Mooseheart breaks away on winning note

This was the kind of performance Mooseheart's boys basketball players will want to hang onto for a few weeks.

And they'll have to do that, because after Monday's 69-46 win at Ashton-Franklin Center, the Ramblers take a break until Jan. 5, when they travel to Morgan Park Academy.

"That's life at Mooseheart basketball," Mooseheart coach Ron Ahrens said. "Our kids need to go home. That's something that will never change, and that's something that's bigger than the game of basketball. It's great to leave on a win."

The Ramblers (3-6) finish 2010 one game better than they did one year ago. But the 2009-10 Ramblers went 15-4 in the second half of the season, a mark that will be tough to match.

"I think the more and more of our kids are picking up a basketball when they go home on break," Ahrens said. "That culture of basketball is improving and that's encouraging. This is a good game to get the confidence up."

Four Mooseheart players scored in double-figures, led by Levi Chavez, who scored 16 of his game-high 22 points in the first half. Larry Lech added 19 points while Noel Yarngo 14 and Oumaru Abdulahi chipped in 12.

"(Chavez and Lech), they've been carrying us," Ahrens said. "Our post play is our strongest area right now. Those those two have been playing well for us."

The key offensively was the play of guards like Yarngo and Abdulahi, who not only scored a combined 26 points, but were a defensive presence as well.

"That was the difference in the game, our guard play," Ahrens said. "We put some things in today to isolate our guards, which I absolutely hate, isolating players. But we had to do some things to get our guards open."

The other thing Ahrens dislikes with a passion is zone defense, though the Ramblers played zone for much of Monday's game.

"I'm happy with it because they were aggressive and almost played like it was man-to-man while we were in our zone," Ahrens said.

Alec Borrell hit five 3-pointers and scored 19 points to lead Ashton-Franklin Center.