Prep Hoops: Eagles get back on track with win
Eldorado head coach Josh Bradley was desperately seeking something, anything to get the sour taste out of his teams mouth.
After notching a quality win over Harrisburg last weekend, the Eagles had spent the better part of this week falling at Benton Tuesday and suffering a discouraging loss to Vienna Friday.
The cure for Bradley came in the form a 2-3 zone that when implemented, the Eagles' length was too long for Norris City-Omaha-Enfield to overcome as Eldorado earned a 66-54 win at home Saturday.
"The one advantage that we have is our length and in the 2-3 zone we are moving pretty well in it and guys that have shooters - if we can get there - they have to make the shot over a 6-foot-6 or a 6-foot-7 kid running at them," Bradley said. "In high school basketball, that is a tough thing to do and we were able to use that to our advantage because teams aren't used to seeing that. NCOE struggled early with the shot and helped us get off to that fast start."
Eldorado got off to a 13-0 start and forced the Cardinals into six first quarter turnovers, while the size of Eldorado's Ethan Partridge and Braden Attebury showed as the two combined for 12 first quarter points as the Eagles went up 17-9 after one quarter of play.
"We didn't do a very good job (Friday night) of establishing our inside game and we missed way to many layups early in that game and it was something that I was pretty hard on our post players about, but (Saturday), I thought they came out and responded well," Bradley said. "We established our size inside and was able to big a big lead."
The lead would be trimmed significantly by NCOE, who trailed by as many as 18 after Clay Boulds gave the Eagles a 29-11 lead with 4:49 to play in the second quarter.
Dakota Bond had all nine points for NCOE to start the third quarter to make it 43-33 after Eldorado took a 37-24 lead into halftime. The Cardinals cut the lead to single digits after Marcus Niehaus had a free throw with 4:46 to play, trimming to lead to nine at 43-34.
Eldorado went 11-for-18 at the foul line in the second half and were able to keep NCOE at bay and prevented them from making much of a threat.
Attebury finished with a game-high 20 points, while Partridge and Traxler each notched double figure scoring, chipping in with 16 and 10 respectively for Eldorado, who also picked up their 12th win of the season in the non-conference showdown at Duff-Kingston Gymnasium.
Bond had 20 points for NCOE, while Noah Sutton tacked on 11 for the Cardinals in the loss.
As Eldorado heads into the West Frankfort Mid-Winter Tournament, he was happy to get the win, but to also see some improvement from his guys, who he believed got "satisfied" after their win over Harrisburg.
"We finally beat the team that we hadn't beat in forever and it was kind of like 'ah, man we finally did it.' I think we relaxed a little bit and we were happy that that happened, but we had to refocus and say, 'hey, that's just the 11th win, there is still a long season to go.' To finally get that monkey off our back and get that 12th win that has eluded us for about a week here was nice and with the West Frankfort Mid-Winter coming up this week, that was a big win."
Vienna 70, Eldorado 52
Kasiar was the lone Eagle to finish in double figures for Eldorado, putting up a 11 points in Friday Black Diamond Conference loss.
Oglesby scored seven for Eldorado, while Partridge and Ninness each chipped in with six a Black Diamond Conference loss.
NCOE 09 15 21 09 - 54
Eldorado 17 20 17 12 - 66
NCOE: Long 2 1-4 6, Bond 8 2-4 20, C. Sutton 3 1-2 7, Delap 1 0-2 3, Neal 2 0-0 4, N. Sutton 5 0-0 11, Wells 0 0-0 0, Niehaus 1 0-2 2. Totals: 22-53 4-14 54.
Eldorado: Boulds 2 4-6, Kasiar 2 0-1 4, Meredith 1 0-0 2, Partridge 7 2-3 16, Attebury 6 8-10 20, Ogelsby 0 1-2 1, Traxler 5 0-0 10, Ninness 2 1-2 5, Coker 0 0-0 0. Totals: 25-44 16-24 66.
3-point FG: NCOE 4 (Bond 2, N. Sutton, Long), EHS 0. Fouls: NCOE 20, EHS 13.
Vienna 15 19 19 17 - 70
Eldorado 12 13 14 14 - 52
Vienna: Wiggs 1 3-4 5, Moore 5 11-14 22, Casey 5 7-9 17, Bradley 1 1-2 3, Ennis 1 0-0 2, Dahncke 1 0-0 3, Strickland 0 0-2 0, Daine 6 3-4 16,Marten 0 1-2 1, Hyde 1 0-1 2. Totals: 21 26-38 70
Eldorado: Meredith 2 0-0 4, Attebury 1 0-0 3, Kasiar 4 3-5 11, Partridge 3 0-0 6, Boulds 2 0-0 4, Ninness 2 0-0 6, Traxler 1 2-2 4, Oglesby 3 0-0 7, Hathaway 1 0-0 2, Coker 0 2-2 2, Price 0 1-2 1, May 1 0-0 2. Totals: 20 8-11 52.
3-poing FG: VHS 2 (Dahncke, Daine), EHS 4 (Ninness 2, Attebury, Oglesby). Fouls: VHS 16, EHS 26