Federal Hocking 46 @ Alexander 63 a final

[pfloyd]

Alexander 63
Federal Hocking 46 a final

... how much better can it get? 2 of the best teams in the TVC, going at it in The Alley, Lou Horvath on the PA & HOF night with our friend Randy Dillinger being inducted... the Alley at Alexander was packed, pfloyd even had to move from his perch in the Cheap Seats to make room for one of the radio stations to set up ... in the end it was a great opportunity to see Federal Hocking for the 2nd time in the opening 2 weeks of the season and get eyes on one of the top 15 teams in SEO - the Alexander Spartans of Coach Skinner ... BESIDES!!! where else can you go and hear "It's Basketball :30!!!" and/or "2 Minutes!!! 2 Minutes!!!" spoken by THE ONE AND ONLY "voice of sports in SEO" - Lou Horvath !!! ...

... going into this one I expected a Coach Thompson's Fed Hock team to try to control Spartan standout, and arguably the best player in SEO - Kyler D'Augustino ... force the rest of the Alexander TEAM to beat them ... (side note: IF you follow hoops in SEO, you KNOW that Kyler D' has been/ IS the engine that makes AHS go ... he has seen every junk D that can be imagined, he has been double teamed, chased from one corner to the other, pressured full court for 32 minutes ... in EVERY game since his freshman year ... as Kyler D' goes, so goes the Spartans - end of side note) EVERYONE KNOWS WHO WILL GET BALL, WHO WILL HAVE THE BALL IN HIS HANDS FOR 32 MINUTES ... the opening period FH forced KD to have to give up the ball in the backcourt as much as possible ... the strategy worked - sorta - D'Augustino was held scoreless in the first 8 minutes ... KD found the rest of the Spartans "role players" (and I don't say that to be taken in a negative way concerning the rest of the lineup for AHS - as Dylan Allison, Jagger Cain, Alex Norris, 6-7 Zach Barnhouse, Klaxton Hawk off the bench KNOW what THEY need to do for the Spartans to get W's - AND THEY DO IT WELL !!!) ... the big man in the middle 6-7 Zach Barnhouse took up the slack on the napkin stat sheet accounting for 8 points in the lane, Dylan Allison drained a 3 ball and Alex Norris dropped a transition bucket to give Alex the first quarter advantage on the scoreboard ... for Federal Hocking the big stat in the quarter wasn't on the scoreboard but on the napkin stat sheet - 8 turnovers / empty trips down court - the Lancers didn't look sharp/focused or maybe too focused - sometimes KNOWING what you need to do - stop D'Augustino defensively - takes you away from what YOU need to do as a team - sometimes at both ends of the floor ... FH was led by Tariq Cottrill who knocked down a trey to go with a 2 pointer in transition (5pts), guard running mate Billy Ward added a 3 pointer and Andrew Airhart a deuce ... Alexander 13 Fed Hock 10 after 1 ... quarter 2 showed the Lancers fixing the turnover issue as they only committed 2/10 in the half ... the shooting problems continued - FH who makes a living from behind arc - Airhart/Cottrill/Scotty Balch are 3 of the best in the TVC & SEO from downtown - on this night virtually nothing found the bottom of the net as FH went 3/17 from 3 point land in the first half... in the 2nd qtr Caden Chapman led with 3 buckets (6 points)/CC was assigned to guard Kyler D' all night with double team help in the opening half) ... Scotty Balch came off the bench for a 3 to close out the Lancer scoring ... Alexander who doesn't take many 3's (3 in the opening quarter/1 in the 2nd / 5 total for the game) simply played their game - put the ball in Kyler D'Augustino's hands ... depending on the defense K D' makes the decisions - keep it , get that medium range shot at the elbow or if he beats his man - get to the blocks- finish at the rim, get to the FT line, or dish off of penetration - the 2nd period showed the AHS offensive MO for all to see - Kyler D' got 6 points at the rim, Jagger Cain 2 on a lefthand scoop shot off of a KD pass, Klaxton Hawk came off the bench to get back to back offensive boards and putbacks for points in the paint (6pts), Barnhouse 2 more points down low ... after the dust settled Alex had outscored the long range arsenal of FH 20-9 in the period ... Alexander 33 Fed Hock 19 at intermission ... again the Alex offense is predicated on how the opposition defends Kyler D' ... the first half was Fed Hock trying to keep the ball out of KD's hands as early in the possession as possible result - a 14 point deficit after 2 ... the 3rd quarter, the Lancers put Caden Chapman on an island , one on one defending K D' (side note #2: USUALLY if K D' is in a man to man situation it allows KD/Alexander to have total control of the tempo of the game - advantage Alexander/advantage K D' ) .. with the game tempo under "D'Augustino control" neither team had many "shots on goal" - advantage Alex as Fed Hock had a tough time trying to chip into the AHS lead ... FH had only 4 three point attempts (1/4) ... 7 points in the quarter ... even if Alex was held scoreless - the Spartans would have taken a 3 possession advantage into the final period ... D'Augustino scored 8 points on his ball alone, sandwiched around 2 pointers from Cain and Norris ... Alex extended the lead to 19 points ... Alex 45 Fed Hock 26 after 3 ... the Lancers had to make it a helter skelter 4th period to up the tempo to have a chance to get back in the game ... while Alexander needed to continue to control the tempo, reduce the number of FH opportunities at the offensive end ... FH had their best offensive quarter of the night putting up 20 points ... 3/11 from beyond the arc (1 each from Cottrill/Airhart/Balch) ... Airhart with 7 pts in the period/Cottrill 7 pts/Chapman 2 pts/Balch 3 pts ... the Lancers got the deficit down to 12 with 1:45 on the game clock ... Alexander with D'Augustino having the ball in his hands had control of the outcome - if KD' didn't get to the rim (6 pts) he was being double teamed/pressured (Fed Hock forced 6 Spartan turnovers in the 4th) and fouled (10/13 from the FT line in the 4th) ... in the end 8 minutes trying to get the ball out of Kyler D'Augustino's hands AND put up offensive numbers on your own end is not enough Fed Hock won the 4th 20-18 but Alexander 63 Federal Hocking 46 a final ...

