Spartan boys’ hoops team fights for first victory of the season

GREAT BARRINGTON – Monument’s head coach, Randy Koldys, has seen plenty of Berkshire County games to know that winning 50-50 loose balls are crucial in determining late game outcomes – and Monday night was no exception.

The Spartans’ Bobby Kinne turned what appeared to be an errant pass and turnover for Monument with 36 seconds left in the game into a loose ball and Spartan possession when the junior quickly dived and wrestled for a loose ball while smartly calling timeout.

Monument was able to knock two free throws after the Kinne timeout and added to its 49-46 lead in deposing of Mt. Anthony (Bennington, Vt.), 54-46, for the first win of the season, moving the Spartans to 1-1 overall.

“We talk about in Berkshire County – 50-50 balls weigh in huge and some teams just go for them – and [Kinne] is such an intelligent player – I trust him implicitly to make good decisions – and that was big for us,” Koldys said after the win.

The Spartans, who utilized all 10 players off their bench in the first five minutes of the game and had six players in the scoring column in the first half, managed to withstand a barrage of Mt. Anthony three-pointers and a 13-11 first quarter deficit to work their way back for a 23-19 halftime lead.

Peter Oggiani (17 points) and Taylor White (12 points) got the Spartans going toward the end of the first half, with each knocking down a three. Yet it was the aggressive man-to-man defense and full court pressure that really slowed down Mt. Anthony’s leading scorer, Aarznstan Bibens, who only had five points at halftime.

“[Mt. Anthony] played very well, and they are very well coached, but [we] really played with desire on the defensive end, and in the first half, we played with such vigor on defense we couldn’t get our legs under us on offense,” Koldys said.

In the third quarter, Bibens began to heat up and started going to the hole, while the Spartans relied on their free throw shooting to help notch the game at 37-37 after three.

“Last year we lost four games in OT, but tonight we hit our free throws,” Koldys said.

The Spartans began to pull away in the fourth as White finished an and-1 on a breakaway lay-up to put the Spartans up, 39-37. White then hit a crucial three and another breakaway lay-up off a great pass by Brandon Curtin to put the Spartans up 44-40.

Kinne added another jumper from the wing, and Monument had a comfortable lead of 49-40 with 3:19 left to play.

“We had some big individual play from White and Kinne – hitting some big shots on offense, on some key trips,” Koldys said.

Mt. Anthony wouldn’t go away, as the team battled back on the offensive boards and hit a pair of threes to cut the lead to 49-46.

Yet when an errant pass went into the hands of the Mt. Anthony defender with 36.5 seconds left, the Spartans forced a loose ball with aggressive pressure, allowing Kinne to get the timeout.

“I told them at halftime to continue with the defensive effort, but let’s slow it down on offense and move the ball and execute better, and I think they did,” Koldys said.

Posted by Tim Davis on December 20, 2012. Filed under High School Sports,Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry