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Boyle County¿s Colton Elkins (25) blocks a shot by Danville Damir Karapandzic (24) Tuesday during Boyle¿s 57-50 win that gives the Rebels a 2-0 mark in 45th District play. (Clay Jackson / January 9, 2013) |
It came as no surprise to them when things started to go wrong in the fourth quarter, but the Boyle County boys weren’t about to let two minutes of bad basketball wipe out a good night.
Even on their good nights, coach Steve Adams and the Rebels have come to expect at least one spell of poor play per game, and that spell came at perhaps the worst possible time Tuesday night. But Boyle fought through it, cutting off a comeback attempt by Danville to preserve a 57-50 victory at Rebel Arena .
The Rebels seemed to be headed toward a double-digit win midway through the fourth quarter when they saw their lead sliced from 13 points to five in a span of 82 seconds.
“We have mental lapses. There’s about two minutes every game where we don’t play our best, and unfortunately it came late in the game, but we always keep playing, and we stuck it out to the end. Just an all-around good team effort at the end,” Boyle forward Aram Martin said.
Adams said he knew one of those mental lapses was coming on when the Rebels’ mistakes started to multiply and Danville came roaring back with just under 3 1/2 minutes to play.
“That was it. We hadn’t had one up to that point. And when we have those lapses, it’s on both ends of the floor. We didn’t guard, they rebounded, and they scored more points in the fourth quarter than the other three combined,” he said.
But he said aside from that two-minute stretch, the rest of the night went well for Boyle (8-6, 2-0 45th District), which has won its last two games against Danville (4-11, 0-2).
“I thought we played really well,” Adams said. “We were jabbing and recovering, keeping people from getting in the lanes, challenging shots when they did get in there. We were rebounding, and we were executing on the other end, still attacking.”
Boyle led 51-38 with 3:27 remaining when Danville reeled off three straight baskets as part of a 9-1 run.
The Rebels finally righted themselves by forcing a turnover and getting a layup from Brett Jones that gave them a 54-47 lead with 1:16 to go. Cody Woolridge answered with a basket for Danville, but it would be the Admirals’ last field goal. Martin went right to the rim on the other end for a layup that made it 56-49, and the Admirals were unable to mount another comeback.
Boyle took control of the game in the second quarter, pushing a one-point lead to seven early in the period with a 3-point basket by Josiah Robbins and three points from Colton Elkins.
The Rebels led 24-16 at halftime and opened the third quarter with a 7-2 run that included points from four different players and left them with a 31-18 lead. They led by as many as 14 points on three occasions before Danville’s rally.
The Admirals managed only eight points in each of the first three periods, when they shot 32 percent from the field. They scored 26 points in the fourth quarter on 10-of-17 shooting, but coach Andrew Zaheri said that wasn’t enough because of their inability to stop Boyle.
“We were forced to do a few things differently with our press to try to get back into the game. I felt like the energy was good; we just couldn’t get stops when we needed to get stops,” Zaheri said. “I thought we did a good job trying to fight and claw and get back into it, we just didn’t have quite enough to get over the hump. Boyle plays great man-to-man defense ... and we preach and preach trying to take the ball to the rim and get to the free throw line, but it wasn’t there for us tonight.”
Boyle shot 51 percent from the field, going 9-for-18 in the first half and 9-for -7 in the second, and all but its of their field goals came from the paint. The Rebels also got to the foul line more often. They made 18 of 28 free throws while the Admirals were five of eight.
“Their post players tonight wore our post players out,” Zaheri said.
Martin hit eight of 10 free throws and had a team-high 16 points, along with five rebounds and three assists.
“That might have been Aram’s best game of his career,” Adams said.
Micah Miniard had five rebounds, Devin True had three assists and Hagen Tyler blocked three shots for Boyle.
Christian Gateskill-Fuqua scored 18 points for Danville. Woolridge had eight rebounds and Alex Burnside had six to help the Admirals outrebound the Rebels 33-24.
Boyle has its second three-game winning streak of the season, but Martin said while it’s nice to beat Danville and to be on top of the 45th District standings, this is no time for the Rebels to relax.
“It’s a long season,” he said. “It’s a good start to be 2-0 in the district, but everything we want’s still way out there, and we’ve got to keep playing. We can’t get happy.”
Danville 8 16 24 50
Boyle County 9 24 36 57
DANVILLE (4-11) — Alex Burnside 6, Devonta Alcorn 4, Jawan Grey 4, Christian Gateskill-Fuqua 18, Jakobi Turner 5, Trent Johnson 4, Cody Woolridge 7, Damir Karapandzic 2.
