Niles tops Girard in defensive battle

Niles tops Girard

in defensive battle

By Steve ruman

sports@vindy.com

NILES

On a night when the Girard High defense did exactly what it wanted to do in shutting down Niles sharpshooters Cyler Kane-Johnson and Corbin Foy, two things went wrong for the Indians.

First off, Girard couldn’t answer with buckets of its own

Secondly, the Indians didn’t have an answer for Niles sophomore Doug Foster.

When all was said and done, Niles escaped with a 52-45 home win over the Indians.

Niles lifts its record to 7-5, 3-1 in Northeast 8 play. Girard falls to 6-3 (2-2).

Foster scored a game-high and career-high 20 points for the Red Dragons. His strong night offset the less-than-average night of seniors Cyler Kane-Johnson (nine points) and Corbin Foy (11 points).

Foster scored 14 of his points in the first period to help give Niles a 19-16 lead after eight minutes of play. He then nailed a pair of three-pointers in the fourth quarter to help seal the victory.

“If you would have told me that we would have held Kane-Johnson and Foy to 20 points, I’ll take that any day,” said Girard coach Craig Hannon. “Defensively, we clamped down. We just didn’t do much else right.”

Girard made just five of 26 field goal attempts from inside the paint.

“I mean, we do a good job of attacking the rim, but we couldn’t put the ball in the hoop,” Hannon said. “There’s not much else I can say. A lot of our problems were self-inflicted, and you have to give Niles credit. They played hard, they got some timely rebounds in the second half and we just couldn’t recover.”

After Niles led by three at the end of the first quarter, the two teams combined to score just 13 points in the second period. The first points of the stanza came on a Kane-Johnson layup with just three minutes left before halftime. Girard scored its first points at the 1:25 mark on a Matt Payich three-pointer.

Payich led Girard with 17 points, while Austin Claussell added 16 points.

Trailing 26-22 at halftime, Girard would fight back to take a one-point lead on three occasions. The third and final lead for the Indians came in the early stages of the fourth quarter when a Payich three gave the Indians a 41-40 advantage. However, Foster responded with a three of his own, and Niles never looked back.

“That’s the second straight game where we faced adversity, and really hung in there and responded against a really good and well-coached team,” said Niles coach Doug Foster. “The last game, we lost by one (to Edgewood), tonight we again fought like heck to get the win. It is so exciting to see the direction in which this team is headed.”

Doug Foster the coach is also the father of Doug Foster, the player.

“Doug has been solid all year, he has handled the ball well and it was only a matter of time before he put up that type of scoring night,” Foster said. “Yeah, I’m a proud dad but more importantly I’m a proud coach.”