Thursday, January 30, 2014

Bluejay Boys Shut Down Explosive Hornets

Northeast Nodaway's boys shut down an explosive CFX team 61-47 as they were able to do a much better job of protecting the lead. Earlier in the season, Northeast had to scramble to beat the Hornets as they lost a double digit lead late in the game before Garet Jackson and Rowdy West bailed them out. But this time, they were able to do a much better job of staying on the court; they did a much better job of avoiding the hacking and fouling that had plagued them the first time. In the first game, the Bluejays were down to their final five players.

Northeast got off to an 18-4 lead after one quarter. Joel Scroggie had six in the period as once again, CFX did not have anyone to match up with him and Steve Schulte was getting the ball to him at will. That opened everyone else up; Andrew Faustlin got a drive and pullup as well as a putback; Steve added two 3-pointers, and Max Giesken added a backdoor layup off a pass from Joel. Joel was just as dangerous passing the ball as he was scoring it himself; he was always finding the open person when CFX tried to double him.

Joel Scroggie added four more in the second quarter as Northeast led by as much as 27-8 in the second quarter. Garet Jackson got on the board, as did Andrew Freemyer. But a blown call by the referees gave momentum back to the Hornets; an obvious hacking foul on Garet Jackson was instead called on Steve Schulte, who was sent to the bench with his third foul. This is the second time this year that Steve was the victim of the officials calling the foul on the wrong player.

With Steve out of the game, Northeast missed his ball-handling and defense and didn't score in the last 2:19 of the period. The Bluejays did not help themselves on defense, committing a silly foul 60 feet from the basket that turned into a free point for CFX. Between two evenly matched teams, every possession is important.

Hall of Fame Coach Bobby Knight was always harping on the need for teams to finish halves strongly. A good case in point was Tuesday night's game as CFX was able to translate their momentum into a third quarter run that got the lead under double digits. Northeast had four different players score in the period as Steve Schulte and Garet Jackson each had a 3-pointer, Andrew Freemyer scored a layup after a quick outlet from Joel Scroggie and Shaun Burns pushing it up the floor, and Joel hit Max Giesken cutting inside for a layup. But Jase Barnes fueled CFX's run with two 3-pointers in the period, the last one at the buzzer to make it 37-28 after three.

The bad thing about that play was that the Hornets had the ball to start the fourth quarter with a chance to get the deficit down to two possessions. But Northeast swung the momentum back the other way as Steve Schulte got a steal, went coast to coast, and got the call on a charge/block situation and converted a 3-point play in an obvious makeup by the officials for their previous miscue as the defender was completely set on the play. From there, Garet Jackson, who had been quiet most of the game, got the hot hand and got 10 points in the period as Northeast got the lead back into double digits and got ahead by as much as 19 before Coach Chaim Jenkins cleared his bench. Steve added a backdoor layup off yet another pass from Joel Scroggie, who was passing the ball like a point guard that night. Joel added a layup after a pass from Max Giesken, got a 3-point play after a putback, and also saved one on the defensive end from going out of bounds to Steve Schulte, who got it to Shaun Burns for a layup.  Max Giesken added a pair of free throws as Northeast scored 24 points in the period.

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