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Coach Matt Fink's Pecatonica's boys basketball team used balance and the ability to build an early lead and to stay in front throughout Thursday night, when they topped the visiting Highland Cardinals 64-47 in a cross division game between a pair of Six Rivers Conference foes. Senior teammates Kole Kent, A.J. Hendrickson and Cory Linder led the way with 14, 12 and 10 points, respectively.
Senior John Ross 'JR" Linscheid and sophomore teammate, Spencer Linscheid, both had 15 points and Bray Drury added 9 more for coach Paul Wedig's visiting Cardinals.
"Cory Linder had a real nice game - helping us out to that first half advantage by 11 points at the break and with 10 first half points for us," said Fink. "We kind of prepared for attacking from the high post - due to being zoned and we did a good job looking for that high-low look on offense. Cory was beneficiary of that because Kole found him being open in the paint. It was good to see Cory find some offense there - because he has been working very hard to do so. Also, A.J. (Hendrickson) did a really good job finding and seeing open teammates in our offense- incorporating Kole and Logan (Green) - finding them in open spots and in getting all of his teammates into the flow. That's a confidence builder - it's good to see guys finish and make their shots and I was pleased with the way we got some guys going on offense. I think we'll see a lot of zone this year because we are fairly effective against the man-to-man defense and we had a pretty good effort overall," added Fink. Fink's Vikings (3-1 entering action this week) host the River Ridge Timberwolves tomorrow (Friday) night at 7:30 p.m. and then travel to Potosi Tuesday, December 13 to battle the Chieftains.
Wedig said his team knew they'd be in for a battle versus Pec and he had scouted them when the Vikings played Cuba City Tuesday night.
"They're (Pecatonica) very well coached and have a lot of athletes," said Wedig. "We had hoped we'd create some turnovers and create opportunities for some buckets but when we did get into our offensive sets, we struggled a little. We trailed by six or so and kids want to push the ball - and we need to be patient. We handled Pecatonica's pressure pretty well. All in all, I was disappointed in the loss, but I felt our kids played well. It's early and I've seen a ton of improvement already as a result of the work the kids have been putting in. I feel it has been a pretty smooth transition with what we're doing on offense, utilizing some of what they were familiar with and we've used a modified zone defense - in comparison to the zone the kids played last year."
"Both Spencer (Linscheid) and J.R. (Linscheid) played very well for us tonight with some nice moves and nice passes. JR always gives 100 percent and did a great job with some steals out there at the top (of Highland's defense)."
Pecatonica 33 31 - 64
Highland 22 25 -47
Pecatonica (fg-ft-tp) Schraepfer 2-3-7, Linder 5-0-10, Prust 2-0-5, , Dearth 1-0-3, Kent 6-2-14, , Hendrickson 6-0-12, Green 4-0-9, . Totals: 25 (3) 5-6 64. Three-pointers: Green, Dearth, Prust.
Highland (fg-ft-tp) S. Linscheid 7-1-15, Welsh 1-0-2, Cool 0-3-3, B. Drury 3-0-9, D. Drury 1-1-3, J.R. Linscheid 6-1-15. Totals: 16 (3) 6-10 47. Three-pointers: B. Drury, J.R. Linscheid 2.