Boys basketball: Niners not completely pleased with win
By Brian Hedger Post-Tribune correspondent December 13, 2012 11:04PM
Updated: January 15, 2013 11:46AM
VALPARAISO — If you took each coach’s thoughts and switched them around, they probably would’ve fit the final score better.
Andrean came into Wheeler on Thursday night and churned out a 73-53 victory, but 59ers coach Carson Cunningham wasn’t exactly pleased with his team’s overall effort.
“We shot well from the 3-point line and played good defense by causing turnovers, but we weren’t very good at the free-throw line and we got outrebounded,” Cunningham said. “We’ve got to get a lot better at rebounding and free-throw shooting … and we will.”
Wheeler (4-1) beat Andrean on the glass by a 27-24 margin. The 59ers also shot for a better percentage from the 3-point line (9-of-18, 50 percent) than they did at the free-throw line (8-of-18, 44.4 percent).
“To be honest, we’ve got a lot of things we need to work on,” said Andrean senior guard Nick Davidson, who led all scorers with 24 points and pulled down a team-high eight rebounds. “Give Wheeler credit. They played really hard, but this wasn’t one of our best efforts.”
Andrean (5-0) won’t have to wait long to get another opportunity, as the 59ers travel to Kankakee Valley on Friday night.
Wheeler coach Tom Johnson, however, was pleased afterward — especially with his team’s second-half effort. The Bearcats (4-1) cut a 36-22 halftime deficit to 54-44 late in the third, but couldn’t overcome the 59ers’ balanced scoring — which included the hot shooting of Sam Toporski (13 points) and Collin Wojcik (14 points).
Wheeler looked overwhelmed in committing 18 first-half turnovers, but the Bearcats looked like a different team during a 21-point third quarter. They used three 3-pointers by Kevin Barnes (14 points) to spearhead the effort.
“I was really happy with our second-half effort,” Johnson said. “We came out in the second half and executed and got back into the game in the third quarter. We showed a lot of poise running the offense.”
