by This recap is brought to you by – https://keeonsports.com/sponsors/
CANTON, Ohio– Green head coach Mark Kinsley wasn’t used to the style of play University School came out with Friday night that caused his team some struggles early on.
In the end, with some offensive adjustments, his team was able to come away with a 68-60 win over the Preppers to close out the regular season.
“We just don’t see that style often,” Kinsley explained. “I think once we got adjusted to that, we did a much better job.”
The Preppers opened up the first quarter with a statement. They used their speed and full-court pressure defense to limit the Bulldogs offensively where they weren’t able to get much good looks inside the paint. Whenever the Bulldogs were able to use their size to their advantage, there were the Preppers on the other end of the court knocking down a corner 3-pointer.
A 14-13 lead for the Preppers after the first quarter was where they seemed to get a little too comfortable as the Bulldogs came closing out the first half on a slew of scoring runs. It started with Prepper senior guard Justin Belcher picking up his second foul with six minutes left to play in the first half.
Trailing by just four at the time, Jarrett Taylor did his best to keep his team ahead with the Preppers missing their best player for most of the half due to foul trouble. From there, the Bulldogs would close the final six minutes of the second quarter on a 21-3 run.
It was a scoring run that was paced with Taylor’s ability to get to the rim and the Bulldogs taking advantage of the size mismatch in the paint. Couple that with the Preppers’ inability to knock down a 3-pointer at the time caused problems as the Preppers faced a 36-22 deficit at halftime.
It was a second quarter where the Bulldogs were able to outscore the Preppers 23-8.
“I think we got them where we needed them to be, but a 12-14 point lead,” Kinsley said about the message at halftime. “I think we made a couple of switches defensively.”
Despite the struggles closing out the first half, the Preppers hung around throughout the second half. Right when the Bulldogs thought they would expand their lead to north of 15 points, the Preppers were using its speed and stingy defense to get off multiple looks offensively that resulted in buckets that drew them closer to a comeback.
They were never really out of the game despite Taylor and Brady Rollyson combining to score 36 of their team’s 54 points through three quarters. Belcher did his best to give his team any momentum toward a second-half comeback as he had 17 points through three-quarters of play as the Bulldogs held a 54-39 lead following the third quarter.
Taylor would go on and score a game-high 25 points for the Bulldogs during the win and coach Kinsley had high praise for his senior do-it-all point guard and playmaker.
“He was outstanding tonight, it might’ve been the best game he’s played for us in his career,” Kinsley said. “Not so much scoring but all the other things…He just does so many other things for us than scoring.”
Rollyson finished the game with 20 points as the two seniors combined to score 45 of their team’s 68 points Friday night.
For the Preppers, Belcher had a team-high 22 points during the loss along with 19 points from Alec Congdon as he knocked down five 3-pointers in the second half.
