Turnovers
prove costly for Portagers
CCA hands Onekama first loss, 52-30
By Bob
Allan, Pioneer Prep Editor
Published:
Thursday, December 17, 2009 11:45 PM
BIG RAPIDS — The message was simple, attack
the basket.
For the last six minutes of the first half, the Crossroads Charter
Academy boys basketball team was satisfied with taking a shot from the
3-point arc. That wasn’t good enough for Cougars coach Jason Kostecki.
So at halftime, he asked his team to attack and Crossroads responded.
The Cougars got to the basket and the free throw line as they were able
to post a 52-30 victory over Onekama at Crossroads Charter Academy High
School on Thursday night.
CCA is now 3-0 overall and 2-0 in the West
Michigan D League. Onekama falls to 1-1 overall and in the conference.
“Onekama did what I think a lot of teams are going to do to us, play
some sort of zone,” Kostecki said. “We just passed the ball around the
perimeter and didn’t attack.”
That wasn’t the case in the early portion of the game as the Cougars’
press forced turnovers which they turned into lay-ups on the offensive
end and turned a 6-4 deficit to a 25-6 advantage early in the second
quarter.
“We had 36 turnovers and many were in that stretch,” Onekama coach Roger
Smith said. “You are not going to win many basketball games with 36
turnovers.” |
Crossroads stopped attacking the basket and
scored just two points in the last five minutes of the first half. The
Cougars led 27-12 at the intermission.
It was after the break that Crossroads stepped it up on the offensive
end and got to the basket as it bumped its lead to 20, 34-14, midway
through the third quarter.
After shooting just two free throws in the first half, CCA was able to
get to the charity stripe 12 times in the second half.
Leading the charge was Isaiah Simmons, who
scored six of his 10 points in that span. Simmons also had a team-high
seven rebounds and handed out three assists.
Jalen Carter paced the Cougars with 14 points and Ethan Mabry netted
nine points.
“Isaiah is really the x-factor,” Kostecki said. “Everyone knows about
Jalen, but Isaiah can get to the basket, play defense and shoot if teams
gang up on Jalen or if he is having a bad night.”
Crossroads led by as many as 24 points in the fourth quarter before the
final outcome.
Onekama was led by Joe Kosiboski with 10 points and eight boards, while
Austin Barnett netted eight points and handed out three assists.
Also for the Portagers, Ryan Pienta scored four, Rease Heiler had three
points, Thomas Koon and Skyler Kimpel scored two apiece and Matt Monroe
had one.
“We are going to struggle offensively,” Smith said. “We lost four
starters from last year’s team. We are trying to get better each game
and play good defense.
“I thought the kids played hard and hustled,” he continued. “To give up
52 points to that team is respectable, but offensively we didn’t shoot
well and we had 36 turnovers, which isn’t very good.” |
