DeSales' wear-down strategy works against St. Charles

Monday, January 18, 2010
By SETH SHANER

Like its football counterpart running the ball from start to finish, the DeSales boys basketball team used a strategy of wearing down its opponent in its 59-43 home win over St. Charles Friday, Jan. 15.

The Stallions (10-2, 4-0 Central Catholic League) used full-court pressure to try to slow down the Cardinals (5-5, 1-3). SC led 13-11 after the first quarter, and DeSales big man Aaron Selmek went out with his second foul midway through the first, but DeSales pulled ahead 26-22 by halftime, and pulled away in the second half.

A change in mindset got things turned around in the second half for the Stallions as they were able to speed things up more.

"I thought that St. Charles did a really good job of controlling the tempo in the first half," DeSales coach Blair Albright said.

"We weren't getting into our pressure the way we wanted to initially, and I felt like we weren't bringing the ball up the floor the way we should have.

"I told them in a timeout in the first half that it only takes a few possessions to get the tempo the way we wanted it, but we just weren't doing it consistently enough to play the way we wanted to play."

Albright felt his team could have picked things up a little bit going into the halftime break.

"Our guys were really down about the way they played," the coach said. "I told them, 'Look, (St. Charles) played the game the way it wanted to in the first half and we're still up by four points. Let's concentrate on simplifying a couple of things and making sure all five guys are getting into pressure.' "

A big reason St. Charles didn't back down, especially early, was the fact senior point guard Jason Crea had the ball in his hands much of the time.

"To his credit, I thought he did a much better job even than we anticipated he could do," Albright said, "but our philosophy defensively has a lot to do with grinding down and wearing out the opposing team's point guard, and I felt that did play a factor in the second half."

Cardinals coach Jacob Daniel liked what he saw out of his floor general.

"Jason did a great job," Daniel said. "He's a third-year varsity player at point guard and he's a guy who has absolutely worked harder than anyone else in the program has worked for the past three years.

"He's got himself into the type of shape where he doesn't get tired. He can handle it and we trust him. Give DeSales credit. They were physically on him all night and rotated guys to wear him down."

When it came time to pick up the pace, DeSales settled down and got back to the basics.

"We knew we weren't playing our game right," forward Chi-Chi Ariguzo said. "We just had to get it together and do things the right way.

"People just weren't dribbling with their heads up (in the first half). They couldn't see people down the floor. After we got the rebound, everybody had to get their head up so we could see down the floor and get some layups."

Nick Kellogg led the Stallions with 17 points, while Ariguzo added 11. The Cards got 16 points from Pat McAllister and 14 from Dane McLoughlin.

St. Charles was to go to Dublin Scioto Tuesday, Jan. 19, and hosts Ready Friday, Jan. 22, at 8 p.m., followed by a trip to Olentangy Orange Saturday, Jan. 23, at 7:30 p.m.

DeSales traveled to Wellston for the National Hoops Classic Saturday, Jan. 16, and downed Fairport, N.Y. 63-58. Clinton James led the way with 19 points, Selmek added 12 and Adam Griffin 10.

The Stallions were to host Granville Jan. 19, and play Watterson at Ohio Dominican University Jan. 22 (8 p.m.), before competing against Wilmington in the Ohio Scholastic Play-by-Play Classic at Ohio State's Value City Arena Jan. 23 (3:45 p.m.).