Jackson freezes Lake 61-41 in home opener
By Keno Sultan
Stark County Prep Press
www.starkcountypreppress.blogspot.com
JACKSON TWP.--Trust has always been a tenet of Tim Debevec from his early days as a Jackson basketball assistant under Mike Fuline.
14 years later, his unitary and trusted approach still holds strong merit.
The host Polar Bears opened up their home campaign in front of a healthy crowd and left their votaries happy as they methodically broke down visiting Lake in the form of three quarters in which their score total improved from the second and third quarters as they downed the Blue Streaks 61-41 in their Federal League home opener. Jackson scored 11, 17, and 18 in the first three quarters to set up the eventual finality.
There is something about Lake that just brings out the best in Debevec against his Walsh University classmate Tom McBride, who is in his 26th year atop the Blue Streaks regime. And once again it was on display as the Polar Bears ascended to 3-1 on the season and 2-0 in the Federal League.
"We were pretty consistent all night. We should have been up 36-12 at halftime but Lake's well coached and it's a Federal League game. We just found a way to win and I was happy with our defense. We have to get better each night," Debevec said. "It's a long season and we have a long way to go."
Jackson showed their repertoire that made them district champions last year at the opening tip. Defensive pressure early on spurred the hosts to an early 11-4 lead, a lead that eventually ballooned over the course of the contest. Eventually, a decisive 6-0 run before halftime extended their lead to 26-10 and Lake was unable to mount a serious threat save for several times they attempted to rally but were unable to get their deficit under single digits.
The closest Lake got to was 11 points but key three-point baskets in the third quarter by Mitch Finefrock and Andrew Hinderegger once again extended the Polar Bears lead back up to 17 where they eventually coasted from there before Debevec pulled his charges with 2:31 remaining.
"We created turnovers and found the right guys, sat down and played some defense and we went on a nice little run. It's a game of spurts and you need to have those once in a while, be it a 12-2 run or whatever it is and maintain it."
Jackson had three starters in double figures with senior Kyle Monterrubio leading the team with 15 points. Mitch Finefrock assisted with 11 and Cole Baker finished with 10. Lake's leading scorer was junior Zach Novak, who had 11 to lead the Blue Streaks.
Their performance was a far cry from their 55-45 win over Dalton last Saturday. If Lake is going to be a contender in the race for the Federal League, they cannot afford any more mishaps evidenced by their 0-2 record in the league (1-4 overall). Lake cannot afford to slip to 0-3 in league play and McBride will do everything he can to prevent that from occurring.
But it has to start during practice week and translate that into game mode.
"My biggest disappointment is that we're not transferring what we're doing in practice into game situation and a little bit in the third quarter early I think when we were nip and tuck with them, you started to see a semblance that we had a plan in place, I don't know if we get too excited early or if we have enough total basketball knowledge out there but our lack of execution on the game plan from the start hurt in the first half and caused that 6-0 run in the second quarter," McBride said.
No comments:
Post a Comment