FORT MADISON - Fort Madison Head Coach Ryan Wilson told his squad that West Hancock likes to shoot threes and that could be the key to the game.
He wasn't wrong. The Titans hit eight threes in the first half enroute to a 67-58 win over the Bloodhounds in an Iowa/Illinois border battle at the Hound Dome Tuesday night.
West Hancock's Lewis Siegfried hit four of the threes in the first half as Fort Madison had trouble guarding on the perimeter. The junior led all scorers with 20 points.
Fort Madison got into trouble in the first half missing some bunnies inside the lane banging around with the Titans who play in Illinois. The game was more physical than the Hounds usually see playing in Iowa.
But it was the long range proficiency that gave the Titans a 17-point first half advantage. Fort Madison trailed by just five 21-16 at the end of the first quarter, but then shot just 3-of-11 in the second quarter and failed to get to the freethrow line one time.
However, the Hounds made a run of things in the third quarter when they figured out how to roll with the Titans' perimeter rotations.
"We just figured out how to play defense in the second half,” Wilson said.
“I harped on it all night and coming into tonight. They'd shoot three after three after three. They'd run that little two-guard rotation at the top. They want to shoot 35 threes a game and we couldn't let that happen. Early on we just let them do what they wanted.
Wilson said no changes were made defensively in the second half.
“We saw it. They were going to either shoot a three or take it to the rim. You saw them pick it up at the elbow and either look for a back-door cut or throw back. That’s their offense. Two up top and three in the corners and they look for that three,” Wilson said.
“We have to recognize those things.”
The Bloodhounds were able to shut down the perimeter in the final two periods, but couldn’t cut into the lead as the Titans turned to scoring off the dribble with the defense spread out.
Hunter Cresswell’s bucket with 4:05 left in the third period on a move inside cut the lead to 12 at 43-31. The Titans would go 5-of-5 from there to push the lead back to 16 at 53-37 going into the final period.
Fort Madison would go on a 15-6 run through the first five minutes of the fourth period. Julian Dear hit a 3-ball from the left wing and then, after a Hounds’ defensive stop, Leif Boeding converted a 3-point play on a driving layup from the right side to cut the lead to just nine at 59-50.
Fort Madison would get another stop at the south end of the gym and then Cresswell would get fouled putting back a Carson Rashid miss. The senior would convert both freethrows to make it 59-52.
West Hancock would get a freethrow from Gavin Grothaus, but Rashid would score on a driving one-handed scoop with :51 left to cut the lead to six at 60-54.
That would be the closest the Hounds would get as they had to go into foul mode and the Titans managed to keep the ball in Nolan Hurt’s hands and he hit five out of six down the stretch to seal the win.
“Kudos to our guys in the second half. We held them to 27 points and the last seven or eight were freethrows. We got to within five or six and you think back to some of the easy layups and freethrows we missed early on,” Wilson said.
“The refs let us play. They weren’t calling much. It’s tough to adjust to that with consistency,” Wilson said on the Illinois officiating team.
But he said he hopes the second half carries over into tomorrow’s clash in Keokuk saying all games matter going forward.
“They all do. The big thing about tonight is how we responded and played in the second half. We scored 37 or something and we need to carry that into tomorrow night in Keokuk. Every game in this stretch is huge in the conference right now."
The Hounds are 5-2 in Southeast Conference action, tied with Keokuk just a game back of Mt. Pleasant (6-1). Fort Madison is now 7-6 overall and travels to Keokuk in a boys'/girls' makeup double header Wednesday and then travel to 6-9 Washington Friday night.
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