Rival Game....Wartburg 81, Coalfield 71

[TheAnswer9]

Wartburg led this contest by as many as 19pts before Coalfield rallied to cut the score to 48-47 in the 3rd. However, Wartburg pulled back out to the 10pt victory, 81-71.

 

Each team placed 7 guys in the scoring column. For Wartburg, J. Vespie led a very balanced attack with 21pts. Knight went for 19pts, Dagley hit for 16pts, Armes was good 14pts, Davidson went for 6pts, Inman hit for 6pts, and Nelson hit a charity toss.

 

For Coalfield, Jackson was the game's high-scorer with 24pts. His help came from Phillips with 15ts, Norman hit for 14pts, Foster had 7pts, Bauer hit for 6pts, Thompson drained a 3ptr to end the half, and Greer was good for 2pts.

[rSquared]

and I have to agree with WECO's Keith Adcock and Ray Tucker that the crowd tonight was more indicative of a district tournament type atmosphere. But then that's what a good rivalry's all about, right? Both teams had excellent crowd support.

The officials called a plethora of fouls, but just maybe they more or less had to in order to keep the game under control. The fans around me evidently didn't see it that way at times, though, and to be honest, on occasion, neither did I. Probably not either team's best showing, (stress "lots" of turnovers here) but the effort wasn't lacking.

Several players with good efforts on both teams, but what stood out most for me were the abilities of Kody Phillips and Justin Dagley to penetrate and finish the layups and/or create easy baskets with their slashing-type skills.

Coach Joe Layne seems to have done a very good job getting this Wartburg team back to snuff after a down year last season.

It seemed to be a game of "runs," with Wartburg appearing on more than one occasion to be poised for a blowout, going up by as many as 15, 17, and 19 points only to see the Jackets bring it back within reach and even take the lead a couple of times. In the end, I felt like the Jackets inability to take care of the basketball during a couple of key occasions seemed to swing the final momentum back to the Dawgs. And both teams free throw shooting was atrocious, though the Jackets fared a little better in the second half than they did in the first. Maybe coach Ronnie Wilson could get "Basketball Bucks" winner Taylor Newberry, a Coalfield sixth grader I believe, to work with his squad at the free throw line. Taylor won $100.00 by sinking six free throws in under sixty seconds during halftime of this game tonight! He even had about 17 seconds or so to spare when he sank the sixth and final one. Guys (and girls) across America---SHOOT MORE FREE THROWS---WORK HARDER ON THIS CRUCIAL PART OF YOUR GAME!

One last note, I can't help but believe that if both these teams continue to shore up their games that the district tournament next month will NOT, as previously believed by many such as myself, be a Rockwood/Harriman cakewalk.

Congratulations to Wartburg on another good win and kudos to both teams on their efforts tonight!

 

---rSquared