Falcons defense sparks NIC road victory
SOUTH BEND - A fast start by the defense - sent Glenn on its way to a 67-40 road win over South Bend Clay in the Northern Indiana Conference opener for both schools Tuesday night.
“We got hot defensively,” said Glenn head coach Travis Hannah. “I know that sounds crazy to say about your defense, but I think you can and I thought we did.”
Forcing numerous turnovers out of its zone defense, Glenn got some extra early possessions in the first quarter and took full advantage of that. Silas Kaser had a nice tip-in rebound bucket to open the Falcons’ scoring then assisted on the next three buckets as Glenn led 8-0 in the first couple of minutes. Joe Delinski scored seven of the team’s last nine points of the quarter as the Falcons ended with an 11-3 flurry and held the Colonials to just five first-quarter points.
“It was sort of like our first game of the season (a win over Plymouth last Wednesday) where we tightened the screws early and that made it harder for them,” continued Hannah. “(Clay) had to play catch-up the entire game. They made a couple runs on us, but I thought we responded well.”
Delinski added a pair of 3s in the second quarter and Noah Dreibelbeis’ trey just before the buzzer pushed the lead to 34-18 at halftime. By then Delinski had scored 15 points to lead the offense.
In the third period, Brycen Hannah scored seven for Glenn and after a cold first half, sharpshooter Jack Porter nailed three from beyond the arc as Glenn put
up 22 points as a team and the lead reached as high as 23.
“That’s Jack’s role,” Hannah said of the senior guard. “He didn’t shoot the ball well in the first half, but he responded in the second half. We got him some better looks, where the ball was going inside then coming back out to him, whether coming from the post or penetration. He stepped into them with confidence. That was good to see.
“We hadn’t done much prep for Clay on zone stuff and naturally they came out in a zone press, but our kids, again, responded well. Obviously, we’ve worked on zone stuff in practice because we know we’re going to see it. We got into our stuff early and moved the ball pretty well, especially in the third quarter.”
The final frame played out with a lineup of mostly reserves, but the Falcons’ defense allowed only seven points as the gap went over the 30-point mark twice before ending at the final margin of 27.
Glenn had three players in double figures, led by Delinski with a game-high 17 points. Hannah added 15 and Kaser 14. Clay had just one double-digit scorer and the home team hit just 3-of-10 from the foul line.
The Falcons stay in conference for their next game as well when they travel to North Side Gym to play Elkhart Friday night.
• GLENN 67, SB CLAY 40
At South Bend
GLENN: Joe Delinski 7 0-0 17, Braylon Smith 0 0-0 0, Noah Dreibelbeis 2 0-0 5, Ty Larkin 0 0-0 0, Silas Kaser 6 2-2 14, Brycen Hannah 5 4-5 15, Joey Shoue 1 1-1 3, Joe Chrapliwy 1 0-0 2, Jack Porter 3 0-0