Doing the Little Things Key to NEN Boys Improvement

Doing the little things will be key to the Northeast Nodaway boys' improvement this year, said Coach Chaim Jenkins following Northeast Nodaway's 52-40 loss to Albany last Tuesday. "They did the little things well and we didn't," he said. He said that they were farther along than last year's squad was, but that they still needed to get better. He said that he wanted everyone on the floor to be a scorer at any given time. "They're all good scorers; they just need to have confidence in themselves and the shots will start to fall," he said.

Northeast Nodaway will feature a lot of size this year; one of the challenges for Jenkins will be to mesh it with the guard play that was Northeast's strength last year. Sage DeLong, who moved back to Northeast, provided a ton of blocks and boards even though he didn't have a lot of points. He showed that he had developed to the point where he earned varsity playing time. Joel Scroggie has grown to 6'6" and also provided a strong inside presence. The key will be to come together as a team. "Once we take it to the next level, we'll be OK," said Jenkins. Northeast returns Aaron Patton, Kevin Stoll, and Steve Schulte. Aaron and Kevin will be counted on to take over in critical situations. Steve Schulte, who has grown a couple of inches since last year, will handle a lot of the point guard chores along with knocking down some outside shots. "He's gotten a lot more aggressive since last year," said Jenkins. Schulte, despite his small frame, showed a lot of jumping ability as he had three rejections for the night, leaping high into the air to swat each one.

Northeast dug themselves into a 13-4 early and never led against Albany. They struggled against Albany's three-quarters court press on offense and didn't have an answer for Tyler Lupfer of Albany on defense. Lupfer scored seven of Albany's 13 points during the run. Northeast finally began using their size to their advantage and cut it to 13-9 as the game turned into a track meet with both teams trying to race the other out of the gym. But Albany continued to beat Northeast down the court and pushed it back up to 25-14 and maintained that lead until the third quarter.

Northeast finally got their big guns loose in the third quarter as Kevin Stoll and Aaron Patton had four each and Garrett Jackson added a 3-pointer as Northeast came to within 31-29 at one point in the period. Garrett, only a sophomore, showed a lot more confidence this year in his shot, getting all eight of his points in the second half. But Albany went to Lupfer again, lobbing it in to him at will and pushing it back up to 44-33 and Northeast could not come closer than eight the rest of the way.

Kevin Stoll led the scoring with 14 points. Aaron Patton, who battled foul trouble during the evening, added 9. Garrett Jackson had 8. Tyler Schmitz had 3, and Steve Schulte, Joel Scroggie, and Sage DeLong had 2 each.