Defend the home court.

That was the mindset Friday night for Cullen VanLeer’s Owensville Dutchmen basketball team entering their home opener on the hardwood against Salem’s Tigers.

Seeing their freshmen and junior varsity counterparts fall to the Tigers, Owensville’s varsity Dutchmen were looking to deny Salem a tripleheader sweep on the road.

Leading 52-48 with 3:20 remaining, Chase Crosby and Eli Graham scored consecutive buckets for Owensville giving them a 56-48 lead that they would not relinquish before going on to a 62-54 victory.

“We came into looking to defend our home court and we did that tonight,” VanLeer said. “Everyone up and down our line up contributed in some way, shape or form to our team win tonight.”

Down 5-2 early in the game, consecutive 3-pointers from Charles Hazelwood and Landon Ely gave the Dutchmen an 8-5 lead before Salem closed the first quarter on an 11-4 run leaving the orange and black trailing 16-12 after eight minutes.

Trailing 23-15 with 4:35 until halftime, Owensville answered Salem’s first-quarter run with one of their own.

Layne Evans started and finished OHS’ 11-2 run that gave the Dutchmen a 26-25 lead with 33.1 for the half before a Bryson May free throw helped Salem tie the game at 26-26 going into the locker rooms at halftime.

Falling behind 34-29 at the 3:58 mark of the third quarter, Owensville went on 9-2 run to regain the lead.

Brady Watson hit a 3-pointer before freshman Chase Crosby hit four consecutive free throws after Salem head coach Jared Patterson received two technical fouls for arguing with the referee and was subsequently ejected from the game.

Crosby’s free throws gave the Dutchmen a 36-34 lead.

After another tie and lead change later in the period, Owensville entered the fourth quarter nursing a 42-41 lead over Salem.

Surviving two ties and three lead changes early in the final quarter, the orange and black pulled away for a victory in their home opener.

Evans came in off the bench delivered a game-high 25 points for the Dutchmen. He also added six rebounds and two assists.

Crosby also reached double figures finishing with 16 points, five rebounds, five assists, four steals and no turnovers.

Ely added seven points while Hazelwood chipped in six points.

Brady Watson kicked in four points followed closely by Eli Graham with three points and a second-quarter free throw for one point from Keigan Glaser.

May led the Tigers with 19 points and five rebounds while Tre Richter just missed a double double ending up with seven points and 10 rebounds.

Scott Lewis’ JV Dutchmen could not overcome low-scoring first and third-quarters before falling to Salem’s JV Tigers 52-33 in the middle game of Friday’s tripleheader at OHS.

Jansen Loeb led the JV Dutchmen with nine points followed closely by Brandon Graham with eight points and four rebounds.

Doing all of his damage in the second half, Zaiden Gates finished with six points and a game-high 11 rebounds.

Watson chipped in seven points while Bryce Kramme ended up with two points in the fourth quarter.

Lincoln Thomas led Salem with 13 points.

Before leaving for Marquette High School to coach the Dutchgirls in the third-place game of the Marquette Tournament, John VanLeer’s freshman Dutchmen led throughout the majority of their contest with Salem’s Tigers before a Ryan Cunningham 3-ball with 8.8 ticks left handed Owensville a 37-36 loss.

Kramme led Owensville with 13 points, five steals and three rebounds.

Chris Allen narrowly missed double figures finishing with nine points.

Wyatt Lewis chipped in five points to go along with four markers from Landon Valley and three points from Drew Chapman.

Kylen Menz rounded out the freshmen Dutchmen scoring with a first-quarter bucket for two points.