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Rams win despite repeated misses |
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Thursday, 24 December 2009 |
By Joseph Bell
Despite more than a handful of missed layups and turnovers, the Johnsonburg Rams overcame early mistakes to put away Smethport last night in a 49-38 victory.
Despite a 24-24 stalemate at halftime, the Rams used a 13-0 run in the third quarter to pull away.
Down by four points early in the third quarter, Johnsonburg senior guard Aaron Patrick and fellow senior forward Seth Weible scored back-to-back field goals to knot the score. Patrick paced all scorers with 13 points.
On the other end of the floor, junior guard Louie Imbrogno tallied a steal and subsequent basket to take back the lead. Johnsonburg senior forward Matt Shuey would later cap off the run with a layup to give the Rams a 38-29 advantage.
The visiting Hubbers pressed the issue in the fourth quarter and pulled to within seven points of a tie before Imbrogno's three-pointer with 5:20 remaining iced the opposition to give the Rams a double-digit lead that they would not relinquish.
Imbrogno and Shuey both scored 10 points on the night.
But despite the victory, Johnsonburg head boys basketball coach Bill Shuey was displeased, particularly with his team's lack of intensity.
"It appears to be that we just weren't mentally into it," coach Shuey said. "We missed a lot of easy shots and I counted, and I could be wrong, 12 missed layups. "That obviously would've made the game not as close."
Most of the Rams' misses came in the first half of action.
"We could've easily been in control of the game by then," coach Shuey said. "Smethport is a good team, they kept fighting and shot the ball better than we did.
"We were lucky down the stretch to get some steals and get up on them which I think changed the approach to the offense. Smethport hurried some things and we were lucky to squeak out a win."
With 14 turnovers on the night and the Elk County Holiday Basketball Tournament approaching, coach Shuey said his team cannot be lackadaisical.
"We can't afford to be like that," coach Shuey said. "We were lucky to be tied at halftime. I was a little disappointed with their lack of intensity.
"We have some things to work on. Smethport got a lot of steals on us because we were sloppy with the ball. We had five turnovers at halftime but we just weren't holding onto the ball. A win is a win but we have some things that we definitely have to work on." |
