Late 3 lifts Blue Jays by ’Dawgs

By Jim Metcalfe, The Delphos Herald
Published:  Tuesday, December 4, 2007 (2 years, 3 months ago)
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DELPHOS — St. John’s head boys cage coach Aaron Elwer might have been happy to simply see his team be competitive Saturday night versus long-time rival Elida.
After all, the host Blue Jays were playing their season-opener, while the Bulldogs entered at 2-1.
When junior Cameron Hermiller (13 counters, 4 assists) downed a triple from the right wing with 21 ticks to go, the Jays handed him his debut win 52-49 at Arnzen Gymnasium.
“It’s not a good start when you consider that situation but I give the kids all the credit. They’ve bought into our philosophy and they’ve come a long way,” Elwer noted.
The Jays’ 3-point shooting — 10-of-26 for the night, 19-of-51 overall (37.3%) — had led them to a 39-31 edge entering the fourth. It quickly became the Bo Mathias (7 boards) show for the Bulldogs. He scored 35 for the night (7 treys) and his 17 of Elida’s 18 (Michael Knotts had a single) in the fourth — 4 treys, several from NBA range — brought the visitors back to a 49-all tie with his 26-footer with 53 ticks left.
The Jays first had a triple by senior Bob Koester (8 markers, 7 markers) that was off but sophomore Scott Recker (team-highs in points — 14 — and boards — 10) battled for the offensive rebound. Tyler Hayson then got the ball to Hermiller on the right wing, who buried the bomb.
After a pair of Elida timeouts, first Mathias missed a tying 3 and then Steven Swick (6 points) missed a 3-pointer; the ball was tied up and no more shots were taken.
“It was just one of those nights for Bo. He was in the zone,” Elida coach Denny Schwinnen began. “It wasn’t that others weren’t trying to be aggressive; they just knew Bo was hot and we were going to ride him as far as he could.”
The other major stat was the Jays outrebounding their taller foe 34-26, 17-11 offensive).
“We have 20 games in the regular season and five keys. Rebounding will be No. 1 in every game,” Elwer continued. “It’s not just our 4s and 5s that have to rebound; everybody, including our guards, have to, especially defensively. We also have to crash the offensive boards and get some garbage baskets. We’ve pushed Scott to be an inside force off the bench.”
It took the home team 5:54 to score its first points of the campaign but their defense only gave up six to Elida. Both teams’ offense seemed to wake up after that, with a Mathias bomb from the right wing rolling in with a tick left for a 12-10 advantage.
The tempo stayed about the same in the second installment, with each team getting 10 shots from the floor. There were two lead exchanges and two ties as the Jays took the halftime lead of 19-18 when Hermiller downed a trey from left of the key with 1:04 to go.
“St. John’s basically played five guards and that brought Stephan (Shurelds; 6-6 senior; 6 blocks) out from the basket to guard his man. We don’t rebound as well without him underneath,” Thompson added. “He also struggled offensively. We called his number a couple times in the fourth but it was tough for him inside.”
Both teams heated up in the third canto: Elida shooting 6-of-9 (18-of-44 overall, 7-of-20 trios) for 40.9% versus 6-of-13 for the hosts. However, they hit four 3s to none for the ’Dawgs, which was the key in erecting a 39-29 bulge on a Recker putback with 1:21 left. Mathias got the final tally in the period, a mid-range jumper from the left side with 52 ticks showing.
“We have a lot of kids that can shoot the 3s; it’s just a matter of gaining game confidence. We talk a lot about making things happen for yourself as well as creating for others,” Elwer added. “We were very concerned with Elida’s ability to switch defenses: we’d scouted them three different times and saw six different defenses. I felt we made those quick adjustments and kept under control (only 10 turnovers).”
The Jays finished 4-of-6 from charity (66.7%) and ended up with 14 assists and 14 fouls. They visit St. Henry Friday.
Elida was 6-of-10 at the line (60%). Alex Warren added five caroms. They handed it over eight times and had eight fouls. They visit Van Wert Friday.
In JV action, Jordan Leininger (14 points) led the Jays to a 47-19 rout of the Bulldogs (2-2).
Matt Thompson led the guests with eight.

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