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LaBrae’s Aldridge dominates to beat Howland
By Doug Chapin
LEAVITTSBURG
The undefeated LaBrae High boys basketball team has plenty of experience, plenty of depth, plenty of scoring balance and plenty of Peyton.
Peyton Aldridge that is. The 6-foot-7 sophomore scored just 10 points in the Vikings’ eighth victory of the season on Tuesday night — a 74-66 triumph over Howland — but had a huge impact on the contest.
In addition to grabbing 14 rebounds and dishing out four assists he affected the game in ways not evident on the statistics sheet.
“Peyton Aldridge, at the rim, altered — he didn’t block — but he altered just a ton of shots,” Howland coach Bill Bogan said. “We wanted to really get into him.
“We didn’t want him to be able to reach out and use his length. But he did a great job of moving his feet and altering shots.
“We got beat tonight by a really good player and a good basketball team.”
LaBrae coach Chad Kiser agrees.
“He is always under control, he really is,” Kiser said. “They had great pressure on us tonight and Peyton got stuck bringing the ball up a lot, which he can do. He can see over the top and he’s a good passer.
“Where for us he really dominated was on the boards. He had a ton of big boards. He often forced them to miss and was able to clean up and get a quick outlet pass.
“He does a nice job seeing the floor off the rebound and gets us into our transition game. He could score 20 to 25 per game if he just worried about scoring but he doesn’t, he’s a team player.”
The Vikings had good balance in scoring led by Carl Brown off the bench with 18 points. Matt Szorady scored 16 and John Richards had 13 points and four assists.
Howland was led by Chris Maze with 20 points and eight rebounds, Brendan Cope with 18 points, Arbie Murray with 10 points and Tanner Scott with nine rebounds.
The Vikings jumped out to a 21-11 lead after one quarter and withstood a Howland (4-2) rally in the second. The Tigers, who trailed by as many as 13 earlier in the period, closed the gap to 38-35 on a 3-pointer by Maze with 20 seconds left in the half.
But Szorady countered with a three-point play at the 8-second mark and LaBrae led 41-35 at halftime.
After Aldridge opened the second half scoring with a 3-pointer, the Vikings never led by fewer than seven points. They held a 58-45 points after three quarters and led by as many as 18, 65-47, almost midway through the final quarter.
Whenever it appeared Howland would get back into the game, the Vikings were able to get that clutch basket they needed.
“I think we lost our focus at times,” Kiser said. “We’d get the lead up and then we’d lose focus, take some quick shots and let them get right back in it.
“When we focused and executed we found the guy with the open shot. We hit a couple threes and had a couple three-point plays that were big for us.”
“They did a great job of executing,” Bogan said. “Coach Kiser did a tremendous job of settling them down. That is a seasoned team, they’ve got some experience, they’ve been some places, they’ve been to a district final. I think they are experienced in being in those situations and it played out tonight in their favor.”
LaBrae shot 46 percent (24-of-52) from the floor and 68 percent (21-of-31) from the line. Howland was 28-of-70 (40 percent) on field goals and 3-of-6 (50 percent) on free throws.
Howland’s up-tempo style is designed to wear down opponents, but the Vikings have enough depth to counter that strategy.
“We’ve been playing a lot of guys. Some games they don’t all get as many minutes but we’ve been playing 10 or 12 guys each game,” Kiser said. “Our bench is really deep.
“If someone gets tired or gets into foul trouble, that’s where we’ve really benefited this year. When we get in foul trouble we’re deep enough, we’ve got guys who can go in and play minutes.”