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Campbell too much for Liberty
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Liberty’s Dan Markulin, left, is pressured by Campbell Memorial’s Michael Williams during the first quarter of an All-American Conference, National Division game Tuesday night in Campbell. The host Red Devils won, 55-35. Williams scored 12 poiints in the victory.
By Joe Catullo Jr.
CAMPBELL
Any layup that Campbell High’s Aaron Jackson makes is no surprise to the Red Devils, even if he doesn’t look at it.
With 5:55 remaining in Tuesday night’s game against Liberty, Jackson drove to bucket under heavy pressure. He jumped, leaned forward and spun the ball in with his back turned. He never saw it go in.
“That’s a typical shot for him,” Campbell coach Mike Szenborn said. “He’s been known to get the ball in the basket anyway, so it’s typical. We see it all the time in practice. I can’t explain it.”
Jackson finished third on the roster with 11 points during Campbell’s 55-35 victory.
The first quarter was the killer for Liberty (2-1, 1-1 All-American Conference National Division). The Leopards committed nine turnovers. They also coughed it over three more times in the second quarter that led to the Red Devils (3-1, 2-0) scoring 18 points off those turnovers. Campbell led, 35-14, at halftime.
“We felt that we could pressure them a little bit,” Szenborn said. “We were fortunate to capitalize on the turnovers and hold on to that lead. A big part of the game was getting ahead and staying ahead.”
George Billiris tallied most of his 11 first-half points (nine in the first quarter) off transitions and turnovers. He finished with a game-high 16 points. Michael Williams finished behind Billiris with 12 points.
“George does a good job finishing in transition, especially if he gets out in the open,” Szenborn said. “He’s pretty sound fundamentally, and he knows how to finish around the hoop. Plus, he’s a very quick athlete.”
For the Leopards, everything revolves around Asim Pleas. He finished with a team-high 11 points along with Dan Markulin, but it wasn’t his best performance.
“He’s doesn’t have a real vocal personality, so it’s not really in his nature to get on them when things aren’t going well,” Liberty coach Dan Bubon said. “He’s more of a leader by example. He didn’t play his best game tonight.
“Instead of feeding off his energy, he didn’t have a lot of energy, and the younger kids really didn’t know what to do with that.”
Liberty made 27.8 percent of its shots and only one 3-point field goal out of 17 attempts.
“We’re either frigid or extremely hot,” Bubon said. “The turnovers didn’t help, but you can’t, in a varsity basketball game, shoot around 25 or 30 percent and expect to win. We had no fire. When we got behind, you can’t just turn the energy on.”
Bubon added that the Leopards are still “a work in progress.”
“We haven’t had enough practice time together,” he said. “We have two new guys, and this is what you’re going to get out of us. We have spurts where we look really good. Others look like we’ve never gone over anything.”
The Red Devils faced the same situation last year and finished 7-17. This year, they’re ready to turn that around.
“Last year was a lot of inexperience,” Szenborn said. “This year, that experience helped.”