Riley Price of North Union drives to the basket around an Ontario defender during a ball game at North Union High School. Priced picked up 16 points during NU’s 50-48 loss.
(Journal-Tribune photo by Sam Dillon)
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Before the start of the regular season, North Union boys basketball coach Brian Terrill said his team was going to have to be ‘defensively strong’ to be competitive this year.
Through the first three games of the season, the Wildcats were still looking for that defensive strength.
Something changed in the Cats on Thursday night as they hosted the Ontario Warriors. Despite a close 50-48 setback, Terrill was extremely happy with the effort of his young players as they had “90 to 92 percent” defensive efficiency to keep the game as close as it was.
“To be honest, we didn’t put anything new into the program,” Terrill said. “We are just getting to a point where we starting to mature. The key is that we can get to the point where we can play without thinking and I saw that tonight.”
The defensive pressure was able to keep the game tight in the first quarter as neither team was able to put many points on the boar.
After eight minutes of action, the score stood at 9-8 in favor of the Warriors.
The Cats were able to push the ball inside, but strong play by the Warriors put NU shooters at the charity stripe. The Cats struggled to find the bottom of the basket early, only going two-for-eight from the line.
“The frustrating thing for a coach is we are shooting a lot of free throws every day,” said Terrill. “Free throws are mostly mental and the kids just have to get more confidence in knocking them down.”
The missed opportunities allowed the Warriors to stretch their lead to 23-18 at the half.
After the turn, the Wildcats were able to open up the second half with some solid offense. They went on a nine-point run to take a 29-23 margin.
“I thought we did a job of getting into the paint and running our base offense,” Terrill said. “We did a job of forcing them to help and when we forced them, that gave some guys open looks.”
The Wildcat defense stayed true to its form and kept the Warriors off the clock until around the three-minute mark of the quarter.
The Cats kept the offensive tempo high and at the end of the third found themselves on top, 35-32.
“We are also doing a better job of reading and reacting to what they do,” said Terrill. “Whether the defender is coming off the post or whether the guy in corner is coming to help the corner three-shooter. Up until tonight, we were guessing.”
The Warriors made some adjustments going in the final stanza. The move put the Cats on their heels as Ontario reclaimed a 40-35 lead.
The Warriors continued to put the ball in the hole and widen the gab to 48-41 with a little more than three minutes left in the game.
The Cats were not out as they clawed their was back to within two points off of a three by Cody Neel.
Harley Day followed up with a jumper down low to tie the game at 48-48 with less than a minute left.
The Warriors took the ball inside and pick up a lay-up for a 50-48 lead with 14 seconds left.
Terrill called for a timeout and on the inbounds-pass, the Cats struggled to find a clean shot as time expired.
“The last 15 seconds are on me,” said Terrill. “It is something we usually and have been able to do. In over 400 games we have executed that, but with a young team I know better than to call a timeout.”
North Union will return to action on Saturday as they continue in league play against Pleasant.
NU 08 10 17 13 48
Ontario 09 14 09 18 50
NU: Price- 16, Day- 10, Terrill- 9, Crabtree- 5, Soviak- 4, Neel- 3, Feasel- 1
Ontario: Jacobs- 13, James- 13, Coburn- 5, Shaver- 5, Matt- 5, Harris- 5, Brooks- 4