Gallery by Karen Akers
When you’ve reached the pinnacle the standard rises.
That’s what Shady Spring coach Ronnie Olson has been preaching to his team all season. It’s also why he wasn’t satisfied after Monday’s sectional opener.
The Tigers began their title defense with a 75-43 victory over PikeView, advancing to Wednesday’s sectional championship game against Westside.
While the score reflected a blowout win, it wasn’t enough to satisfy Olson. Following a recent trend, he again called a timeout in the first two minutes of the game to focus his team.
“I’ve got to save those for down in Charleston,” Olson said. “Those are pretty important. I just think we played average today and that’s not who we are. You can’t play average and just turn it on when you want. Maybe I’ve got to do something different pregame but they played average tonight. The score didn’t seem average but we played average to our standard. That’s all I’m going to say on that.”
If Monday’s performance was average, awful may have been enough for the talented Tigers to still eek out a victory.
A layup from Jaedan Holstein put the hosts on the board before Jared Vestal split the deficit with a free throw. Hope faded for the Panthers shortly afterwards when Cameron Manns nailed a 3-pointer and later a layup to make it an 8-1 game.
The early avalanche continued later in the quarter when Cole Chapman scored five straight with a 3 and a pair of free throws to push the lead to 18-1.
PikeView finally broke its drought when David Thomas hit the team’s first field goal at the 1:37 mark but a 3-pointer from Braden Chapman and a layup from Ammar Maxwell pushed the lead to 20 where it hovered for the remainder of the game.
“It’s hard when you get in the hole,” PikeView coach Colton Thompson said. “You got to start early and try to be in a one-possession, back and forth game and it’s so hard with them. We felt like we got a few shots we could live with and we just couldn’t convert on the other end to keep up with the scoring pace. We held them at a number we would’ve had a chance if we could find some buckets but we just couldn’t find them tonight.”
Even when the Tigers weren’t generating and scoring off of turnovers – the forced 23 on the evening – they were still a force in the half court.
On defense they limited PikeView to 36 percent shooting from the floor (16 for 45), taking 21 more shots than the Panthers.
On offense they assisted on 17 of their 29 field goals, finding cutters out of the high post and open shooters from beyond the arc, converting on 10 3-pointers.
“That was something we’ve been really working on because we know a lot of teams are going to want to play us zone, so we’ve worked hard on it,” Olson said of the half-court offense. “We’ve worked hard on teams playing 3-2, matchups and 2-3 zones. They’re basically all the same thing. You’ve got to get it into the high post corner and move it. They moved the ball well, especially towards the end of the second quarter so I think we’re going to see that on Wednesday but we’ve been working on that. I do like the execution. You’re going to have some close games in Charleston you’ll have to win like that if we make it.”
That was one of the bright spots for Olson as he was adamant he wasn’t pleased with what he deemed an average performance. Average was good enough to place four Tigers in double figures, led by 16 points from Cole Chapman.
More than anything the concerning part for the highly successful head coach was, and has been, the lack of energy at times. He has a list of qualms though.
“I want to see communication No. 1,” Olson said. “I know my guys, just like they know me. I want them to be as engaged as I am in the game to start. We shouldn’t be off the ball two or three feet. We should all be talking and I didn’t see anybody talking. That’s what we do in practice. We went over it in Nicholas County. I was upset in the first half because we weren’t communicating. You can’t always feed off the crowd’s energy. Their energy comes from big games and when you get to the pinnacle that they’ve got to, sometimes you get kind of complacent.
“I don’t coach complacent and I don’t want them to play complacent. They’re going to have to find a different energy than just from the crowd. We’re used to having a lot of energy here and it was a good crowd for a sectional game. But I know people thought we beat PikeView twice so they’re waiting for Wednesday but there was kind of a lull. The crowd isn’t where our energy is supposed to come from. That’s supposed to come from within and the team. I want them to have a little more energy themselves and not have to feed off the energy of the crowd.”
PikeView finishes the season at 4-19 while Shady Spring improves to 21-1 and will host Westside in the sectional championship on Wednesday.
Email: tylerjackson@lootpress.com and follow on Twitter @tjack94
PV: 5 10 12 16 – 43
SS: 23 15 19 18 – 75
PikeView
Peyton Greer 5, Nathan Riffe 5, Kameron Lawson 5, Drew Damewood 4, Braden Harvey 2, Kaleb Dunn 2, David Thomas 4, Dylan Blake 7, Zach Rose 6, Jared Vestal 3
Shady Spring
Braden Chapman 11, Cole Chapman 16, Jaedan Holstein 7, Cameron Manns 15, Ammar Maxwell 11, Sam Jordan 7, Jalon Bailey 2, Ty Austin 3, Nathan Richmond 3
3-point goals – PV: 4 (Riffe, Lawson, Rose 2)
