 11, respectively. Those three did basically all of the scoring for the Panthers, as they had only two other players score, accounting for just six of the 47 points. This was one of the main problems of the night for the Elder squad; they just couldn’t get everyone going and it ended up costing them down the stretch when their main scorers weren’t hitting shots.

Though the season came to an end much sooner than Elder Nation would have hoped, it was nothing to hang their heads about. The Panthers finished the season with an overall record of 17-7, a very good season by any standards. The Panthers also fared well in conference play, managing to sweep GCL rivals LaSalle and St. Xavier.

While the clock may have run out on this season, it is just a matter of time before the stands of Elder Memorial Field House are filling up on Tuesday and Friday nights for another great season of Elder Basketball.