Wildcats evade Spartans’ hot start to win

LEE – The Wildcats (4-3) are off to a solid start to the 2012-’13 campaign thanks to their ability to play physical, hard-nosed defense as well as rebounding the basketball in crucial situations.

Against Monument Mountain last week, nothing could be farther from the truth.

Lee gathered a game-high 16 offensive rebounds and punished the Spartans in their man-to-man defense to come away with the 58-51 victory last Thursday night. Junior Heamon Williams chipped in 15 points and Jake LeProvost lead the ‘Cats with a game-high 27 points.

“I am really proud of my kids,” said Lee Head Coach Dan Korte. “We have a lot of young kids who don’t have a lot of varsity experience, and we are just learning how to win games like this.”

The Spartans attacked the Wildcats’ zone defense in the first quarter to build a 26-12 lead, thanks to the outside spot-up shooting of Brandon Curtin, Taylor White and Peter Oggiani.

“They shot the ball extremely well in the first quarter,” said Korte. “We were trying to be a little fancy, and we just needed to get back to solid man-to-man defense and contest every shot when it went up, then boxing out and rebounding.”

The Wildcats did exactly that in the second quarter, as they switched to their physical man-to-man defense, holding the Spartans to five points in the quarter as Lee cut the deficit to 31-26 at the half, with a 14-5 run.

At the start of the third, LeProvost hit one of his three treys of the night to give the ‘Cats the lead at 33-31. LeProvost then added an and-1 layup underneath, and a jumper from the wing, to put Lee up for good at 40-31 with 2:53 left in the third.

Deaglan Giarolo then started the fourth quarter with a steal and jumper to give Lee a 46-37 lead with 5:18 left before Monument made its last run of the night.

Oggiani had a steal and passed the ball over to Cam Powell for the driving layup to cut the lead to 47-41 with 4:19 left. However, the Spartans would get no closer, as LeProvost hit a layup on an inbounds pass, and a tough-running floater in the lane, to put Lee up 51-41 with two minutes left.

With Lee outscoring the Spartans 14-5 in the second quarter and 16-6 in the third thanks to their control on the boards and their physical defensive pressure on the ball, Monument Head Coach Mike Saporito had some choice words for his players afterwards.

“It’s just a matter of being soft,” Saporito said. “We got guys who don’t want to be physical – who don’t want to draw first contact and don’t want to be pushed.”

“[Heamon] Williams is a tough kid, he never gives in – and plays very hard and we have guys who don’t want to match that level of effort,” Saporito added. “It’s disheartening to see them not play as hard – we gave up 16 offensive rebounds and 9 of those were in the second quarter.”

The Lee win, added with a win against Hoosac during the Coaches vs. Cancer showcase on Saturday, gives the ‘Cats a winning record as they head into the heart of the season with one of the county’s leading scorers in LeProvost.

“It’s was huge,” Korte said afterwards. “At the biggest moments we had guys step up and make our free-throws to win the game – we know in order to make tournament we are going to be in a fight every night – and we have to show up.”

So far, Lee has certainly done that.

Posted by Tim Davis on January 10, 2013. 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