Patient
Portagers hold on to edge Panthers
By DYLAN SAVELA, Manistee News Advocate Sports
Writer
Published: Friday,
February 26, 2010
ONEKAMA — Patience was key Thursday night,
when Onekama played host to Baldwin.
In fact, Portagers coach Roger Smith described the contest as a chess
game.
“With the way it started, I figured it’d end up being 10 to 12,” he
joked.
Instead, Onekama (4-13, 4-10 WMD) held on to a 43-39 win over the
Panthers (3-17, 3-13 WMD).
In the first half, Baldwin spread the floor
and kept patient with the ball for as long as multiple minutes at a time
as Onekama sat back in its 2-3 zone.
“That first half literally took about 20 minutes total. We ran the clock
to death,” Panthers coach Scott Pedigo said. “It’s not a secret that
we’re not a good outside shooting team. Everyone kind of wants to sit in
a zone on us, so we’re trying to make them get more aggressive.
“We kept the game nice and tight, and when we can do that, we hope then
by the fourth quarter we can try to take control from there.”
Up until the 16-15 Portager edge at halftime, Onekama stayed put in the
zone, trying not to become overaggressive.
“I had in the back of the mind they might spread the floor and hold the
ball like that, but I wasn’t sure. That’s OK though. It was a good
experience for our kids, and I thought we handled it real well,” Smith
said. “That’s not easy playing against that delay type stuff. If you
come out, they’re going to take it. It’s a chess game pretty much, back
and forth.” |
The game stayed tight through the third, but
the Portagers brought the pressure up to half court.
“We decided to come out and meet them more towards the 10-second line,
instead of letting them come over the 10-second line. We wanted to
pressure them a little bit, and it created some turnovers.”
With a minute left in the third, the game came to a somber halt as
Baldwin’s Aaron Thomas went down with a neck injury after colliding with
an Onekama player on a loose ball.
Thomas was carried off on a stretcher and taken to Manistee’s West Shore
Medical Center, where he was later released.
The third quarter ended with a 25-22 Baldwin edge and with the first
bucket of the fourth, the Panthers briefly held the game’s biggest lead
for either side at five.
With the game knotted at 39-39 with 1:31 left to play, Onekama’s Skyler
Kimpel found teammate Ryan Pienta open down low for his only two points
of the game, but which proved to be the winning bucket. Kosiboski sealed
the win with two free throws with nine seconds left.
Kimpel led the way for Onekama with 19 points and 12 rebounds, 10 of
which were offensive. Also for the Portagers, Joe Kosiboski had 12
points and six rebounds, Matt Monroe had four points, and Chase
Callaway, Jake Matthews, Pienta and Thomas Koon all had two points each.
For the Panthers, senior Cregg Bolles led the way with a game-high 25
points while Andon Ware had nine, Mason Dalton and Davontae Stevens each
had two and Daniel Roberts scored one.
With the win, the Portagers snap a six-game skid, with two more home
games left to finish out the regular season.
“Man, it’s been a spell,” Smith said. “This is a nice win for these
kids. Winning does wonderful things to your brain cells.
“The kids played really hard and hung in there. I’m just pleased with
the way they’re playing right now.” |
