The Neers came out and struggled early tonight. The recently hot shooting Pioneers found that their shots were not falling and the Wildcats’ size kept the Neers from getting any decent second looks at the basket. SK trailed 16-8 with 15 seconds to go in the first quarter but Andrew Sampson’s 12 foot jumper was followed up by a steal and a return pass that he connected on at the buzzer on a trey to get SK within 3 at the end of the quarter. Sampson’s trey likely wouldn’t have gone in if he would have been a right hander. He released the shot so close to the baseline that it almost resembled a shot you would see in a playground game of horse. The teams played to a draw in the second quarter at 13’s as SK goes into the locker room trailing by 3. The thing that stood out in the first half, blocking fouls. SK appeared to be in good position for to draw the offensive fouls but not one was called. The boys did a good job though of sticking their noses in and trying, time after time after time. The small amount of Neer faithful who made the trip down 71 became rather raucous at times.
SK came out in the third and did a better job on the boards and turning up their offense. Cody Chambers connected on the opening play of the quarter and the offense continued to get on track. Chambers shots would start falling as SK took control of the game. SK would lead at the end of the third by a score of 46 to 40, still a fairly closer game than some thought would have come from a 12-15 Wildcat team. SK would blow the game open in the fourth as their half court trapping defense got going forcing turnover after turnover from Henry County. The other thing that happened, the SK boys seemed to take a liking to the confines of the Roy. SK racks up 21 points in the 4th quarter in route to their 21st win on the campaign. Nice job boys.
Now, the cool thing about tonight. Coach Trent Steiner becomes the all time leader in wins by a boys coach at SK with the win against Henry County. Tonight was his 133rd win as a coach at SK. Congratulations Coach on reaching this milestone! I’m sure though what you want to remember this season is reeling off at least 5 more wins. Good luck during the rest of your season.
SK...13...14...19...21...67
HC...16...14...10...03...43
SK (21-7)
Chambers 25, Sampson 16, Barnes 7, Mullen 6, Ayers 4, Bowling 4, Reckner 3, Monson 2
If you look real close, Bowling was wearing his SK football shirt under his jersey; he would need it later.
Here, Bowling breaks up a late game lob attempt and gets taken down.
Glad to see Chambers gaining his shooting touch in the Roy as the game went on; let's hope he gets to continue that in the 8th Region Tourney.
Milestone win for Coach didn't come easy, especially early. Congrats Coach!
This guy was wearing a shirt that said "Beautiful Downtown Sunfish Mall." I've never heard of if, even Googled with no luck.
