Washington, Struthers rout Windham

Struthers v. Windham Boys Basketball

Gallery

By BOB ETTINGER

sports@vindy.com

STRUTHERS

Struthers guard Brandon Washington came to the conclusion he needed to hit the reset button in a battle against Windham on Wednesday night.

In the process, the entire Wildcats’ team also started over and it couldn’t have ended much better in a 69-37 non-conference victory over the Bombers.

“I feel like I didn’t play too well at the beginning of the game,” Washington said. “I needed to start over and play harder. I had to give the team all I’ve got. We started to play together and caught a streak. We stepped up on defense and started to box out and get rebounds.”

After giving up 18 points over the first minutes, Struthers allowed just 19 points over the final 21 in running away.

“We talked at the end of the first quarter about getting it going on the defensive end,” Struthers coach Mike Wernicki said. “We did a much better job on the glass and were rebounding their misses. With a team that’s well-coached like they are, you can’t let them get second-chance points. That’s a good team and they’re well-coached. They had our attention. I challenged the guys. I told them if they weren’t ready to play, [Windham] would beat them.”

The Wildcats (4-4) used a 17-0 run over the final 4:43 of the first half and outscored the Bombers, 21-5, in the third quarter to turn an 18-12 deficit at the end of the first into a 58-29 advantage heading into the fourth.

“We just quit moving,” Windham coach Marty Hill said. “[Wernicki] told me we had their attention. We had a lot of individual play in the second and third quarters. I told our guys we couldn’t get into a 3-point shooting contest with them because we’d lose. That’s what they do. They have a lot of good athletes.”

Washington netted seven of the 17 points in the run to close the half, but he wasn’t the only difference-maker on the floor.

“Though he was the leading scorer, I don’t look at just the one guy,” Wernicki said. “Carson [Ryan] was playing his [butt] off on the defensive end. Kevin Traylor was very much under control and creating opportunities for everybody. [Jared] Laczko was getting his hands on everything. Brandon was the fastest guy on the floor. It was a combination of everyone on the floor doing something that led to that [change in momentum]. I couldn’t be prouder of us as a team.”

Windham was just 3 of 24 (12.5 percent) from the field in the second and third periods and had just eight rebounds in those 16 minutes.

“We missed some easy ones,” Hill said. “As soon as somebody was open, we were taking the first 3. When you do that against a good team, you make it easier for them. That’s a good team, but we made it easier for them. We have to play better as a group.”

Struthers, on the other hand, was 18 of 30 (60 percent) from the floor and had 28 boards in the second and third quarters.

Washington led all scorers with a career-high 24 points while Ryan tallied 13 and Trey Metzka had 10.

“It’s very exciting [to score that many points],” Washington said. “I was just trying to live it out and enjoy the moment.”

Tyler Collins’ 11 points paced the Bombers.