| Wildcats rebound with 55-28 win over Clippers |
By: Pat Beck
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Posted: Tuesday, December 30, 2008 12:06 pm
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Le Center senior guard Matt Collins picks up a loose ball as he steps away from Cleveland senior forward Mitch Blaschko. The Wildcats won 55-28.
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Lang leads with 16 points, 8 rebounds
CLEVELAND — Except for a brief Cleveland run just before halftime, the Le Center Wildcats boys basketball team used a deeper bench to dominate the Clippers 55-28 last week.
The Wildcats (2-3 overall and 1-2 in the Valley Conference) took a 24-8 lead in the first half, but the Clippers came back to reduce the lead to 27-16 at halftime as guard Marty Schmitz hit his second of two 3-point shots with 1:20 to go.
The Wildcats increased their lead to 43-19 with 10 minutes to go in the second half on a lay up by forward Mitch Lang who finished with a game-high 16 points and eight rebounds. The lead increased to 49-23 with 6 minutes to go on a 3-point basket by guard Josh Farm, who had 8 points. Luke Traxler also finished in double digits for the Wildcats with 10 points.
“We came out with intensity and went right at them,” Le Center coach Greg Feddema said. “That can make up for a lot of things. I thought we played as hard tonight as we’ve played all year. We decided that no matter what we were going to rebound the basketball.”
Senior guard Jake Hertaus agreed: “We just came out, worked hard, played together and rebounded well.”
Le Center outrebounded Cleveland 45-27 and outshot Cleveland 43 percent (19-44) to 23 percent (8-35). That had a lot to do with the Wildcats’ hustling defense.
“Defensively and rebounding tonight, we decided that they were going to have to work for their shots,” Feddema said. “I don’t think they got more than four easy baskets. The ones that they made, we made them work. If you force a hand in their face and they still make it, you tip your hat to them.”
Guard Andy Eppmeyer led Cleveland with 11 points. Marty Schmitz was next in line with 8 points, including two 3-pointers. Garrett Rohlfing led the Clippers with seven rebounds and three steals.
“Le Center was a very physical team and we didn’t adjust to it,” Cleveland coach George Schoenborn said. “Their depth also got to us early. We got off to a quick start, and then they did a nice job of taking Andy and Marty out of the game. We need others to step up and they will when they learn what their strengths are. Le Center did a nice job defensively making us take tough shots.”
“I thought our players worked very hard for most of the game and then got tired, but still did their best,” Schoenborn said. “Garett Rohlfing had a nice game rebounding and hustling after loose balls.”
“When this group or any group of guys makes a decision that they want to work, we’ve got ability in this locker room,” Feddema said. “The score will take care of itself, and tonight it did. If you work hard and do all those thing that take no skill, how high you jump or how well you shoot and all those things that we can’t control, you’re going to be in a lot of ball games. That’s rebounding, defense and how hard you work. Tonight we did those pretty well.”
Cleveland has had the upper hand the last couple of years in basketball, but this year Le Center has more depth with 16 players compared to 10 for Cleveland. “They’ve kind of taken it to us a little bit the last couple of years,” Feddema said. “They lost a little bit to graduation, but they do a nice job, too. They worked hard, too. They did a lot of good things, especially in the first 5, 10 minutes of the game they came out strong.”
Sixteen players is not too many for Feddema. “I’m never going to turn that down. There’s too many times I’ve had eight or 10 guys. It creates other problems. You wish you could get every kid in all the time, but that’s just not reality.”
Being only seven miles away from each other, Le Center and Cleveland have a natural rivalry, but it has remained friendly with many players being on the same team in the spring with a combined baseball team.
“I’m the baseball coach, too, so I coach all these guys,” Feddema. “So I don’t like a huge rivalry because I’ve got to turn around and then these guys are on the same team. These guys get along; they do stuff with each other outside of sports.”
About the rivalry, Hertaus said, “We know each other. We just go hard at each other.”
Le Center 27 28 55
Cleveland 16 12 28
Le Center (55)
Mitch Lang 16, Luke Traxler 10, Matt Collins 8, Josh Farm 8, Matt Traxler 8, Dustin Struckman 3, John Paulsen 1, Danny Perez 1
Rebounds 45 (Lang 8, Farm 7, Matt Traxler 6, Collins 5, Luke Traxler 5, Jake Hertaus 4, Justin Perkins 3, Justin Srnec 2, Marcus Traxler 2, Cody Bauleke, Perez, Struckman )
Steals 15 (Farm 3, Luke Traxler 3, Collins 2, Hertaus 2, Srnec 2, Perez, Struckman, Jake Traxler)
FG 19-44 (43%)
3 pt FG 1-6 (17%)
FT 14-24 (58%)
Cleveland (28)
Andy Eppmeyer 11, Marty Schmitz 8, Garett Rohlfing 6, Brandon Omtvedt 3
Rebounds 27 (Rohlfing 7, Eppmeyer 4, Robertson 4, Schmitz 4, Mitch Blaschko 2, Omtvedt 2, Aaron Uthayakumaran 2, Michael Baier Tyler Schafer)
Assists 10 (Eppmeyer 2, Robertson 2, Rohlfing 2, Schmitz 2, Baier, Schafer)
Steals 10 (Rohlfing 3, Eppmeyer 2, Omtvedt 2, Schmitz 2, Robertson)
FG 8-35 (23%)
3 pt FG 2-14 (14%)
FT 6-21 (29%)
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