Last Updated: Saturday, January 6, 2007 10:08 PM CST
Full-court Frenzy
Crandon boys hold off Elcho in low-scoring Northern Lakes Conference hoops
By Dave Schneider - Daily News Sports
Sometimes, but not constantly the case in high school sports, the games play out the way they are forecasted. With no seniors and only three juniors, the Hornets would have a big hill to climb to compete at the level of the undefeated Cardinals.
Visiting Elcho erased an early Crandon 12-point lead only to have the Cardinals pull ahead to stay in the third on their way to a 39-26 victory Friday on Crandon Parent's Night. The Cardinals held Elcho junior scoring machine Kurt Kincaid to 12 points while pestering the young Hornet lineup all over the hardwood defensively.
“I think we got a little overconfident when we went up early and then we couldn't get our offense going for a while,” said Crandon coach Richard Gretzinger, who's Cardinals improved to 3-0 in Northern Lakes Conference play.
“I thought we had an excellent game plan defensively with our full-court press. Anytime you can hold Kurt Kincaid to 12 points, you are doing something right defensively and giving up only 26 total points you are going to win some ball games. I give credit to Elcho, they are a young team and came out scrapping and didn't give us a lot of easy chances. We rebounded well on the offensive end, but we are averaging closer to 60 points a game.”
The full-court press coach Gretzinger referred to definitely was the factor in forcing numerous Hornet turnovers while keeping the ball in the hands of the Cardinal offense. From the start until the final buzzer, Crandon was all over the court blocking the passing lanes defensively while Cardinal senior guards Tyler Anderson and Devon Dehart controlled the flow of the contest with their ballhandling skills on offense. Elcho coach Neil Bygd reflected on his young team's effort at the Crandon Memorial Sports Center Friday night.
“I thought going in if we could play solid defense and keep the scores around 40 or 50 we could be there,” noted the Hornet coach. “We do well against the press in practice, but when you get to face it against other varsity players it is a whole new world. We saw a lot of improvement in the second half and our young team started to come into their own. Kurt is our leader and a great player, although part of our maturing process is having the other kids do more things to help get Kurt open. Sophomore Troy Schoeneck played well defensively and took it to the hoop tonight.”
The Elcho Kincaid topped the scorebook with his 12 points while Schoeneck added 8 points. Kurt's junior cousin Keegan Kincaid paced the Cardinals with 11 points, with junior Steve Sekel connecting for a 10-point night.
“Keegan is a go-getter and a real good ballplayer,” said the Cardinal coach. “I thought Steve Sekel had a nice game and did a good job on the boards. We have a lot of guys that can hit the three, but they weren't falling so we kind of put that on the shelf for tonight.”
The home team followed up the Parents Night celebration by scoring the game's first nine points and led 15-5 after the opening eight-minute quarter. Elcho completed a 9-0 run from the end of the first to get back into the contest trailing 15-12, but the Crandon offense came right back to lead 20-12 at the half.
The Cardinals went on a 12-2 run in the third to put the game out of reach, leading 36-20 after three quarters on their way to the 39-26 victory.
Elcho (1-2) plays next on Tuesday, Jan. 9 when they host Laona on the same night Crandon (3-0) travels to Florence, also undefeated entering Friday night's NLC schedule.
“Florence is looking to give us a run,” Crandon coach Gretzinger added. “We need to come out of our shell a bit offensively. One thing about our team, we work hard and will be ready to go.”
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