GAME #1
Newark Falls During Opener
Norsemen Outlasted By H-BR In Offensive Showcase
By Bill Lidinsky
It was a high school basketball game more akin to a good old-fashioned playground shootout rather than a textbook hard court affair reserved for hoop purists.
Wednesday morning’s opening contest at the 45 th Annual Plano Christmas Classic between Newark and Hinckley-Big Rock certainly was not lacking for offensive firepower by either squad.
But what was in absence especially for the Norsemen, a solid defensive effort that in the end resulted in a 75-70 defeat at the hands of the seventh seeded Royals. It was Newark’s second loss to H-BR this season dating back to a 77-66 defeat on December 7.
“I liked our energy on offense today, but our defense is way too porous. We stood off their guys and gave them very easy shots and we can’t continue to do that in ballgames,” said Newark head basketball coach Rick Tollefson. “We’ve got to learn to get better defensively. We don’t just want to just trade baskets all day.”
Swapping buckets seemed to be the name of the game especially throughout the first quarter as the two clubs slugged it out offensively with Newark owning an 18-15 lead after the first eight minutes of play.
Things however seemed to swing the way of the Norsemen through the first 6:35 of the second period as Newark outscored H-BR 16-9 to take a 34-24 advantage with only 1:25 to play before halftime.
But the Norsemen collapsed from there in a big way allowing 12 unanswered Royal points to end the half almost unbelievably with H-BR on top 36-34.
“When we were up so big late in the second quarter I thought going into halftime we played some really, really bad basketball in a short span,” Tollefson said. “We took some ill advised shots and didn’t play any defense and going from 10 up to two down at the half was a big turning point in the game.”
Brian Michaels had 20 points for the Royals in the first half and spurred the H-BR rally with five straight to close out the opening two quarters.
“He (Michaels) has a lot of confidence and he helped get us back into it at halftime,” said Hinckley-Big Rock head basketball coach Bill Sambrookes. “It was a good run for us. We started to play defense and started to get up and down the court. We were down ten and weren’t looking good while they were. But I was proud we could rally like that going into the second half.”
More of an offensive showcase in the third quarter as the two squads exchanged baskets early and often throughout the next eight minutes with Hinckley-Big Rock advancing their lead to 59-51 entering the final period.
From there, the Norsemen would make a strong run at the Royals and actually snatched a 66-65 lead on senior Kurt Anderson’s three-pointer with 2:20 to go in the ballgame.
But H-BR outdistanced Newark 10-4 down the stretch including six more tallies for Michaels who ended up with an impressive game high total of 34 points, as the Royals were victorious in the hoop track meet.
Newark got a stellar effort from freshman Kyle Anderson who led the Norsemen with 27 points and 11 rebounds, while senior Ivo Gentchev chipped in with 17 points and nine rebounds.
Hinckley-Big Rock senior Tim Tokars aided Michaels efforts with 17 points, while junior Ryan Salazar added 15 tallies and a team high 9 rebounds.
Newark (6-4) now moves into the consolation side of the bracket with a 9 a.m. contest on Thursday versus Indian Creek, while H-BR (7-2) has a 3:30 p.m. date today on the plus side at Plano against Genoa-Kingston.
“We really wanted to win this one. Newark hasn’t won the first game at Plano in a long time so it’s disappointing,” Tollefson said. “We had an opportunity after Kurt’s three ball gave us the lead late in the fourth but we couldn’t get it done in crunch time. I appreciate the effort however, especially because we never gave up even though we lost such a big lead before the half.”