Photos by Karen Akers
NEW RICHMOND – Wyoming East coach Derek Brooks wanted to see how his team would handle the press, something that’s been the Warriors’ undoing the last two seasons.
One game in he knows there’s still work to do.
Shady Spring forced 19 turnovers, coming away with 15 steals in a 65-29 win over the Warriors in New Richmond Friday evening.
After trailing 8-4 early in the first, the Tigers ratcheted up the pressure, holding East scoreless over the next six minutes as they ripped off a 13-0 run to take command.
“We know they’re a good shooting team, they always are,” Shady coach Ronnie Olson said. “We weren’t worried early. To sustain that for four quarters, or even two quarters, we knew it would be tough for them to do. I know everybody talks abut the turnovers but our half-court defense is pretty dang good and it’s hard to score on it. They got a couple in transition where we got back and we were sleepwalking at the beginning but we handled the environment. There was a pretty good crowd here tonight and it got loud at the beginning, but they didn’t care.”
When the Warriors did successfully break the press they often settled for contested 3-pointers and it yielded little success. The hosts finished the evening 3-of-21 from beyond the arc with two of those makes coming in the game’s first three minutes.
“We preached that all week,” Brooks said. “I know that defense speeds you up but you can’t let it. If you don’t have a good shot, pull it out, set it up and get a good shot. I mean we did exactly the opposite. We took quick shots, we took the first shot available and most of the time those are contested 3s. That’s not what we want to be about and that’s not the team we usually are. We like to get penetration first and then kick out for 3s. Here in the last three weeks we’ve struggled shooting the basketball. It was different in the first two weeks of practice because we couldn’t miss.”
Even when the Tigers, who also struggled from deep with a paltry 5-of-17 performance from beyond the arc, weren’t getting shots to fall they excelled on the glass, holding East to just 16 total rebounds. Much of that had to do with the play of Shady center Jaedan Holstein who hauled in 11 rebounds – seven on the offensive glass – to go along with a game-high 14 points.
Olson was effusive in his praise of the lanky center.
“He’s so active,” Olson said. “He could be the last player up the court and still get the rebound. He tracks better than any player I’ve ever coached and maybe in person, tracks the ball better than anybody I’ve seen and played with in college. When he tracks the ball it’s a gift. I hate to relate him to Dennis Rodman but that was an undersized guy that out-rebounded every player in the NBA for 10 years. Jaedan’s a little raw offensively, but when you have that type of motor and those skills, it’s just a knack.
“It’s like a quarterback seeing the field. You can’t really teach vision. His vision is elite. The way he tracks the ball, you can’t teach that. He does it everyday in practice. You can say box him out but how when he’s coming from the three-point line? What a game by Jaedan. Every time he surprises you and just brings more to the table. He’s just a team guy too.”
“I always crash the boards, Holstein said. “I feel like that’s my job on the team as the big man – crash the boards and get the offensive rebounds. I feel like it helps us a lot. They weren’t really boxing me out.”
Most of Holstein’s production came in the first half as the Tigers took a 31-15 advantage into the break.
The first three minutes of the second half effectively decided the game with an 11-4 run staking the Tigers to a 21-point lead. It never dwindled below that as the hosts shot just 20 percent form the field after the intermission, making just five of their 25 shot attempts. Of East’s 41 total shot attempts, 21 came from outside the arc.
“That’s exactly it, we made them settle,” Olson said. “When we watch film I’m going to tell them where their shots came from is truly indicative of the half-court defense. I know people that don’t truly know our team can talk about the turnovers. But that right there is a win as a coach. We got beat a couple of times, but where they took their shots from, that’s as good as a turnover to me.”
Braden Chapman and Ammar Maxwell scored in double figures for Shady with 10 points each. Garrett Mitchell led Wyoming East with 12 points.
Shady Spring improves to 2-0 and will travel to Huntington on Friday. East, which played without all-stater Tanner Whitten (ankle), falls to 0-1 and will travel to Mingo Central on Tuesday.
SS: Braden Chapman 10, Cole Chapman 7, Jaedan Holstein 14, Sam Jordan 4, Ammar MAxwell 10, Jack Williams 6, Gavin Davis 2, Khi Olson 8, Ty Austin 4
WE: Tucker Cook 5, Logan Brant 3, Cole Lambert 2, Chandler Johnson 3, Garrett Mitchell 12, Zach Hunt 2, Landon Hodges 2
SS: 15 16 16 18 – 65
WE: 8 7 6 8 – 29
3-point goals – SS: 5 (Maxwell 3, Olson 2); WE: 3 (Cook, Brant, Johnson).
