Isaiah Neal
HAGERSTOWN, Ind. – An offensive adjustment helped the Hagerstown boys basketball team on Friday as the Tigers defeated Centerville 46-31 in a Tri-Eastern Conference contest.
“We brought both of our post players up,” Hagerstown Head Coach Bobby Jones said. “Our post guys were getting buried under the basket and we weren’t able to get the ball to them in scoring position, so we just brought them out away from the basket.”
The end result was that the Tigers increased their 19-17 advantage at the intermission to 32-25 by the end of the third period.
Isaiah Neal scored eight of his game-high 19 points for the Tigers during that stretch.
“He continues to be our workhorse,” Jones said of Neal, who also grabbed 14 rebounds. “He’s getting after it. He’s playing with a little chip on his shoulder and I think it’s rubbing off on the other guys.”
Jared Andis, who finished with a dozen points, scored the other five for the Tigers in the third period. Although Bret Templin had just two points for the game, his coach offered some praise for his effort.
“Bret Templin continues to be the floor general,” Jones said. “He was getting a little frustrated because they were taking away the driving lanes for him, but he was able to get the ball where it needed to be so that we could attack.”
Centerville Head Coach Seve Beach was happy that the Bulldogs were able to keep the game close in the first half despite foul trouble.
“Especially with a shorter rotaion to begin with,” he said. “That’s something we had to learn. We did a decent job of it and we battled through it.”
“We did our jobs pretty well,” Beach continued. “That’s why it was a two-point game at half.”
The Tigers were having foul issues as well.
“Centerville is probably one of the better teams that dribble drive,” Jones said. “They got us in some foul trouble.”
“We did a pretty good job of taking that away and making them try to beat us inside,” Jones added. “It was just a good team effort.”
Alex Brandon
Alex Brandon led the Bulldogs with 12 points with 10 coming in the opening half.
“He’s a tough kid to guard,” Beach said. “Once he got his fourth (foul), that really hurt our ability and spacing to open up some drives.”
Brandon had three fouls in the first half and eventually picked up his fifth midway through the fourth quarter.
Hagerstown had a 44-25 rebounding advantage.
“They almost doubled us,” Beach said. “We had to compete and win that battle to make it a game.”
Free throws presented another issue for the Bulldogs.
“It’s hard to win when you go 5-of-17 from the line,” Beach said.
Both teams are back on the court on Saturday, Dec. 19. Hagerstown (5-1, 3-0) entertains Monroe Central, while Centerville (1-5, 0-2) travels to National Trail in Ohio.
Box Score
CENTERVILLE (1-5, 0-2) – Myles Cunningham 0 1-2 1, Matt Stamper 2 0-4 2, Dante Torres 2 0-1 4, Alex Brandon 6 0-0 12, Justin DuPree 1 1-4 3, Devin Christian 1 0-1 2, Justyn North 1 1-2 3, Kody Witham 0 2-3 2, Josh Duke 0 0-0 0. Team – 13 5-17 31.
HAGERSTOWN (5-1, 3-0) – Mason Stitt 0 3-4 3, Jared Andis 4 3-7 12, Bret Templin 0 2-4 2, Isaiah Neal 7 5-7 19, Nate Combs 2 0-0 4, Drew Pyle 1 0-0 2, Evan Hoover 1 2-2 4, Jordan Auker 0 0-0 0, Trent Weiss 0 0-0 0. Team – 15 15-24 46.
Centerville 9 17 25 31
Hagerstown 8 19 32 46
3-pointers – Centerville 0, Hagerstown 1 (Andis 1). Rebounds – Centerville 25 (DuPree 5), Hagerstown 44 (Neal 14). Turnovers – Centerville 18, Hagerstown 22. Fouls – Centerville 23, Hagerstown 21.