Joppeck leads Dukes past Firelands

Wellington used stingy defense and rode 6-foot-4 senior forward Maxwell Joppeck to a 54-37 win over host Firelands on Dec. 15. Joppeck led the Dukes with 22 points and 13 rebounds, and the Dukes never trailed at any point in the game after jumping out to a 9-0 lead.

They improved to 5-0 (3-0) while the Falcons dropped to 1-4 (1-2).

“It’s awesome to get out there and run and run, get up big on them and get them down,” Joppeck said. “We knew we had

to bring the tempo and get up on them early. Starting 5-0 is awesome and this is the best time of my life.”

Firelands, throughout various points, would hang around to keep Wellington on its toes. The Dukes took a 29-22 halftime lead, and early in the third quarter, the Falcons cut it to five on a Austin Urban 3-pointer.

But that’s the closest they got.

Wellington pushed the lead back up to 13 to end the quarter and opened up a 17-point lead early in the fourth after a Colton Schmidt bucket. Firelands

senior Nick Denney led the Falcons with 18 points, but the Falcons lacked aggressiveness, only attempting six total free throws.

“Joppeck is obviously a great player,” Firelands coach Alan Januzzi said. “I told Dan Gundert (Wellington coach) after the game that that’s some of the best defense we’ve seen in terms of ball pressure and kids getting in the passing lanes, and our kids struggled with it tonight.”

In the midst of early season struggles, Januzzi has set daily goals for the Falcons.

“You have to take it one day at a time,” he added. “There’s always something to learn in every situation. In my 20 years of coaching, I’ve had losing seasons,

winning seasons, and I think your job as a coach is to make sure you’re teaching through that process regardless. Our goal with this team early on since we only have one returning starter is that we just want to get better every day and play our best basketball late January and into February.”

Wellington went 9 of 11 from the line and knocked down 21 of 44 field goals.

Joppeck has a soft touch around the rim, good ball handling skills and most importantly, his leadership has taken a step forward to the satisfaction of Gundert.

“You can talk about his points, rebounds, but what I was most proud of Max was how much he grew up

from last year as a player,” he said. “There’s a couple times last year where I had to call a timeout and get things settled down for us. And Max did that on the floor. His leadership skills were unbelievable.”

Gundert’s squad has displayed the ingredients of a dominant team, and although they’re in a much different spot than Firelands, the approach is still the same.

“If we can hold teams to this point, good things will come our way,” he added. “We’re not really talking about being undefeated. Ee’re just worried about ourselves. We’re taking it one game at a time and letting everything else fall where it is.”