Sunday, December 4, 2011

Daviess County Panthers

In game 2 of the young season we came away with a 67-53 victory over defending regional champs Daviess Co.  The Panthers are also one of the teams picked ahead of us in the pre-season rankings.  We got down early 11-3 but battled back to be down 16-11 at the end of the 1st quarter.  Our defense was excellent for the first 6 minutes of the 2nd quarter which allowed us to go on a 19-4 run to take a 30-20 lead.  However, we relaxed too soon and gave up 10 consecutive points to go into the locker room tied at 30-30. 

In the 3rd quarter, we changed to our switching man to man defense and caused some problems for Daviess Co., winning the 3rd quarter 17-6 to talk an 11 point lead into the final quarter.  Our lead fell to 9 points midway through the quarter but we quickly stretched it back up to win by 14 points.  The key to the game was handling their full court pressure.  We committed 15 turnovers but also scored a lot of points off our press offense as we consistently attacked the backside of the press for layups or open jumpers.  Transition defense and transition offense was important to our win as we beat the Panthers down the floor several times throughout the game. 

We shot 50% from the field but only made 4 3 pointers for the game.  We shot 66% from the free throw line, pulled down 26 rebounds and had 15 assists for the game.  Daviess Co. shot 39% for the game and made 6/30 3 point attempts.  Daviess Co. committed 17 turnovers and had 29 rebounds. 

We were led by Trey Tinsley's 20 points, followed by Ollie Robert's 18.  Ethan Meredith  had double figures with 10 (all coming in the second half).  Ethan Saltsman had 8 and Brady Clemons scored 9.  Ollie led us with 11 rebounds and also led in assists with 5.  The McDonald's Player of the Game was 6'1 senior guard Ethan Meredith, who played very well in the second half after sitting most of the first half in foul trouble. 

Next game will be an out of region team as we travel to Central Hardin.  Jv game will start at 5:30 and the varsity will begin at 7:00 cst.