SHAWNEE — After a 61-49 loss to Wapakoneta on Friday night, Shawnee was looking to bounce back with a win but with an undefeated Perry team coming in Tuesday, the Indians were going to need a much better showing than they had against the Redskins.
The Indians did just that with a strong offensive and defensive showing to record a decisive 80-64 victory over the Commodores to hand Perry its first loss of the season.
Shawnee improves to 4-1 overall and Perry falls to 4-1 on the year.
Shawnee head coach Mark Triplett said he knew this game was going to have an electric atmosphere and said his team was up for the challenge.
“It was a game of runs and fortunately we were able to make a few more than they were throughout the course of the game,” Triplett said. “It started with our defensive energy that led to a few stops. We didn’t shoot great but much better than we did against Wapakoneta.”
Perry head coach Matt Tabler said the Commodores pride themselves on defense and tonight they did not deliver their usual smothering style of play.
“I don’t know if they were tired or we thought we were going to outscore the other team but we had so many breakdowns on the half court defense or just getting back,” Tabler said. “We did things that Perry basketball normally doesn’t do. We will watch the film, go back to the drawing board and see what we need to do and correct it. And if we can’t correct this from a loss we didn’t learn anything.”
Even though he was disappointed with the loss, Tabler said he scheduled a game against a tough Shawnee team so his team could learn the road to state is not going to be easy.
“I had this mind,” Tabler said. “I wanted a game that was going to present problems for us. We are going to see this in the tournament. We are going to see this down the road in our league. Teams are going to give us there best shot and obviously that team is just as talented as we are and they made enough defensive stops and were better conditioned that we were and so we just have to learn from it and change some things.”
In the see-saw battle that had a playoff atmosphere Perry came out as the aggressor and quickly jumped out to a 16-4 lead with 2:55 remaining in the first quarter and it appeared the Indians were in for a long night.
“Credit coach Tabler. His kids just came out and flat out hit us in the mouth,” Triplett said. “I thought our guys looked tired and a little shell-shocked. They were bringing all the adrenaline to the floor It was either respond or get beat by 30. That was really the only options we had.”
Shawnee responded with a 9-0 run to close the first stanza and after one, Perry held a 16-13 advantage.
The second quarter began like the first with Perry getting the jump on Shawnee and went on a 14-5 run and with 3:54 left in the half, the Commodores owned a 30-20 advantage. But the Indians did not waiver and countered with a 15-0 that was highlighted by some six key points from Zarian Graves off the bench to grab a 35-30 lead for Shawnee.
Going into the second half, Shawnee held a slim 37-30 advantage.
In the third quarter is when Shawnee began to take control of the game by forcing turnovers and sticking clutch buckets. The Indians opened up a 52-41 lead with 2:40 left in the third period when the Indians got back-to-back 3-pointers from Ray Manley and Sean McDonald.
That late run appear to drain the Commodores of their energy and this time Perry did not respond with a run of its own and heading into the fourth quarter, the Indians held a 61-50 lead.
A final offensive flurry by Perry to open the final period cut the lead to 62-58 when Plummie Gardner laid one in for two, But that was the Commodores’ last stand as Shawnee upped its defensive pressure again and outscored Perry 18-6 to secure the win.
Five different Indians eclipsed the double-digit barrier in scoring. Riley Rosado led the Indians’ scoring parade with 19 with McDonald pumping in 16 and Ray Manley chipped in 12. Both Tyler Moore and Graves contributed 10 points, respectively.
Perry’s Orion Monford had a game-high 22 points and Jakoby Lane-Harvey, who surpassed 1,000 points in his high school career, scored 13 points.
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