Saturday, December 23, 2006
by Mark Znider
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

There was nothing complicated about practice at DeSales this week.

That's not to say it was easy. In fact, it was torture.

"We had to run a lot in practice. We had to play a lot of defense," forward Alex Kellogg said.

Coach Blair Albright appealed to the players' pride after an 86-80 loss to Worthington Christian Dec. 15 in which the Stallions gave up two games worth of points.

"I was brutally honest, and it takes a man to hear the truth and accept the truth, Albright said. "They took it to heart and responded. We didn't defend very well against Worthington Christian. We had a hard week of adjusting defensively."

DeSales couldn't have chosen a better game to rebound by blowing open a close game in the third quarter to defeat Central Catholic League rival Watterson 57-40 before a packed gymnasium at Watterson.

The Stallions (3-2, 2-0) forced 11 turnovers and limited the Eagles (2-1, 1-1) to 34 percent shooting from the field and 23 percent from three-point range. "It was as good of a bounce-back game as we could have had," Albright said.

An overplaying zone defense was the difference. Watterson scored eight points in the third quarter when DeSales took a 43-32 lead.

What fans will remember more, though, will be two thundering dunks by Kellogg on lobs from point guard Dane Johnson early in the fourth quarter. The passes were extraordinary because Watterson defenders were glued to Kellogg, a 6-foot-7, 225-pound senior.

Kellogg said it was a going-away present in his final game at Watterson.

"Dane and I talked before before the game and said we have to do something," he said, smiling. "This is it — our last time playing here."

DeSales took command when backup guard Cris Diedalis hit a three-pointer and layup off the fast break on a feed from freshman guard Nick Kellogg for a 43-32 lead.

Johnson opened the fourth quarter with a trey. Then Alex Kellogg followed with the dunks. The first was a three-point play.

Defense, though, made everything possible.

"We knew we didn't do anything right against Worthington Christian," Johnson said. "We didn't pay attention to the game plan. We focused on defense tonight. We worked hard. We tried to speed up the game and make them play our game."

Watterson coach Vince Lombardo credited DeSales' defense but said his players made things easier by not taking the ball to the basket.

"The first-half tempo was to our liking, and it was that way even early in the third quarter," Lombardo said. "But we didn't execute well offensively. We just didn't attack.