Struthers spreads the scoring in big victory

February 5, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

HUBBARD

Balanced scoring was key for Struthers High in its 75-47 rout of Hubbard High Friday night on the Eagles’ floor. The victory improved the Wildcats to 14-1 and 5-0 in the All-American Athletic Conference White Division.

The team’s leading scorer, senior Nate Jacubec, was held to just 10 points.

But Struthers got 14 and 10 points from guards Ja’miere Brown and Jake Jacubec, respectively, a combined 25 points from forwards Jordan Ryan (13) and Adam Ryczaj (12) and 13 points off the bench from Kevin McDonald.

“We’ve had a couple games where we’ve had five or six in double figures,” Struthers coach Joe Savko said. “Usually, Nate leads us in scoring, but we are a pretty balanced team. They started in a triangle-and-two on both Jacubecs and we looked like we were saying ‘What do we do?’

“We kept trying to get it in their heads to just play our game of basketball, run the floor, look for shots in transition. We told them it’s a long game and we would figure it out.”

Ryczaj grabbed 15 rebounds to lead Struthers to a 31-24 edge on the boards. Nate Jacubec, though held in check points-wise, showed good patience and dished out five assists. He was 2-for-4 shooting from the field and the Wildcats were 27-for-47 (57 percent) shooting as a team.

Mike Lopuchovsky paced Hubbard (8-6, 2-3 AAC White) with 17 points and nine rebounds. Kory Hopkinson added seven points and five assists and Tyler Duez scored 10 points.

“We tried a triangle-and-two this time and it worked early, but the trouble was it was the first time we had put it in and we had a couple guys not rotate how we wanted them to,” Hubbard coach Rick Fox said. “The thing is, tonight, they had some other guys on their team step up and make some big buckets for them.”

Struthers held a 17-8 lead after one quarter and led by as much as 17 midway through the second quarter before settling for a 31-18 advantage at halftime. The lead was as large as 18 in the third quarter and was 45-30 heading into the final period. The game was never closer after that point.

“We look to Nate and Jake for scoring, but everyone else can score,” Savko said. “When that’s not working we have to look at other things we have to do to get other guys shots. Our game is to run up and down the floor and shoot threes in transition. When they start closing out, then we start throwing it inside to get buckets, or vice versa.”

And it’s not just the offense opponents fear.

“We’ve been playing a lot better on defense lately,” Savko said. “Ja’miere Brown leads us on the defensive end, he’s just all over the place. He does a great job for us stopping the ball. We always put him on the ball handler and the other guys follow suit.”