Boys basketball/Tri-Cities roundup
SOUTH BELOIT – Every time Mooseheart got close to South Beloit on Monday, the host Sobos hit the “three-point button” – and they were effective nearly every time they tried the tactic.
Certainly they were effective hitting the long-range shot on enough occasions to earn their team a 75-69 victory over the Red Ramblers in the South Beloit Martin Luther King, Jr. Classic.
South Beloit nailed 13 three-pointers in the contest. In the first half, the Sobos got 5 three-pointers from Terrel Williams, who was the game's leading scorer with 30 points. In the second half, Arsenio White had the hot outside hand, hitting 3 three-pointers as part of his 25-point output.
“We ran a man defense against them and they hit 9 three's in the first half,” Mooseheart coach Ron Ahrens said. “Then we switched up and ran a little zone and that seemed to work pretty well.”
The thing is, despite all that long-range artistry, Mooseheart (5-11) was very much in the game until the very late stages. Trailing most of the game and behind by double-digits in the third quarter, the Ramblers closed to 57-55 with 6:51 left in the game on a Levi Chavez short shot. Chavez led Mooseheart with 29 points.
“We didn't give up,” Ahrens said. “We were down 14 at one point and we made a nice run. I told the guys that we had a good effort. I'm proud of them for that.”
Even after South Beloit (11-5) pulled away on a pair of White three-pointers, the Ramblers closed again, this time to 68-65 with 2:40 still left in the game. But the hosts were able to close out the game from there.
“We keep playing hard,” Ahrens said. “This is the kind of competition that will prepare us for the rest of the conference schedule.”
The game provided a contrast in styles. Mooseheart only hit 1 three-pointer in the contest and made its offensive impact on inside shots by Chavez and drives to the basket by Noel Yarngo, who finished with 19 points.
But as strong as the Ramblers were near the basket, they had serious difficulties converting as well, namely 16 missed layups.
“We played some good offense and got close, but then we got in a position where we needed a shot, and we ran the ‘no-pass offense,'” Ahrens said. “We'd come down and someone would just jack up a shot. We've got to be consistent because, when we ran the offense, we scored.”
Mooseheart had to play catch-up from the opening quarter, when they fell behind 25-15. The Ramblers never led after the early moments of the contest and saved their best comebacks for the late third and fourth quarters.
Mooseheart returned to the South Beloit court later on Monday and defeated Keith Country Day 58-42 to finish play at the tournament with a 2-3 record. The Ramblers' next game is Friday, a home contest against Keith Country Day.
Mooseheart has been a participant in the South Beloit MLK, Jr. tournament since its inception in 2008. Then there were only three competing teams. Now there are 10. Orangeville won this year's tournament with a 5-0 record.
“This is a great tournament and it keeps getting bigger,” Ahrens said. “We get to play five games in a short period of time against competition we don't usually get to play. The best part about it as that the teams we get to play are all fundamentally sound. It was a nice experience for our kids to see that you don't have to be very athletic to win a basketball game if you do what you're supposed to do.”
— Darryl Mellema
Bogan 61, ACC 53: In a Sunday game, Aurora Central lost 61-53 to Bogan despite 27 points by Ryan Harreld.
The Chargers are 8-9 going into their next game Saturday at the Sears Centre against Marmion.