Wednesday, December 19, 2007
The Golden Eagles’ zone defense was too much for
the Tigers.
By ERIC HAMILTON
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
NEW MIDDLETOWN — Confident with the offensive production he’s been getting so far this season, the United High boys basketball team turned it up on the defensive end Tuesday night against Springfield.
The Golden Eagles used a 1-3-1 zone to stifle the Tigers’ offense and create plenty of turnovers en route to a 59-44 victory to remain one game behind Inter Tri-County League Tier One leader Columbiana.
“Playing the zone is something we’ve been doing pretty well lately,” said United coach Rob Clunen. “We have been giving up too many offensive rebounds out of the zone defense, though. So we shored up some rebounding assignments and tonight we did a great job of blocking out.
“We were able to keep their big guys off the boards and decided to go with the zone until they beat it. A couple weeks ago Springfield scored 81 points, so I’m proud of our defensive effort tonight.”
After building a six-point lead after the first eight minutes, United limited Springfield to just six points in the second quarter to extend its advantage to 16 at halftime.
The Golden Eagles got a big lift offensively from senior McCavitt Carter, who was lethal from outside with three 3-pointers in the first half.
He finished with 15 points in the contest.
Clunen was pleased with the effort and said his team needs that production in order to continue playing well.
“It was a welcome sight to me to see him shooting with so much confidence tonight,” said Clunen. “He’s been getting more confident in practice. Tonight, he played well. If he continues playing the way he did tonight, we’ll have a nice 1-2 combo with him and Jimmy Phillis.”
Phillis scored 12 of his game-high 19 points in the opening half as United built its big lead.
The duo combined for 35 total points.
With United leading by as many as 19 in the second half, Springfield cut the deficit to 11 at 41-29 on two free throws by Eric Lipp with 54 seconds left in the third.
The Golden Eagles improved to 4-2, 4-1 in the ITCL Tier One and trail Columbiana, which is 5-0, by one game.
Columbiana defeated United 69-66 earlier in the season. They will play again Jan. 11 at Quicken Loans Arena.
“It will be a neat experience and it could be an important game,” said Clunen. “But we have a lot of games left and we have to take care of business.”
Nate Schuler had 16 points to lead Springfield (4-3, 2-2).