No Fluke

Bobcats stun Powers--again

By Andrew Bolton

29 January 2008

greatlakeshoops.com

Flint-- Rivalries are great, aren’t they?

One of the best ones in the area was on tonight at Flint Powers.

The Chargers were playing the not-too-gracious host to the Grand Blanc Bobcats, who won the first matchup of the season 82-76 behind 40 points from Adrian Hunter.

There would be no encore for Hunter, though. That much was certain from the outset.

Points were at a premium for the entire game, as both teams got after it on defense, bolstered by raucous crowds pulling for both teams.

Powers, revenge-minded and coming off a victory over Carman-Ainsworth, knocked the Bobcats down early, but Adrian Hunter was too much for the Chargers to overcome.

Grand Blanc took the game, 49-47, and the ‘Cats are now a win short of Flint C-A in the wacky Big Nine Conference.

The last time these teams played they combined for 158 points. After the first half, they were lucky to end up where they were.

The score was 16-13 at the half.

Both teams were very sloppy, combining for 20 turnovers. Some of that was the intensity of being in a rivalry game, as both teams looked to be going about five steps faster than normal. But one would have to think that both teams would settle down in the second half, simply because expending that much energy leaves you with less for the rest of the game.

Both teams did come out more settled.

Grand Blanc took its first lead of the game, 23-22, just a couple minutes into the quarter, but after that Powers really hit its stride. The Chargers, behind DeMarco Sanders and Kevin Pickens, went on a 15-4 run to close out the quarter. Patrick Lucas-Perry, who had tweaked an ankle earlier in the first half, provided a triple at the buzzer to further knock GB back.

Powers ran the lead to 41-29 in the fourth period before Grand Blanc went to work.

After playing man-to-man for most of the game, Bobcats' coach Chris Belcher switched to a 3-1-1 zone trap that Powers had no answer for.

A 9-0 run for Grand Blanc cut the lead to 41-38, prompting a Powers timeout. After the timeout, Powers, after working the ball around the perimeter for awhile, got a pass inside to Pat O’Brien, who converted the lay-up despite being hammered. He would make the free throw, and Powers fans thought that that would be the play that sealed it.

But Adrian Hunter said had another idea.

On the very next possession, he drilled a DEEP three with two people in his face to get the lead back down to three, and then the GB defense did its work.

Corice Parlor stole the subsequent inbounds pass and fed a cutting Glen Haggin for two more, and yet another steal led to two free throws by Hunter to give GB the lead. Another steal led to two more free throws for the Grand Blanc star.

Powers had one last chance, but a 3-point attempt by O’Brien just rimmed out. More free throws by Hunter and a meaningless triple by Shane Moreland at the buzzer provided the final margin.

Game and Player Notes

–Stat(s) of the Game: Fourth Quarter Scoring: Powers–10 points   Grand Blanc–22

Steals: Powers–6                      Grand Blanc–13

–Grand Blanc went on a 20-3 run to close out the game. The zone they ran completely flummoxed the Chargers’ players, who had no idea how the Bobcats were rotating to cover the floor. The Chargers threw the ball directly to GB players on a couple occasions down the stretch, and had the ball taken from them from behind multiple times. I asked coach Belcher about the zone after the game, as I had never seen this used very effectively. His first response was a smile and an insistence that he wasn’t going to give away his secrets. He said it was something they work on all the time in practice, along with other defenses of course. He mentioned how he was disinclined to use a zone against Powers because of all their shooters, but that he was in need of something to pressure the ball. All he would allow was that it was a halfcourt trapping zone. Yeah right, coach. I’ve seen zone traps before, but yours was the best by far. It featured some unique rotations that covered the floor better than you would think a 3-1-1 could. I’ll have to study it more carefully the next time I see GB. Whatever it was, it won them the game.

–I remember thinking at half that GB, though down three, was in a good spot because Adrian Hunter had only two points. It took awhile, but that turned out to be the case. Adrian had 14 in the second half to give him 16 for the game, and was 6/6 from the line down the stretch. He had just two rebounds, but they were the biggest rebounds of the night for the Bobcats. The shot of the night belonged to him: the 3-pointer with two hands in his face right after O’Brien had his three-point play. The Bobcats had to have that shot right then, and Adrian gave it to him. I asked him after the game how deep he was. “Man, I don’t know,” was the response. He said that the coach told him if he got any look to take it, “and I saw Patrick slip, and the other defender didn’t close fast enough, so I took it.” I also asked him about the defense tonight, and he said they always preach defense in practice, and when they weren’t scoring early in the game, he wasn’t worried because they had held Powers to 16 points in the half. So while it wasn’t pretty, a win is a win.  

–Tony Jones had nine points for GB, mostly in the second half. The unsung heroes for Grand Blanc, though, were Corice Parlor, Mitchell Vallie, and Glen Haggin. Parlor had just five points, but contributed four rebounds and five steals. Vallie, had only three points, but had six rebounds and four steals. Glen Haggin had a big game, with 11 points, three boards, and two blocks, providing clutch scoring in the fourth quarter. I would be remiss in not congratulating these less-heralded but no-less-important players.

–For three quarters, the Chargers played the grind-it-out game brilliantly. They didn’t force the issue too much, and really got going in the third quarter. But once GB switched to the zone, Powers had no answers. Shane Moreland led the Chargers with 12 points, while brother Tyler added eight points, six rebounds, three assists, and two steals. They got lots of help tonight, too, and from unexpected sources: DeMarco Sanders had nine points, including one huge triple in the third period. He’s just a sophomore, and he gets better every time I see him play. Expect big things from him in the future. Kevin Pickens also played well in the third, scoring a basket, pulling down three boards, and feeding Pat O’Brien inside for lay-up with a beautiful pass. But all the plays that these guys were making in the third were nowhere to be found come money time.

–Did anyone pick the Bobcats to win the Big Nine at the beginning of the year? Anyone? I don’t see too many hands...