Central Boys Win Ninth Straight
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WHEELING -- The Maroon Knights picked up their ninth win in a row Friday night, defeating visiting Oak Glen 65-43 at home.
Central (9-1) started the game hot, with four of their six made field goals in the first quarter coming from beyond the arch. They out-paced the Golden Bears 16-11 in the opening frame.
After a similar second quarter, in which the Knights drained three more triples, Central held a 29-18 lead at halftime.
Despite making seven 3-pointers in the first half, Central coach Mel Stephens said that was not really the game plan coming into the game.
"Our thing is to drive the ball, really," Stephens said. "Try to drive it and if the defense collapses, then kick it out. We've got some kids that can shoot it so I don't have a problem with them shooting the 3s, if we do it the right way. If we drive the ball and we kick it to where we can get open looks."
Senior Ryan Reasbeck led the long-range attack in the first half with a trio of deep makes, followed by two each from Quinton Burlenski and Leyton Toepfer.
In the second half, it was Central's defense that stole the show. After Oak Glen scored the opening basket, a 3-pointer from Tristin McCauley, the Knights scored the next 15 points, culminating in a 21-2 run that put them way ahead.
"I think we just got back to what we wanted to do in the first half and that's just play good, solid defense," Stephens Said. "They gave us all we wanted in the first half. The (Chaise) Clark kid drove the ball really well and the (Jontae) Howard kid is definitely a handful inside so we had to make a few adjustments at halftime to combat that."
Clark finished with a team-high 14 points for Oak Glen and Howard finished with six. One of the reasons for Central's big run in the third quarter was that Howard and fellow big man Alex Dennis both found themselves in foul trouble early on in the period.
Reasbeck led all scorers with 21 points and Stephens said he was impressed with the play of some of his younger players, including Burlnski and Toepfer, who finished with 12 and 11 points, respectively.
"We're really a young team," Stephens said. "Other than Caleb (Ratcliffe), Ryan and Micahel (Toepfer), we're sophomores basically and every game I feel like those guys are getting a little bit better."