Espn radio 1000 January 18, 2009
Posted by thegateoftheangels in : Uncategorized , trackbackMetamora switches up Canton
With Zeke Schneider shackled with three first-half fouls, it was no surprise Metamora coach Jim Youngman began the second half in a zone defense.
The surprise came when Youngman stayed with the zone for nearly all the of the final 16 minutes Friday night. It not only protected his star post player but also caused havoc to Canton’s offense to the tune of a 46-39 Mid-Illini Conference win.
“We’re always looking to see what’s going on, and we did change zones a couple times,” Youngman said. “And we did slip into a man here and there, but I didn’t like what I saw.
“We were trying to keep (Canton) off balance the best we could. There was a stretch in that third quarter where we almost pulled away before we rotated into another zone in the fourth quarter.”
Tied at 23 with 4:28 left in the third, Metamora used an 8-point run to take its biggest lead so far, 31-23, with 2:00 left.
Schneider, who sat the last 3:11 of the first half and scored just six first-half points against the Little Giants’ smallish front line, scored six of the run’s eight points. He had 12 third-quarter points and made 6 of 7 field goal attempts in the frame on his way to a game-high 22 points.
“Switching to the zone cialis helped turn the tide little bit,” Youngman said. “But you know, we just needed to relax on offense. We were so tight. Once we started to relax, get into a rhythm and actually got ball reversal, we were OK.”
Canton did rally from its eight-point deficit with a flurry of 3s to end the third quarter. The Little Giants connected on three 3s in the final 1:27, including a 23-foot banked 3 by Jace Fletcher at the third-quarter buzzer that pulled Canton to within 33-32.
But that 87-second flurry was the second-half highlight for Canton.
The two teams traded baskets early in the fourth quarter before the Little Giants went on a scoreless drought from the 6:31 to the 1:19 mark. In that time, Canton was 0-of-9 and finished the quarter 3-of-15 and 0-for-7 on 3s.
“We haven’t done much against a zone all year. We’ve been struggling,” said Canton coach Jeff Otto, whose team led 17-16 at halftime. “We came out in the second half and saw they were in a zone, I thought we attacked it pretty well with our first couple possessions.
“Then we had some spells where we sat back on our heels, not wanting to attack and making sloppy passes.”
Metamora (10-5, 3-2) snapped a two-game losing streak with the win. It was also Metamora’s third win this season (by 5, 6 and 7 points) over Canton (4-9, 1-5), which had two-game winning streak halted.
“They say it’s hard to beat anyone three times in a season,” Youngman said. “I don’t know who ‘they’ are, but they are right.”
Bo Ryan can be reached at 686-3214 or rryan@pjstar.com.
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