Bobcats drop Phoenix

Hunter and company too much for Central

By Andrew Bolton

22 January 2008

greatlakeshoops.com

Grand Blanc-- As a Grand Blanc alum, I should be ashamed.

Here I’ve had this press pass for two years and I have never seen the new gym, let alone a game, at my alma mater.

Terrible, isn’t it?

So tonight I took the opportunity to get out to the old stomping grounds and check out the Bobcats.

Flint Central was visiting tonight, and the Phoenix were looking to down another Big Nine foe. It wasn’t to be, however, as Grand Blanc started fast and finished strong, cruising to a convincing 70-61 victory.

The Bobcats scored the first six points of the game.

After Central countered with two baskets to cut the lead to 6-4, Grand Blanc embarked on a 15-0 run that encompassed the rest of the first period and part of the second.

Leading the charge in the first quarter were Tony Jones and Jake Pilarski.

Adrian Hunter, who didn’t score in the first quarter, quickly got into the action in the second. He scored nine points and had two rebounds and two assists in the second period alone to extend the lead to 32-19 going into the half.

As for Central, whatever they were expecting, they weren’t prepared for what happened.

GB was carving them up on offense and clamping down on defense, and the Phoenix had no answers in that first half. Once they finally started getting around the press of the Bobcats with some regularity, they couldn’t capitalize by making any shots. They also got outrebounded 20-10 in the first half. They played very poorly, and as a result must have gotten a tongue-lashing in the locker room because they returned to the court with only 45 seconds left of halftime.

Whatever Coach Chaffer said didn’t work, though. Central simply could not stop turning the ball over enough to mount any kind of charge, and when they didn’t turn it over, they hoisted bad shot after bad shot. They finally cut the lead to single digits in the last minute of the fourth quarter, but it was way too late by that time.

Game and Player Notes

Stat of the Game: Total Rebounds: Grand Blanc–37     Flint Central–20

–Grand Blanc looked really good tonight. They were crisp offensively, getting numerous uncontested lay-ups off of back-door cuts and screens. They were awesome defensively, rarely giving Central the same look two possessions in a row. They employed a full-court zone trap that really had Central on the ropes, especially early, and when the Phoenix would break the trap, the Bobcats would fall back into any of four different defenses: a match-up zone, a 2-3 zone, a 1-3-1 zone, or straight-up man-to-man. Central could never get into any sort of rhythm. Credit coach Chris Belcher for the game plan. Belcher is going to be one heck of a coach. He’s got instincts and creativity, which are two of the most important characteristics for a young coach to have. Given a couple years more experience may be one of the best in the area, if not the state.

–Basically, everyone that played for GB tonight had a good game. Adrian Hunter led the way with 27 points, eight rebounds, two assists and two blocks. No one on Central came close to stopping him. Tony Jones added 15 points and three rebounds, while Avery Washington had eight points and nine boards. Mitchell Vallie also contributed eight points and seven boards.  Jones is one of the fastest players with the ball in the area. Central has speed at guard, and they couldn’t stay in front of him. Washington and Vallie led GB’s active frontcourt, constantly attacking the glass on both ends. The Phoenix failed to match their intensity up front.

–Flint Central, as indicated, was overwhelmed by the balance and execution by the Bobcats. But they did themselves no favors by playing lackadaisically on defense, especially when it came to rebounding. There were a couple bright spots for the Phoenix, however. When they turned up the pressure at the end, they forced many turnovers to get extra possessions. Of course, when they got the ball, they usually put up a terrible shot. Also, the play of sophomore Aundre Gibson was a bright spot. He poured in 21 points, and was very efficient doing so. Nothing about his game was flashy or even stood out at all, he just calmly went about his business of making shots. Had Central gotten better play from Keenan Coleman, they could have made this a game. Coleman has all the tools to be a big-time player, but he needs to raise his hoops IQ a lot. The stats look decent: nine points, four rebounds, four assists, and three steals. However, he turned the ball over a lot, was not a factor defensively outside of the steals, and took numerous bad shots. He was the one the Bobcats were exploiting inside when running their lay-up lines early in the game.

–Coleman was far from alone as far as taking and missing shots goes. No one on the Phoenix could find the bottom of the basket both early in the game and when it mattered down the stretch.

–Brandon Jackson seemed the only player on Central that really cared about rebounding, collecting six of those to go with seven points and three assists. Harold Peterson scored 12 points and had three steals, but he fouled out in the fourth quarter after guarding Adrian Hunter most of the game. Demetrius Miller had 14 points, all in the second half if memory serves, and three assists and three steals. One of Miller’s baskets was a ridiculous and-one that left my jaw on the floor, and I saw him play all summer. He is a D-1 prospect in my book.