WV HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL
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Notre Dame's Inside Attack Too
Much for Valley Wetzel, 68-52
One sure way to control a basketball game is for a team to find
out its opponent's weakness, and
exploit it as much as possible.
Coming into Wednesday night's
Valley Wetzel-Notre Dame boys
game, there was one glaring
weakness for the Lumberjacks _
a distinct lack of height.
With their biggest player standing at only 6-2, the Lumberjacks
knew that they would have their
hands full under the boards all
night. Notre Dame also knew
about its height advantage, and
coach Angelo Basile made sure
that the Irish attacked it early
and often.
The result _ LaDon Garrett
scored 24 points, Jeremy Parker
added nine and the Irish totally
dominated the boards on both
ends of the court in Notre Dame's
68-52 victory.
Basile spoke about the Irish's
down low domination, "When they
came out in the man-to-man defense, we wanted to be patient
with the ball and get it down low
to where they came up to our
shoulders and stick the ball in the
basket. We were patient most of
the night, and were able to beat
them in the paint."
ND staked itself to a 17-11 first
quarter lead, before Garrett began to take over the game. With
no one big enough or strong
enough to move him off the
blocks, the Lumberjacks were
powerless to defense him.
When the Irish gave Garrett the
ball down low, he scored at will.
When they missed from the outside, he was there to put the rebound back in. His play propelled
ND to a 33-24 halftime lead and
eventually helped increase it to
48-30 with 3:04 remaining in the
third quarter.
After that, however, the Irish
inexplicably began forcing their
shots, and VW turned the missed
shots into fast break opportunities
of its own. Rodney Anderson
scored all five of his points, and
Justin Balwanz nailed a 3-pointer
at the buzzer in a 9-2 run to end
the third quarter and keep the
Lumberjacks within 10 points, 50-40, with the fourth quarter still
left to be played.
In that final stanza, ND re-established its inside game, and after a 7-2 run to start the quarter,
ran out the clock to preserve its
16-point win.
"I am real pleased with the
win," Basile said. "We gave them
a shot to get back in it after the
third quarter, but we played good
defense in the fourth quarter and
overall we're very happy to be 5-1."
Valley Wetzel (52)
Shimp 2 0-0 5; Balwanz 7 0-0 19; Rine 6 3-8
15; Wichterman 1 1-2 4; Creamer 2 0-0 4;
Anderson 2 1-2 5; Totals 20 5-14 52.
Notre Dame (68)
Rieser 6 1-2 13; Garrett 11 2-3 24; Riffle 5 0-0 12; Parker 4 1-1 9; Caputo 1 2-2 4; Howard 2 0-0 4; McIntosh 1 0-0 2; Totals 30 6-8
68.
Valley Wetzel
11
13
16
12_52
Notre Dame
17
16
17
18_68
3-Point Goals:
Shimp, Balwanz 5, Wichterman, Riffle 2.
Updated January 10, 1997
Preston Subdues Liberty, 48-34
Liberty played three strong
quarters against Preston High in
a Big 10 girls basketball clash last
night. However, the second quarter, a 19-9 PHS advantage, was
the deciding factor as the Knights
downed the Mountaineers 48-34.
Early in the contest LHS over
came a 7-2 deficit and took its
only lead of the game at 8-7. Stefanie Kopp's 3-pointer at the 1:59
mark was the key shot in the 6-0
run.
But, Preston's Mandy Helms
answered with a trifecta with seven ticks left to give the visitors a
10-8 lead after one quarter.
In the second period, the
Knights went to a pressing defense which took the 'Eers by surprise. This strategy sparked a 10-
0 run for Preston, to widen its
lead to 20-8.
Helms started the run with another trey while Shannon Steiring
er capped it off by sinking two
shots from the charity stripe.
Helms, who had a big first
quarter with nine points, went on
to take game-high honors with 22
points for the night.
"Even though this was a total
team effort, Mandy did a good job
offensively for us," remarked PHS
coach Lisa Poland. "The key is to
play as a team and we displayed
that against Liberty."
By the end of the half, the visitors amassed a 29-17 lead.
In contrast to the first half, Liberty came out in the second half
and generated some offense while
shutting down the Knight's attack.
Jamie Robinson came off the
bench and sparked LHS by scoring 11 of her team-high 15 points
in the second half.
"I thought we played better in
the second half," remarked LHS
head coach Gary Courtney.
"We started three freshmen and
they handled themselves well out
there. It was encouraging to see
Robinson come off the bench and
score 15. Overall, we played hard
and I am pleased with the way we
played."
Preston (48)
Helms 9 2-4 22; Riley 2 0-0 4; Ranieri 1 0-0 2;
Sisler 0 2-2 2; Steiringer 1 6-8 8; Gadres 0 0-2 0;
Sypolt 2 4-8 8; Baber 1 0-0 2; Totals 16 14-24 48.
Liberty (34)
Nichols 3 3-7 9; Southern 0 1-2 1; Robinson 7
1-4 15; Bland 1 0-0 2; Kopp 2 0-0 5; Goff 1 0-2 2;
Totals 14 5-15 34.
Preston
10
19
13
6_48
Liberty
8
9
10
7_34
3-Point Goals:
Helms 2, Kopp.
Updated January 10, 1997
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