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| Bad quarter doesn’t stop Wildcats in rout |
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| Sports - Louisburg | |||
| Written by Andy Brown | |||
| Wednesday, 24 December 2008 08:00 | |||
 After the first quarter was over, it looked like it was going to be another long night for the Louisburg boys’ basketball team.The Wildcats trailed Wellsville by three points at the end of the first quarter at home Friday and turned the ball over on their first four possessions. Not exactly the formula for a victory. But for Louisburg it was. Louisburg rolled Wellsville 69-35 in its final game before the holiday break and left a good taste in the Wildcats’ mouths. As far as the big turnaround, coach Jim Dillon had a hard time explaining it. “We came out flat,” he said. “We came out like we had finals all week and other things on our mind. (Wellsville) played hard and all of a sudden we are down 14-7. For whatever reason, that is how it came out and good thing we got it together.” The Eagles did take a 14-7 lead in the first quarter, but baskets from David Embers and Kyle Nauman cut the lead to three into the second quarter, and from there the Wildcats took over. Louisburg outscored Wellsville 17-5 in the second quarter thanks to 3-pointers from Kody Cook and Drew Kershner and took a 28-19 lead at halftime. The Wildcat defense hunkered down even more and allowed only 16 second-half points. “At the end of the second quarter, we made some shots,” Dillon said. “When we start hitting some open shots, get a lay-up, hit a couple 3’s, get some steals and it just starts snowballing and it changes the outlook of the game. “Defensively, we held them to 19 in the first half and 16 or 17 in the second half, so what else can you do defensively? When you are playing that kind of defense, it just kind of wears on a team. We still have a lot of things to work on though.” Louisburg (4-1) went on a 10-2 run to close out the third quarter and all but seal the win.  Sophomore Cook was one of four players in double figures for the Wildcats with 13 points and senior Nauman finished with 12. Freshman Garrett Griffin had his best game of the year with 11 points and Kershner added 10.“Overall, I thought the defensive effort was there and secondly we almost put 70 on the board and our leading scorer has just 13,” Dillon said. “That means we are sharing the ball well and guys are playing the right way by looking for open guys and passing. But it all started with our defense and our half-court defense was really good.” Toward the end of the fourth quarter, Dillon emptied his bench and those rarely-used players provided the starters with something to cheer about. Junior Zach Hildreth scored his first bucket of the season, and with 33 seconds left in the game, Ashton Dover hit a 3-pointer and was fouled. He converted the four-point play and sent Louisburg into the break on a high note. Although the Wildcats’ lone loss to Anderson County was a low-point in the season so far, Dillon believes his team is getting better and already has some nice wins heading into the holiday break. “We have had some big wins already,” he said. “The Burlington win was a big win being down nine with three minutes left and beating Baldwin at their place is always big. Anderson County could be a pivotal game for us because we just melted down and showed no toughness. Hopefully we will grow from that and the last two performances have shown that we have. It is just a building process right now.” Louisburg 11 17 19 22 — 69 Wellsville 14 5 8 8 — 35 Louisburg (4-1): Kody Cook 13, Kyle Nauman 12, Garrett Griffin 11, Drew Kershner 10, David Embers 5, Ryan Dvorak 5, Ashton Dover 4, Drew Harding 3, Marc Rhodes 2, Patrick Dixon 2, Zach Hildreth 2. 3-point field goals: 8, (Cook 3, Kershner 2, Griffin, Embers, Dover)
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