Rockets soar over Gators, 82-58
CONNELLSVILLE TWP. — One would’ve had a hard time figuring out who was the winning coach and who was the losing coach after listening to postgame comments following Jefferson-Morgan’s 82-58 victory over Geibel Catholic in their boys basketball clash on Friday night.
Jalen Torres and DL Garrett combined for 50 points and six 3-pointers for the Rockets in the second game of the Geibel Catholic Tip-Off Tournament.
Still, J-M coach Dennis Garrett saw plenty of room for improvement.
“We’ve still got a long way to go,” coach Garrett said. “We’re not playing like we should play. I just want them to play fundamentally sound basketball and right now we’re not doing that.
“We do have some guys who can play. All in all, I’m pleased. How can you not be pleased if you win a game by 20? But we’ve got to cut back on the turnovers. We had 31 of them after three quarters.”
Gators coach Brian Henckel saw a bright spot in his team’s loss.
“Most of the time we had four freshmen in the game so that’s our positive,” Henckel said. “The seniors that we have are good leaders and they continue to do a good job for us. At the same time, I have to develop the freshmen.”
The Gators cut a 25-point deficit down to 13 in the second half, which impressed Henckel.
“I was pretty proud of them for the most part,” he said. “I thought they hung in there and never quit and that’s what I look for. I don’t want them to quit.”
The Gators fought hard and forged an 8-8 tie midway through the first period before DL Garrett hit back-to-back baskets and Torres dropped in a runner for a six-point spurt that put the Rockets in front to stay.
Jefferson-Morgan led 23-12 after one period and went up by as much as 20 in the second. Freshman Ryan Anderson’s late trey pulled the Gators within 45-28 at halftime.
Freshman Cole Kendall almost single-handedly kept Geibel within hailing distance of J-M with four 3-pointers in scoring 16 first-half points. He wound up with a team-high 25 points and five treys.
Gage Clark, who had nine points, scored five straight to open the third quarter to key a 12-4 Rockets burst that made it 57-32.
Geibel whittled the margin down to 17 late in the period before Torres, who scored a game-high 26 points, hit his third 3-pointer to make it 61-41. “We got it to 17 and then they hit that three and it just took the momentum away from us,” Henckel said.
The Gators kept battling, though, and pulled within 63-50 thanks to a seven-point run capped by Kendall’s final trey.
The Rockets fired back with a 10-point run that ended with Garrett’s final basket in a 24-point night to all but put the game away.
“We’ve been talking about if for four years now, that once you get somebody down you’ve got to put the foot down on them,” coach Garrett said. “They started playing individual basketball instead of playing team ball. It’s a team game. When you’ve got four or five quality players that can shoot, you’ve got to get everybody involved. As soon as we get that part of it, I think we’re going to be alright.”
Freshman Enzo Fetsko followed Kendall in the Geibel scoring column with 10 points. Anderson tallied six points which meant that trio of freshmen accounted for all but 17 of the Gators’ points.
Senior Anthony Lovat had eight points for Geibel.