Commodores’ pressure rattles Redskins
LIMA — Lima Perry’s full-court press made it uncomfortable for Wapakoneta to get into its offense during a nonconference game Tuesday night.
The Redskins, who were forced to play catch up against the Commodores throughout most of the second half, finally ran out of gas late in the fourth quarter of a 59-56 loss.
Elchert, who saw his team fall to 5-4 overall this season, said had mixed results against Perry’s pressure.
“At times, I thought we looked good attacking their press. At times, we made some mistakes,” Elchert said. “Give (Perry) credit for playing with a ton on energy, and they have some really good athletes who apply a ton of pressure while handling the basketball. Unfortunately, they forced us into some poor decisions. In the first half when we were able to break their pressure, our half court offense looked pretty good and we were able to get some easy things at the rim.”
Zach Rogers took full advantage of open layups when the Redskins handled the Commodores’ pressure. His 19 points were a game high, while WHS also received double-digit scoring from Kaden Siefring (12 points) and Jackson Courter *(12 points). Braden Goulet ended up with 10 rebounds and eight points, while Grant Bauer finished with five points and five assists.
“We are always looking for balanced scoring even if we don’t know who will be our leading scorer every night,” Elchert said. “Zach did a nice job at times tonight making the tight cut that allowed him to score some easy buckets at the rim.”
Commodores coach Craig Tucker said his game plan involved not only pressure but also a little mental warfare.
“We have several different presses that we practice, but we thought we wanted to
get Wapak into an upcourt game and make them think a little bit so that we could force them into some turnovers,” Tucker said. “Wapak is a good basketball team that is very fundamentally sound, well-coached and disciplined. If you let them walk the ball up the floor and let them move it from side-to-side like we did sometimes, the backdoored us and gave us problems.”
Wapakoneta built a 13-4 lead 5 minutes into the game before Perry made a 14-1 surge too take a 18-14 lead with 6:27 left in the first half on a steal and transition layup from Terry Riley. Zach Rogers hit three layups in the final 5 minutes of the first half to spark a 12-8 Redskins’ rally that netted a 26-all halftime tie.
The Commodores went ahead 35-32 on a steal and layup from Ryan Yingst. That became a 44-39 Perry edge after three quarters as Riley and Yinsgt made 3-pointers on consecutive possesions.
Rogers supplied nine of the 13 points Wapakoneta scored in the third period.
Will Knight provided 15 points to lead the Commodores, who added 13 more from Riley and 10 from Yingst.
A Siefring layup made it 55-48 with 1:42 left before a Rogers layup and a pair of free throws from Goulet got it down to a three-point Wapak deficit with 1:14 remaining.
Perry made four of its final seven free throws in the final 39 seconds to seal its victory.
Elchert sees the Redskins staying close in games but believes they need something extra to push them over the hump.
“As a whole, we were a couple plays away again, which is something we have been talking about all year and even going back into some games last year, at times,” Elchert said. “In order to beat good basketball teams, which Perry is definitely a quality one, it takes 32-plus minutes of quality basketball. I thought we really good for a good portion of (Tuesday), but there are a couple plays — a couple slip ups — that made all the difference.”