The Corry Boys Basketball Team ran into a tough Girard Yellowjackets team. Tonight I knew we were going to be up against some stiff competition. Girard handed us full court man to man pressure the entire game, with great doubles, and rotation off the ball to get there hands on anything they possibly could.

Tonight we had to focus on being smart, staying composed, and not rushing ourselves when there was pressure. Tonight we just weren’t consistent in those areas enough to beat them. I thought we played with good intensity and played hard, we just had too many mistakes each half. In fact, we had around 7 turnovers each half, mainly coming from there pressure.

We came out in a 1/2/2 defense and did well in it specifically the first quarter and second was not as great but not terrible. I really wanted my guys to focus on the guys in there area and know who we wanted to beat us. We did not want #3 and #33 to beat us. There was always at least 2 guys on the floor that we wanted to take the chance on to beat us. Unfortunately we took our eyes off of 3 a little too much and really did a pretty good job on #33 Dell’Omo.

#3 Gus Edwards torched us with 25 points and was consistent in both the zone and man defense we played. He played a really nice ball game tonight. Something I really respect about Gus is his work ethic. I watched him warm up and his routine is unbelievable and what you would love to see out of every player you coach. His routine really puts him in a spot to be prepared every night.

Trailing 13-14 at the end of the first quarter we were led by Tavon, with 5 points. I thought he did a really nice job early getting some nice buckets around the hoop. Markus with 5, he played strong all game long. Kamdyn nailed a three pointer as well.

I started off in a 1/2/2 because I was a little worried about their quickness and the ability to play big on some of my guards. We were able to keep those things to a minimum and really make them work the ball around the outside. We were working so hard bringing up the ball that we also needed to be in a zone to help conserve a little bit of energy, which playing any zone defense will do.

In the second quarter, we were outscored by 7 in part to us having some trouble with pressure and getting to the hoop. This is where we broke down a little bit bringing up the ball and our two lead ball handlers were finding themselves lost in the back court and not exactly where I would have liked them to be. We only scored 6 points to there 13.

In the second half we wanted to stay in the 1/2/2 as long as we could while we had a single digit deficit, but that idea changed quickly after they hit 2 three point shots coming out of the half and then kept that 14 point lead the rest of the way. We then had to go into a half court man to man. We found ourselves getting beat off the dribble and getting isolated with some of guards who were scored on easily inside the paint. The third quarter was our highest scoring quarter with 18 points, but we allowed 24. Markus was our leading scorer in the quarter with 14 of our 18 points. He was able to take his guy off the dribble often and either get the bucket or get fouled. Something we did well tonight was drawing fouls, we had a few of their guys in foul trouble and we were able to get to the line 17 times and converting 14 of those free throws.

In the third and fourth quarter we were messy at times leading to a lot of transition looks for Girard. The fourth quarter was much of the same and was pretty even in the scoring column for both teams.

Tonight, Girard was the better team on the court and they deserved the win. We have the ability to stick with a team like that, and I hope we can learn from our mistakes tonight. Composure and decision making is huge in pressure and we had it at times, but not enough to win the game. After the game I told my guys thought we played hard and had the intensity, but some of just have to simply play better in order to win against high caliber teams like we saw in Girard tonight. We have to understand that, take it to heart, and be better.

I’m happy we got to the see the pressure tonight because this isn’t the only time we are going to see it. We need to get better at it with more intensity in practice. I had 4 or 5 guys that played tonight that really haven’t been in a game like that yet. That’s some fast pace intense basketball, and those guys now know what it’s like now. We look forward to responding to this loss on Friday night against Maplewood.

Markus Lambert finished with 25 points, 7 rebounds. He really carried us offensively.

Rylan 6 points, 5 rebounds
Karson 6 points, 5 rebounds
Kamdyn  6 points, 2 assists
Tavon 5 points, 1 assist

Other contributors were Ricketts, Deane, Frisina, Atha, and Scouten.