COLONY A tight first half led to a fairly easy 69-45 season-opening win for the Southern Coffey County boys at Crest Thursday night.
With five minutes to play in the game, the Lancers had cut SCCs lead to nine and looked to possibly get even closer. But scores on four straight possessions after that for Titans put the game away and gave head coach Jay Applegate and his team their first win of the year.
We had a two-a-days yesterday and because of that our legs were gone, Applegate said. Thats my fault. Having said that, I dont know if we scored 69 points all last year and to do it with as bad of a first half as we had, thats a good deal for us.
Crest came out of the gate slow and struggled to score for most of the first quarter, falling behind 12-1 with three minutes to play in the quarter. Two threes from Lancer junior Jacob Holloran gave Crest a jumpstart and for the rest of the half, the Lancers were in it.
We were so tight, Hermreck said. We played hard but we were so wound up and we couldnt think clearly. Then we just started making silly mistakes without thinking. If we can get relaxed and find a little better offensive flow, normally our defense will generate off of that.
By halftime, Crest had narrowed the Titans lead to 26-22.
The Titans came out of the half ready to go and very quickly pushed their lead back to double digits on the back of some outside shooting.
There were times tonight that we looked pretty good defensively, Hermreck said. But there were also times that we gave up a lot of easy stuff. Theyre a really tough matchup for us and we had to bank on the fact that they werent going to beat us from the outside and they did.
The Titans had a 13 point lead heading into the fourth quarter and went back to doing what they do best which is pounding it inside with their seniors Kolgan Ohl, Dawson Leimkuhler and Jett Harvey.
Leimkuhler led the way for SCC with 18 points followed by 15 for Ohl and Harvey, nine for senior Jonathan Borntreger, six for freshman Noah Borntrager, four for junior Cooper Harred and two for senior Trenton Yoho.
For Crest, Holloran led the way with 18 followed by 12 for Zach Beckmon, 10 for senior Hayden Hermreck and five for sophomore Tyson Hermreck.
Next week, The Titans will head to Yates Center to compete in their Winter Wildcat Classic tournament while Crest will compete in Humboldts tournament.
Its a tough tournament, Hermreck said. We have to be able to control our composure. If we come out and were rattled and were tight then its going to be tough to get a win down there.
