Published: December 08, 2007 12:36 am            

Bearcats hit boards, beat Kats

Muncie Central boasts 30-15 edge in rebounds.

MUNCIE — Kokomo’s boys basketball team gave itself plenty of chances to stop Muncie Central Friday night. The problem for the Wildkats was that over and over, Central swooped in and took those chances away.

Kokomo and Central shot nearly identical percentages from the field (46 percent for Kokomo to 47 percent for Central), but a wide disparity in rebounds put the home side firmly in control. The Bearcats cruised by the Wildkats 53-38, aided in large part by doubling the visitors on the boards. Central snagged 30 to Kokomo’s 15.

Central improved to 3-1 overall and 1-0 in the North Central Conference. Kokomo fell to 2-1 overall and 0-1 in the league. The Bearcats got 15 offensive rebounds and scored 14 points on second chances.

“They were just getting offensive rebound after offensive rebound,” Kokomo coach Brian McCauley said. “They’re not any taller than our guys. They’re not any more athletic than we are in my opinion. They just wanted it, and that’s what’s extremely disappointing.”

Central led 9-8 after the first quarter, then ratcheted up its physical play in the second. The home Cats got a couple bullish hoops from post player John Peckinpaugh and snagged six offensive rebounds in the frame. Kokomo had just one defensive rebound in the second stanza and trailed by eight points shortly before the buzzer.

Then, on the final play of the half, Central guard Boyd Hatfield fired a pass to Juwaun Scaife for a triple. His 3-ball hit rim, bounced high off the backboard and fell through at the buzzer for a 30-19 Central lead at the break.

“Kokomo is a great rebounding team and I see in our stats that we outrebounded them 31-16,” Central coach Matt Fine said. “That’s just a tribute to our guys really having the mindset of not getting out-toughed.”

Central’s Peckinpaugh scored the first five points of the second half and the Kats were never closer than 13 down the rest of the way.

Fine had his Bearcats switching among three defenses and McCauley said the Kats had particular trouble with the home Cats’ 1-3-1 zone. Kokomo scored just seven points in the third quarter and was down 43-26 going into the final frame. McCauley thought the middle quarters hurt Kokomo.

“We didn’t respond well offensively to their halfcourt trap and they got some offensive rebounds there in the second quarter, some second-chance points that got us in a hole and all of the sudden we’re scrambling for offense,” McCauley said. “It was a combination of poor offensive decisions and poor defensive execution that really buried us right there at the end of the second quarter and the beginning of the third.”

Muncie Central was led by explosive senior forward Tracy Johnson, who came off the bench to score a game-high 16 points, including a well-constructed alley-oop dunk in the second quarter.

“We thought that he could give us a spark off the bench,” Fine said of the choice not to start Johnson. “Obviously, he did. He brings us a lot of energy. When he’s active, with his athleticism, he makes us a pretty good basketball team.”

Peckinpaugh added a dozen points and Scaife 10. Freshman guard Jeremiah Davis led Muncie Central with eight rebounds.

On the Kat side, Patrick Hopkins scored a team-high 13 points and drew praise from McCauley for giving Kokomo a good option inside. Colton Summers came off the bench and added 11 for the Kats, another effort highlighted by the Kat coach. T.J. Weir added eight.

McCauley said the Kats competed well in the first and fourth quarters but need to get that effort for all four frames. He said the team will focus on conditioning in order to improve in the middle frames when fatigue sets in.

The Kokomo coach was heartened that Kokomo closed the gap considerably after getting thumped by Central by 36 points last season.

“Our guys need to understand that Muncie Central is a very good team. We battled with them. We need to continue to get better, keep working and trying to keep improving,” McCauley said. “We have the time to be able to keep improving to where we can become an awfully good team.”

        

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