Onekama falls short against Manistee
Catholic
By MATT WENZEL
Manistee News Advocate Sports Editor
Published Thursday, Feb. 24, 2011
MANISTEE — The opportunity for
an upset was there for the taking, but Onekama wasn’t able to
capitalize on its chance.
Despite looking like the hungrier team, the Portagers couldn’t
overcome a cold-shooting start and third-quarter lull as they fell
short against Manistee Catholic Central on Wednesday, 59-55.
“We wasted a great defensive effort with a real bad offensive
night,” said Onekama coach Jim Hunter.
Despite a first quarter in which its offensive total was the sum of
three made free throws, Onekama hung around until the end, but
didn’t have enough to pull out a West Michigan D League win. "We've
got to come out and execute," said Onekama guard Adrian Norman, who
scored a game-high 28 points. "You can't just play three quarters of
basketball. You've got to play all four quarters."
Whether it was just a
late-season off night or the fact that they beat Onekama by 24
points six weeks ago, the Sabers didn’t seem as aggressive as their
counterparts.
“They played like they wanted to win,” MCC coach Dale Edmondson Jr.
said of Onekama. “We played like we wanted to get it over with.”
Nick Doyle led the Sabers with 19 points to go with 10 rebounds and
four assists while Nathan Papes had 11 points, 10 rebounds and four
assists. Matt Monroe and Kyle Acker scored seven apiece for the
Portagers.
From the start, Onekama (4-11, 4-9 WMD) made MCC (11-6, 8-6 WMD)
work for everything on the offensive end with heavy zone pressure.
“They definitely played a lot better defense than we were
expecting,” said MCC’s Nick Kolanowski, who finished with nine
points. “I thought they’d sit back in their zone like the did last
time, but they came out and played.”
But, for everything Onekama did right on the defensive end, the
Portagers were unable to capitalize on the other end of the court as
they failed to make a field goal in the first quarter and trailed
11-3.
MCC’s Alex Hogan spent the first half finding a soft spot in
Onekama’s zone and knocking down jumpers from the elbow as he scored
all 10 of his points in the first two quarters.
“He had some really good looks in there and had some good shots,”
Edmondson said of Hogan. “That was what Onekama was giving us and we
had a good shooter there to knock them down. That was a big plus.”
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Onekama’s Kyle Acker shoots
during the second half (Matt Wenzel/News Advocate)
Ryan Pienta hit Onekama’s first
field goal just 21 seconds into the second quarter to spark his team
which still trailed 24-16 at halftime.
The Sabers picked up the pace in the third quarter and with Doyle
scoring seven in the frame, built an 18-point lead with just 1:30 to
play.
“We got a little too comfortable there and kind of coasted,” Kolanowski
said. “We played really sloppy tonight.”
Onekama closed the third on an 8-0 run to pull within 10 and stayed
within striking distance the rest of the way, but couldn’t close the
remainder of the gap.
“I think the score is reflective, I think the kids played that hard,”
Hunter said. “We were in a position to win the game at the end of the
game and that’s all I’m asking for.”
The Sabers, on the other hand, weren’t as happy with their effort. “We
weren’t ready to play tonight,” Kolanowski said. “They kind of caught us
off guard.”
Although they’ll still take the win — their fourth in a row — the Sabers
know they can’t afford to come up short on effort.
“That’s one thing we talked about before the game, that we’ve got to
come out with an intensity level regardless of who we played,” Edmondson
said. “It doesn’t matter if the team is 20-0 or 0-20, we have to come
out with the intensity level and play hard. We just seemed like tonight
we were going through the motions. That’s something that has to change.” |