A flurry of turnovers at the start of each half put Glenwood in a big hole, but the Titans forced SHG to sweat out a 45-36 CS8 win Tuesday.
A flurry of turnovers at the start of each half put Chatham Glenwood in a big hole, but the Titans forced Sacred Heart-Griffin to sweat out a 45-36 Central State Eight Conference win over its rival on Tuesday at Jim Belz Gymnasium.
Juniors Myles Montgomery and Terrion Wallace combined for 34 of the Cyclones’ points.
“We wanted to get on them early, we wanted to show we could play defense, get a lead and make a statement,” said Montgomery, who finished with 14 points. “We're a good team when we play defense, we stick together as a unit; not too many teams can compete with us, and that's what we wanted to show today when we play Glenwood.”
When the Titans took care of the ball, they cut into the SHG double-digit lead each half. In the opening quarter, Glenwood turned the ball over four times before the Titans even got a shot up and by the time sophomore guard Cole Woodward hit a 3-pointer to get the Titans on the board, SHG already had four baskets. Glenwood found itself down 22-10 with 5 minutes, 44 seconds left in the second quarter before closing the half on a 5-0 run. Neither team scored for the final 2:17.
The second half began the same as the first with the Cyclones’ pressure defense forcing the Titans into four third-quarter turnovers (Glenwood had 13 in the game, with six in the first quarter, four in the third and three total in the second and fourth combined). When Montgomery scored his final basket, to give him 14 with 1:53 left in the third, SHG (3-2 overall, 1-1 in the CS8) led 36-21.
“Our defense wasn't bad,” SHG coach Tim Allen said. “It's just the times that we let up in different possessions.”
Glenwood’s fourth quarter had the Titans come roaring back, outscoring the Cyclones 13-2 and sophomore Hugo Lopp scored to get the Titans within four points with 2:44 to go.
“You come into this atmosphere, this environment, you get sped up quick,” Glenwood coach Todd Blakeman said. “We have a bunch of young kids, this is a varsity game, it took us a quarter to get our bearings, but (SHG is) a really quick team. We were able to find somebody to bring the ball up and when we were able to do that, we were able to settle in a bit. I thought our kids played hard, we battled the whole way, got back in the game, but just overall a good effort by our kids tonight.”
Nearly a minute later, Wallace converted a three-point play when he was fouled on a successful floater to cauterize the Cyclones’ bleeding. Wallace polished off a 20-point performance with two more free throws with 40.3 seconds left.
“Honestly, my teammates just set me up in the right spots,” Wallace said. “You're moving the ball, you know (Glenwood likes) to pack it in (defensively) and I just shot the ball with confidence tonight.”
Woodward led Glenwood (2-2, 0-1 CS8) with 11 points and made all three of his 3-point attempts. Lopp added nine points while Cohen Reid, another sophomore, finished with seven.
Blakeman knew after heavy graduation losses from the Class 3A fourth-place finish last March that his team needed to learn and improve, but he’s optimistic that his team has plenty of room to improve.
“We knew pressure was coming tonight and we haven’t played anybody this quick. I thought we did grow,” Blakeman said. “This isn’t going to be the only quick team we play.
“We have some young kids in that locker room. We’ve got to learn to take care of the ball, make good passes, set our shooters up and score the basketball. We just couldn’t do that tonight at certain times, just because of their speed.”
Blakeman won’t be the only coach to use Tuesday’s game as a major learning lesson. Allen had a protracted conversation with his players in the locker room. What was the major theme?
"Being able to sense when you got a 15-, 16-point lead and build on it,” Allen said. “We weren't supposed to help as much, we know (Glenwood has) shooters and I felt like we had a couple lazy possessions and allowed 3-pointers to go, (instead of) just being locked in and grow (the lead) from there and just take 15, 16 to 20, 25.
“But coach Blakeman always coaches a real disciplined team.”
Glenwood might be young, but SHG isn’t exactly receiving mailers from the AARP yet. The Cyclones didn’t play a single senior on Tuesday and the starting lineup had four juniors (Wallace, Montgomery, Cam Brinkman and Tereik Hurd) and one freshman, Javeon Williams. Those four juniors have already played a ton of basketball together.
“Over the years, we've built a lot of trust and camaraderie because most of the five, we've been playing varsity for three years,” Montgomery said. “Building that trust in each other to move the ball, we know they're going to hit shots, we know our other teammates are going to be good. So, it's just that trust and that factor just bonding on the court and off the court.”
Contact Ryan Mahan: 788-1546, [email protected], Twitter.com/RyanMahanSJR.
This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: CS8 boys basketball: SHG uses big first, third quarters to beat Glenwood
Category: General Sports
