Peebles rally falls short as Eastern stuns Indians 71-70

Peebles' season-long momentum hit a pair of major setbacks earlier this month when the Indians dropped a heartbreaker to Eastern and then suffered a narrow loss at Fayetteville, collectively knocking them out of first place in the Southern Hills Athletic Conference small school division.

The marquee game came Tuesday, January 6, at Peebles, where both teams entered 8-0. Eastern closed with a dramatic late three from Sam Ramer to take a 71-70 lead and secure the road win. The game featured a frenetic fourth quarter in which Peebles erased a 16-point deficit and briefly seized the lead before Ramer's shot with 9.9 seconds left decided the outcome. Eastern point guard Kayne Dotson finished with a season-high 13 assists and helped set up the final basket.

Eastern used a balanced attack to prevail. Carter Cluxton and Ramer scored 17 points each, Chase Pinkerton added 14, and Matthew Dick had 12. Peebles was paced by Paxton Ryan's 23 points, including four three-pointers, and Josh McClary's 17. The teams combined for 47 fourth-quarter points after Eastern led 53-41 at the end of the third period; the box score read Eastern 14-15-24-18 — 71 and Peebles 10-22-9-29 — 70.

Eastern head coach Rob Beucler acknowledged the game's swings while highlighting the decisive moment: "The end of the game, when someone has to step up, that’s why you play," he said. "We hit the big shot then defended well at the end, but we struggled with free throws and turnovers. Peebles is a hard match up for us and I think fatigue may have caught up with us in that fourth quarter." Beucler added, "People got to see a heckuva game tonight."

Peebles carried the emotional weight of that defeat into a road matchup the following weekend, dropping a 63-60 decision at Fayetteville. The Indians trailed at every quarter break and could not complete a second comeback, losing by three points and putting them at 8-2 overall and 5-2 in SHAC play. Fayetteville's unbeaten 6-0 conference mark left Peebles two games back in the small school division standings.

For Adams County fans, the two losses reset expectations for the Tribe's conference run and underscored tangible vulnerabilities. Peebles' ability to rally exposed strong late-game resilience, but recurring free-throw misses, turnovers and periods of defensive lapses have turned tightly contested matches against conference rivals into losses.

Peebles was favored to bounce back when they hosted Ripley on Tuesday; the Tribe is next scheduled to play Saturday, January 17, in the Coach Young Classic at North Adams against Norwood with a 4 p.m. tipoff. How the coaching staff addresses end-of-game execution and ball security in the coming week will shape both local interest and the SHAC race as the regular season progresses.