ACC goes cold vs. Marian Central
It turned out to be just as easy to tell it wasn't Joey Guth's night by the one 3-pointer that went in Wednesday against visiting Marian Central Catholic.
Guth, the area's leader by a wide margin in both 3-pointers and scoring average, battled foul problems and an unkind rim in the Chargers' 63-46 loss.
Guth banked in a 3-pointer during the fourth quarter, which turned out to be just 1 of 2 baskets the Chargers made in the pivotal final 8 minutes. The Hurricanes (16-7) outscored ACC 19-5 in the fourth quarter to break open a tight game.
Guth finished as the only Charger in double figures with 16 points before fouling out with 1:39 remaining. He made 7 of 8 at the free-throw line and the one 3-pointer in 9 attempts.
"I think we attribute that to our defensive pressure," Marian coach Curtis Price said. "We try to frustrate people. I think he had to work extra hard coming off screens. "
While Aurora Central (11-9) made just 2 of 28 3-pointers as a team, Chargers coach Nate Drye pointed to other mistakes that proved costly.
"We obviously shot the ball terrible tonight but I thought we still had a good chance to win the game," Drye said. "Probably the frustrating thing to me is I thought we did a lot of really dumb things tonight. First half it wasn't getting back, second half it was some bad turnovers. At some key times we had some real mental breakdowns."
Guth has fouled out of three games now, including two straight. Ironically, this marked the first of the three the Chargers lost.
They showed they can play without their star over the final 5:30 of the first half when Guth went to the bench with 3 fouls and his team down 22-15.
Reserves Ryan Harreld, Brian Droeske and Paul Kaminski combined for 12 second-quarter points. The Chargers outscored the Hurricanes 16-10 with Guth out, trimming Marian's halftime lead to 32-31 when Steve Hollon (8 points) knifed through the lane for a buzzer-beating layup.
After missing their first 15 3-pointers, Harreld connected with 2:58 left in the third quarter - a shot that also gave Aurora Central its first lead at 39-36.
Unfortunately for the Chargers, they quickly went cold again after that shot - 2 of 14 in the fourth quarter - while also committing some key turnovers. The Hurricanes' 15-2 surge put them in control, part of a 27-7 game-closing run after Aurora Central's lone lead.
"Our philosophy is to play full court defense the entire game and try to wear you out," Price said. "Your shots you normally make aren't going to go in. I think that was the case tonight."
Danny Noonan led four Hurricanes in double figures with 15 points. Marian outrebounded the Chargers by 14.
"There's not much you can do about the ball not going in on a 3-point shot, but if we make intelligent plays we can win that game," Drye said. "Whether you are making shots or not you still have to make layups and I think we blew 10 lay-ins right around the basket. We're not good enough to not play smart. We weren't very smart tonight."