For the Tribune
VERSAILLES
Oldenburg Academy’s boys basketball team used a fast start Tuesday to roll to a 20-point win against Crothersville in the consolation game of the UCB Holiday Classic.
The Twisters made three 3-pointers in the first 2:20 of the game to open up a 9-0 lead against the Tigers and never looked back en route to the
86-66 victory at South Ripley High School.
“We gave up too many points and missed too many shots,” Tigers coach Greg Kilgore said of the loss that left his squad at 2-11.
“If you’re going to give up that many, then you’ve got to score more. (Monday) we scored 88, and we shot 60 percent, and I kind of knew that was fool’s gold. We’re not going to shoot 60 (percent) all the time, but hopefully we’re going to settle in around 40 percent. Today, we were down around 25 percent.”
Dakota Mount was the first to light up Crothersville’s side of the scoreboard with a basket three minutes into the game. He then converted a three-point play at the 4-minute mark that pulled the Tigers to within three at 10-7 score. The Twisters, however, went on a 10-0 run and would increase their lead to 14 points to 27-13 by the end of the period.
Crothersville’s Eli Mollet scored seven and Conner Adams added five in the second period, but the Twisters were able to increase the lead to 49-29 at the break. Tyler Luedeman hit two 3-pointers early in the third period, and Jordan Schoenfelder converted a 3-point play late in the quarter, but the Twisters outscored the Tigers 26-18 in the quarter to boost the lead to 28 at 75-47 entering the final period.
Oldenburg knocked down 10 3-pointers, with Cory Schuman and Matty Hurm hitting four apiece. Hurm also topped 7-2 Oldenburg, who put all five starters in double figures, in scoring with 23 points.
“We talked about their perimeter shooting on the way over because the (Matt) Moorman kid is an excellent point guard and does a great job of penetrating and finding the open 3-point shooters,” Kilgore said. “It’s hard to get kids in the mindset of not helping on dribble penetration, and staying home on a 3-point shooter because in third grade you teach kids help-side defense and sag off and against a good shooting team you get in trouble.”
The Tigers were able to find balanced scoring with Schoenfelder leading the way with 13 points. Adams and Mollet each added 11, and Luedeman and Mount both finished with nine.
Crothersville won the battle of the boards 29-20, with Mollet grabbing 16.
In practices leading up to the tournament, Kilgore had his team work on a up-tempo game because he said he believes it can have more success at a faster pace than it can with a set offense.
The Tigers entered the tournament averaging 43.5 points per game and scored 52, 88 and 66.
“We’ve almost changed our philosophy where we’re trying to speed it up a little,” Kilgore said. “Monday it was good, and until we get in that mindset of scoring and finishing all the time, we’re going to have pretty good days running the ball where we hit shots and it looks good and great, and there will be days where, ‘Wait a minute, did we make the right decision here speeding things up?’ Today was one of those days unfortunately. I never like losing, but it’s more fun to lose 88-68 than it is 66-19.
“If you’re playing at a 45-point pace,
10 points (behind) is a mountain, but if you’re playing at a 65- or 70-point pace,
10 points is nothing.”