It was the inside-outside game early that decided the game.
Getting seven regular field goals and six from beyond the arc in the first half against Reed-Custer on Tuesday night, the Morris boys bolted to a 33-16 halftime lead, then coasted late to beat the Comets by a 55-36 score.
“We were rolling the dice, hoping that they’d have a bad night from the floor,” Reed-Custer coach Mark Porter said about his team protecting in the paint. “In the first five or six minutes that kept us in the game, but then they started hitting their threes. It was a difficult matchup for us. We knew the difference in size would be a challenge for us.”
Not early on, however. Three minutes into the game, Morris led just 4-2 on baskets by Ben Ortiz and Jake Olson, but then Jason Matteson hit the first of three straight treys for the Redskins. Austin Feeney and Sam Allen hit the others.
Olson capped the first quarter scoring for Morris with a putback of a Tim Smyk miss but then Ortiz got a basket off a steal and an assist from Feeney, and Jake Hogan dropped in a trey leading to a timeout by Porter with the score at 20-9.
“We try to distribute the ball around. It doesn’t matter who scores for us as long as we get the team win,” Matteson said. “We knew we had the height advantage in Ben and Jake and Danny (Friend) and early on we were able to force the ball down low. Then they started closing in on the big men, so that left us wide open and we hit from out there. We made them come out and guard us and that, once again, opened things up for the guys down low.”
Seven different Morris players scored in the first half as the Redskins led 33-16 at intermission.
“Any good offense is going to score inside or out. If the defense takes away one, we need to be able to make them pay the other way,” Morris coach Joe Blumberg said. “I was frustrated with our shot selection at times. I think we settled for threes early on instead of getting the ball inside to the post guys.”
Morris then outscored Reed-Custer 10-6 in the third quarter before the Comets held a 14-12 edge in the final quarter.
The Redskins got 12 points from Matteson, while Ortiz had 11 and both Olson and Friend had 10 each. Still, five turnovers in each the first and fourth quarters stood out as much as anything to Blumberg.
“That’s too many for our liking,” Blumberg said of the early play. “Sometimes the guys like to try and make the cute or crowd-pleasing pass instead of the fundamental pass. Our guys are unselfish, which is good, but sometimes they are too unselfish.”
“That was the young guys on the floor playing faster competition,” he said. “But it’s nice for us to get our freshmen and sophomores some good varsity minutes.”
Morris is now 12-7 on the season while Reed-Custer slides to 8-14.
“I think we’re at a good point in the season,” Matteson said. “But I think we could still be better, especially taking care of the ball. We still have stuff we need to work on.”
Anoice – The Black Rain Country: Japan Label: Ricco Label Released: 14 Feb 2012 Genre: Post-Rock / Ambient / Modern Classical / Electronica Details:
Duncan Shiek performing ‘The Ghost In You’ at a concert in Jakarta, Indonesia back in July (Screen grab from YouTube)