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Blanchester downs East Clinton 71-67 in close battle

Wednesday, 12 December 2007

By BILL LIERMANN

Sports Writer

WILMINGTON — Bouncing back from a tough loss last Saturday on the road at Centerville, the Wilmington High School basketball squad posted a 70-26 win Tuesday night at home versus Stebbins. The Hurricane is now 4-2 on the year while Stebbins falls to 1-3 overall.

Wilmington had four players in double figures, led by Quinten Rollins with 17 points, Jordan Berlin added 16, while Malcolm Heard and Brandon Arehart each scored 10. For the Indians, James Tyus was high scorer with nine.

Paced by a six-point effort from Heard in the opening quarter and a pair of treys by Rollins, WHS jumped out to an 18-8 lead. Rollins scored seven more in the second period as the ’Cane outscored Stebbins 19-5, enabling WHS totake a big lead at halftime, 37-13. The third quarter was the only period that Stebbins gave Wilmington a battle, as the ’Cane won the period 12-11, extending the WHS lead to 49-24 after three period of play.

Hurricane head coach Mike Noszka said he felt his squad played hard despite the big margin and said he saw areas of improvement from his team.

“I felt we played hard in all four quarters and we clearly improved. Regardless of who you are playing, its important to show signs of improving with each game and we did that tonight,” he said.

Perhaps the only negative thing he mentioned needing improvement from his squad is their tendency to be over-agressive on the defensive side of the ball, resulting in a hugh number of fouls.

“We’ve got to find a way to stop making fouls when we’re pressuring the ball,” he said.

Commenting on the busy stretch of games and the caliber of competition, Noszka said Hurricane fans will be seeing even more changes in the future.

“We’ve taken a different approach with our non-league contests, and its’ gonna get tougher next year. We just played Centerville, and Stebbins might be down a little bit, but we’ve got Elder (from Cincinnati) coming in here next year. It might mean we’ll get more marks in the L column but its going to make us better prepared for the conference play and will help get us ready for the tournament,” he said.

Wilmington will return to Fort Ancient Valley Conference action on Friday, going to Amelia to face the Barons.

In non-varsity action Tuesday, Wilmington made it a sweep, taking the freshman game in overtime, 42-36, and the reserve contest also went to the ’Cane, 52-44.

In the junior varsity contest, Wilmington led 12-6 after the first quarter, and stretched the margin to 11, 25-14 at halftime. Stebbins made it close with a 17-9 third quarter margin, but Wilmington won the fourth period battle, 18-13.

Three Wilmington players were in double figures, led by Lorenzo Harris with 14 (ten in the second quarter) while Kyle Blakeman and Scott Gregory-Tims each scored 12 for the ’Cane junior varsity squad.

SUMAMRY

SHS 8 5 11 2 — 26

WHS 18 19 12 2 1— 70

(26) STEBBINS (2fg-3fg-ft-tp) Scriven 2-0-2-6, Criddell 0-0-1-1, Clark 2-0-0-4, Tyus 3-0-3-9, Kennedy 1-0-0-2, West 1-0-0-2, Coterel 1-0-0-2. Team Totals 10-0-6-26.

(70) WILMINGTON (2fg-3fg-ft-tp) Rollins 5-2-1-17, Osterbrock 2-0-1-5, Berlin 4-1-5-16, Heard 4-0-2-10, Seeger 1-0-0-2, Arehart 2-2-0-10, Cowin 1-0-0-2, Williams 1-2-0-8. Team Totals 20-7-9-70.