BOYLE (8-6) — Aram Martin 16, Devin True 4, Micah Miniard 5, Brett Jones 10, Hagen Tyler 4, Josiah Robbins 9, Chapman Bean 4, Colton Elkins 5.
Even on their good nights, coach Steve Adams and the Rebels have come to expect at least one spell of poor play per game, and that spell came at perhaps the worst possible time Tuesday night. But Boyle fought through it, cutting off a comeback attempt by Danville to preserve a 57-50 victory at Rebel Arena .
The Rebels seemed to be headed toward a double-digit win midway through the fourth quarter when they saw their lead sliced from 13 points to five in a span of 82 seconds.
“We have mental lapses. There’s about two minutes every game where we don’t play our best, and unfortunately it came late in the game, but we always keep playing, and we stuck it out to the end. Just an all-around good team effort at the end,” Boyle forward Aram Martin said.
Adams said he knew one of those mental lapses was coming on when the Rebels’ mistakes started to multiply and Danville came roaring back with just under 3 1/2 minutes to play.
“That was it. We hadn’t had one up to that point. And when we have those lapses, it’s on both ends of the floor. We didn’t guard, they rebounded, and they scored more points in the fourth quarter than the other three combined,” he said.
But he said aside from that two-minute stretch, the rest of the night went well for Boyle (8-6, 2-0 45th District), which has won its last two games against Danville (4-11, 0-2).
“I thought we played really well,” Adams said. “We were jabbing and recovering, keeping people from getting in the lanes, challenging shots when they did get in there. We were rebounding, and we were executing on the other end, still attacking.”
Boyle led 51-38 with 3:27 remaining when Danville reeled off three straight baskets as part of a 9-1 run.
The Rebels finally righted themselves by forcing a turnover and getting a layup from Brett Jones that gave them a 54-47 lead with 1:16 to go. Cody Woolridge answered with a basket for Danville, but it would be the Admirals’ last field goal. Martin went right to the rim on the other end for a layup that made it 56-49, and the Admirals were unable to mount another comeback.
Boyle took control of the game in the second quarter, pushing a one-point lead to seven early in the period with a 3-point basket by Josiah Robbins and three points from Colton Elkins.
The Rebels led 24-16 at halftime and opened the third quarter with a 7-2 run that included points from four different players and left them with a 31-18 lead. They led by as many as 14 points on three occasions before Danville’s rally.
The Admirals managed only eight points in each of the first three periods, when they shot 32 percent from the field. They scored 26 points in the fourth quarter on 10-of-17 shooting, but coach Andrew Zaheri said that wasn’t enough because of their inability to stop Boyle.
“We were forced to do a few things differently with our press to try to get back into the game. I felt like the energy was good; we just couldn’t get stops when we needed to get stops,” Zaheri said. “I thought we did a good job trying to fight and claw and get back into it, we just didn’t have quite enough to get over the hump. Boyle plays great man-to-man defense ... and we preach and preach trying to take the ball to the rim and get to the free throw line, but it wasn’t there for us tonight.”
Boyle shot 51 percent from the field, going 9-for-18 in the first half and 9-for -7 in the second, and all but its of their field goals came from the paint. The Rebels also got to the foul line more often. They made 18 of 28 free throws while the Admirals were five of eight.
“Their post players tonight wore our post players out,” Zaheri said.
Martin hit eight of 10 free throws and had a team-high 16 points, along with five rebounds and three assists.
“That might have been Aram’s best game of his career,” Adams said.
Micah Miniard had five rebounds, Devin True had three assists and Hagen Tyler blocked three shots for Boyle.
Christian Gateskill-Fuqua scored 18 points for Danville. Woolridge had eight rebounds and Alex Burnside had six to help the Admirals outrebound the Rebels 33-24.
Boyle has its second three-game winning streak of the season, but Martin said while it’s nice to beat Danville and to be on top of the 45th District standings, this is no time for the Rebels to relax.
“It’s a long season,” he said. “It’s a good start to be 2-0 in the district, but everything we want’s still way out there, and we’ve got to keep playing. We can’t get happy.”
Danville 8 16 24 50
Boyle County 9 24 36 57
DANVILLE (4-11) — Alex Burnside 6, Devonta Alcorn 4, Jawan Grey 4, Christian Gateskill-Fuqua 18, Jakobi Turner 5, Trent Johnson 4, Cody Woolridge 7, Damir Karapandzic 2.
BOYLE (8-6) — Aram Martin 16, Devin True 4, Micah Miniard 5, Brett Jones 10, Hagen Tyler 4, Josiah Robbins 9, Chapman Bean 4, Colton Elkins 5.
