Summary: The value of Josh Smith has never been more clear. Nursing a sore ankle, Smith was held out of Saturday night's contest. It seemed that East Canton couldn't get the loose balls they normally do. They couldn't get the offensive rebounds they normally do. They didn't finish on the baseline as well as they normally do. I attribute a lot of this to Smith's absence.
Slater stepped into the starting lineup with Smith out. He made the most of his start with 21 points and 9 rebounds. Burfield matched Slater's output with 21 of his own. The two combined for 19 points in the decisive 3rd quarter. Cartwright had 4 assists (team high) to go with his 12 points. The leading scorer off the bench was Campbell with 12.
Holding a 3 point lead at half, the Hornets came out for the third and methodically wore down Garfield, slowly growing the lead bit by bit. It got up to around 20 and East Canton was able to cruise to the finish. Still, the game has to be considered a let down. Granted, it was was third game of the week and Smith was out but the Hornets didn't play like an undefeated team or a state ranked team.
The JV got a nice come from behind win to move their record to 5-5. In the 53-43 victory, Pennell scored 20, Shultz 12 and Taylor 11.
Things I Think I Think
I think the question that arose at Mogadore of “who's going to tackle #20” was answered last night. At the far side of the court, a scramble for a loose ball led to a Slater/Bradley collision. As to who got the better of it, I'm not sure Slater is aware he was in collision
I think the student section picked a good theme. The white out was full of energy and fun to watch. I'm surprised to see that the numbers for the student section were down from the opening home game. In contrast, attendance as whole seems to be increasing.
I think Slater is more effective playing with an undershirt. T-shirt Slater is scoring 14ppg, up 6 points from his non-T average
A Free-Press article recapping the Hornets last 3 games. They even referred to us as the Wizards
http://www.the-press-news.com/news/slideshow/4752176
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Rep Box Score
http://www.cantonrep.com/highschool/x1560345180/High-school-boys-basketball-box-scores-for-Jan-16
Rep Results
http://www.cantonrep.com/highschool/x1301081493/High-school-boys-basketball-report-for-Jan-16
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10 comments:
I thought the guys did some good things on Saturday. Foul shooting not being one of them. You might feel let down but I consider it a victory. It should be good to know that you didn't play your best and still won. You have to continue to build on the positives and work to get better on the negatives. Kill em by 1 as far as I am concerned. Enjoy the win because they haven't come on great numbers over the recent years. Continue the great season! I look forward to more hornet domination to sweep the nation. Sidenote- I personally was disappointed that the half the student section sat for the 4th quarter. Get loud and get crazy!
Maybe I'm greedy... But I want to establish our dominance over an 0-10 team. They shouldn't play with us for a half or even a quarter
But this is the challenge of success...We will constantly be playing against a team top-effort every night (for four quarters). We are now the hunted, and I truly believe that this group of kids has handled this better that anyone could have predicted. Keep in mind, this is new territory for these kids, this school and this community (unless you are old, like me and remember what this was like in the 80's and early 90's). The "ugly wins" will continue to keep this group hungry and modest. I just can't wait until this group puts 4 strong quarters together...It's coming, and I'll be there to see it!!!
BZZZZZZZZZZZZ
Observations from my corner of the gym:
1. I can't believe we have 17 assistant coaches and we can't get a towel....
2. While the players may have been over-looking the G-men, I saw an assistant coach with a giant plate of pie during warm-ups....nice game face.
3. "White-Out"?!?!?.....ooooh, that makes sense now. I thought it was "Coach Hackenberg Complexion Night" and found the theme to be a little too obtuse.
4. Great enjoyed coach spurgeon clearly calling a full time-out, then successfully lobbying for a 30-second time out, then staying in the huddle long after the second horn. Meanwhile, Garrettsville's coach got to spend the entire three and a half minutes deciding whether or not his players should sit down or stand up.
5. Gasped in horror as Joe Cartwright was nearly punched in the nose during a second half "Slater Slash" after an And-1.
It's true! The Hive even delivers pie. Talk about versatility...
the hornets are 10-0 if that doesn't speak for itself. We are statebound and that coach spurgeon is one hell of a coach. They should name the gym after him.
The court at the new high school WILL be named after Chad......provided that his middle name is "Tom Davis".
We will still utilize the old gym, and I am open to referring to it as the "Spurgeon Events Center".
Regardless of any permanent structures in his honor, he will always be on my personal Mt. Rushmore of coaches with John Wooden, Eddie Sutton, and John Calipari......
Also, I am all for fulfilling a life-long dream of watching the team I care about play in Columbus, but here are some very good teams that don't even want to let us play in the regionals at Canton:
Youngstown Ursuline
Campbell Memorial
East Palestine
St. Thomas
...not to mention Waterloo and Rootstown, who both feel like they could have beaten us.
Just enjoy the ride, everything will take care of itself.
On the other hand, I already have a hotel room and REALLY good seats.....
....wait, I always have those.
GO HORNETS!! Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Sam why don't those teams want to let us play in Canton? That's not very nice of them. Shouldn't they just see our state ranking and respect us?
written sarcasm....I hope. :-) we all know it never works that way.
Good Luck Hornets
Stat of the week: Hornets are 87-86 in tournament games in the last 74 years (there were some years of double elimination in the county tournaments).
Best decade? 19-10 in the '80s.
Weirdest Stat? record in the '00s is 8-9 so far. Record in the '90s (with much more regular season success) was 6-10.
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