Pfloyd's official UN-official Napkin Stats - Federal Hocking

Scoring ... Tariq Cottrill 14, Scotty Balch 9, Andrew Airhart 9, Caden Chapman 8, Iden Miller 3, Billy Ward 3
3 Pointers ... 7/32 ... Scotty Balch 3, Tariq Cottrill 2, Billy Ward 1, Andrew Airhart 1
FT's ... 1/3
TOs ... 13
PnP ... 6 fgs/ 12 points in the paint
PnT ... 4 fgs/ 8 points in transition
Pbk ... 2 fgs/ 4 points on putback buckets

... Federal Hocking didn't play their best game ( I saw them vs a good Caldwell team in which they were a couple of possession away from a good W on the road) ... EARLY turnovers/ empty three pointer possessions (7/32) and the lack of an inside game ( vs Caldwell, Miller had 18 pts last night 3 - the inside D by Barnhouse & Hawk took away any 2nd chance points by Miller & FH inside) ... on nights that Balch/Cottrill/Airhart ARE hitting the 3 ball - look out for some big numbers from the Lancers ...

Pfloyd's official UN-official Napkin Stats - Alexander

Scoring ... Kyler D'Augustino 30, Zach Barnhouse 12, Alex Norris 8, Klaxton Hawk 6, Jagger Cain 4, Dylan Allison 3
3 Pointers ... 1/5 ... Dylan Allison 1
FTs ... 16/21
TOs ... 19
PnP ... 17 fgs/34 points in the paint
PnT ... 5 fgs/ 10 points in transition
Pbk ... 5 fg/ 10 points on putback buckets

... Alexander is a solid TEAM ... a team where EVERYONE knows their roles and plays within those roles ... Kyler D'Augustino did nothing that would tarnish the claim to KD' as the best in SEO ... for AHS to get W's he needs to be on the floor for 32 minutes - and he is/has been for going on year 4 ... Tuesday night at the Alley will be a major challenge for Coach Skinner and the Spartans as Logan will visit AHS ... Logan presents some BIG problems as the Chiefs will lineup 6-7,6-6, 6,5,6-4, 6-1 - tall, length - then give AHS a lot of matchup problems - potentially taking away the inside game from the Spartan offense-the ability to force the Spartan out on the perimeter but with the length on the perimeter to make getting off the 3 ball tough ... Logan is missing PG/ballhandler/floor general Max Black due to a soccer injury - Max is due back towards the end of December ... it will be interesting all around ! how will Logan handle D'Augustino? how will Logan handle the solid D from Alexander ? ... we will see ...

[Whs95fan]

If FH isn't hitting theirs 3's they're going to lose.

[Raider6309]

If FH isn't hitting theirs 3's they're going to lose.

All teams now

[Tomcat Queen]

Maybe them boys aint quite old enough to hit 3s regularly. It takes strength to launch a ball that far.

[bbjunky81]

If FH isn't hitting theirs 3's they're going to lose.

All teams now

Not necessarily. Alexander only made 1, Fed Hock made 7.

The problem is --- Fed Hock shot freaking 32 of them. That's insane. At some point you have to realize it's not working and the other team is probably baiting you into shooting those shots.

[The Ultimate Lancer]

QUICK! Go pay his bail and get that one kid back on the floor right away!