Cardington’s A.J. Brehm goes up for two of his 20 points in Wednesday night’s win over Mount Gilead.
Rob Hamilton | Morrow County Sentinel
Hot shooting propelled Cardington past Mount Gilead 81-59 at home in the first game of the two schools’ rivalry this season in boys’ basketball.
The Pirates connected on 12 three-pointers — eight in the first half — as they jumped out to an 11-point lead in the first quarter and never looked back.
“We had multiple guys shooting where it felt like when we were shooting shots, they were going in,” said Cardington coach Jason Rice. “It was a completely different thing on Saturday when we couldn’t make a shot — lay-up or around the rim or three-pointer. Today we kind of put it together and installed that when we’re running in transition and hitting shots, we’re really fast and hard to guard.”
Two buckets by Gage Baker and a three-pointer from Rowan Fitzpatrick gave the Indians a 7-3 lead after one minute had elapsed in the first quarter, but Cardington responded with four consecutive three-pointers, with Warren Garrison hitting three.
Mount Gilead would get back within one point thanks to four points by Baker and three from Cameron Vickers, but the Pirates finished the period on an 13-3 run behind six points by A.J. Brehm and five points by Isaiah Ward, which gave them a 28-17 lead after only eight minutes of play.
MG coach Nathan Davis felt his team needed more defensive intensity to combat Cardington’s sharp-shooting.
“They shot the ball well from three,” he said. “I don’t know how many total they took, but they were efficient on offense. We just have to increase our intensity on defense.”
And the coach had an idea for what his players have to do when going against a team shooting a high percentage from deep.
“You have to get out to the shooters and contest shots as much as you can,” he noted. “You’ve got to get a hand in their face and really run them off the line.”
While the Indians would play Cardington evenly for most of the second quarter, they would only get as close as 10 points after a three-pointer by Fitzpatrick and a bucket from Vickers turned a 41-26 deficit to a 41-31 score with 1:27 left in the half.
Cardington would finish the period with a flurry, though, getting buckets from Kalin Briggs and Garrison and then, after a free throw by Carson Trainer, closed the half with a A.J. Hall three-pointer to lead 48-32 at the intermission.
Rice used a smaller line-up in the game — something he felt paid off against the Indians.
“We were smaller tonight, so I told the guards and our kids we have to get up and down both sides,” he said. “We’ve got to pressure them, make them turn it over, make this really into a track sprint and see if they can keep up. I was proud of all the guards. We had guys playing 30, 31, 32 minutes; we had guys step up.”
Mount Gilead opened the third period on a 6-2 run, with Fitzpatrick, Baker and Mitchell Sayers getting their team within a 50-38 margin. The rest of the period would be dominated by Cardington. While Baker got five points for the Indians over the final 4:50 of the quarter, the Pirates scored 14 points, with Hall scoring five, Brehm adding four and Journey Williamson hitting a three during that stretch.
Leading 64-43 going into the fourth, the Pirate lead would not go below 17 points during the final quarter, as they were able to bounce back after suffering their first league loss of the season Saturday against Centerburg.
Baker led Mount Gilead with 19 points, while Vickers scored 13, Sayers had nine and Fitzpatrick finished with eight. Davis noted that since recently coming back from injury, Baker has given the Indians good minutes on the floor.
“He’s aggressive,” said the coach. “He can drive, he can rebound, he’s an aggressive player who can get to the rim right there and it shows. The last two games in that situation, he’s been efficient on offense since he’s come back fully. We just need to continue to have that.”
For Cardington, Garrison scored a team-high 21 points, while Brehm and Hall were right behind with 20 and 19, respectively. Williamson picked up nine points. Rice was just happy to get a strong performance coming off a rough loss.
“I’m really proud of how the boys bounced back,” he said. “Saturday was a really big-time tough loss for us. I was interested in how the boys would respond. I know that last week’s practices were not good heading into Centerburg. It seemed like the boys got back to the basics, refocused and had determination to do well together.”
Rob Hamilton can be reached at 419-946-3010, ext. 1807. Connect with him on Twitter at @SportsMCS
