12-05-06
BY JACK BULLOCK
ALTAMONT - It didn’t take the Altamont Indians long to put enough points on the board to defend their home court in a National Trail Conference matchup with Windsor Tuesday night.

A 13-1 run to start the third quarter gave the Indians a 38-14 lead and put the outcome to rest as Coach Doug Hill’s club coasted past Windsor, 50-29, to improve to 3-0 on the season.

By giving the Blue Devils few second chances while holding them to just 31 percent shooting from the field, the Tribe put on a dominating performance in a workmanlike fashion and, in spite of a few flaws, produced a solid win with little flash.

With an overwhelming defensive effort on outside shooters Ace Camfield and Andy Bullock, Altamont subdued the Blue Devils in holding its rival to just 11 total field goals.

Camfield led Windsor (0-2) with nine points while Andy Bullock finished with just six points. No Blue Devil reached double figures in scoring.

Six-foot-seven senior Nathan Curry was held scoreless by the inside defense of Altamont.

After having played well against Stewardson-Strasburg in the first week of the season, it is back to the drawing board for Windsor head coach Bart Weidman.

“I told the kids that we are going to have a hard time winning games shooting more 3’s than we do 2’s,” said Coach Weidman. “We are going to have to make a conscience effort to get the ball inside because if they (opponents) are going to pressure us outside we have to get the ball inside on penetration and hit some other guys to help each other out. We didn’t do that tonight. We forced the ball and we didn’t crash the boards. When we do those good things we will be alright.”

Curt and Eric Heiden topped Altamont with 12 points apiece while Craig Anderson added 11 points in a contest that was never in doubt from the opening tap.

If you used a shot chart to track the success of the Indians on this night, nearly all of the marks came from inside the paint from E. Heiden and Anderson.

“When we were able to get the ball inside safely without bobbles or tips, and got the ball to the post players we where successful,” said Coach Hill. “It took a little work sometimes because they (Windsor) were collapsing inside pretty well. But that really doesn’t bother us much because we’ve seen this every game so far this year and we are getting used to it.”

Using its size advantage, Altamont pounded the ball inside against the smaller Devils who were ‘packing it in’ defensively.

While the Indians didn’t hit many outside shots (1-of-13 from behind the arc) the inside scoring more than made up the difference.

“When we shoot it from the perimeter better than we did tonight they have to come out and guard us which opens things up in the post,” Hill added. “In the first half we were struggling to score some. We were still trying to pound our way inside but we weren’t shooting the ball well at the beginning.”

By continuing to get the ball inside, Anderson and Eric Heiden had their way for the most part underneath the basket.

But it was Curt Heiden that got the Indians off to a good start.

He scored the first seven points to give his club an early advantage. His conventional three-point play while being fouled by Windsor’s Elliot Mowry resulted in a 7-2 lead with 3:57 to go in the opening quarter.

Windsor had few bright spots. However when Stephen Woodruff connected on a short jumper and Camfield canned a 3-pointer from the left corner with just over two minutes remaining, Altamont led just 10-7.

That was as close as the score would be the remainder of the matchup.

An 8-0 overlapping run between the first and second quarters gave the Indians a comfort zone.

Both Heiden’s, Anderson and Jordan McCarron scored in this run.

An Anderson tip in with 6:46 remaining before intermission forced a Windsor time out at 18-7.

“There aren’t too many teams that you are going to play that have two good post players like Altamont has,” said Weidman. “You have to make an effort to force their guards to hit some shots. I’m still pretty proud of the way played them defensively. We gave up too many offensive rebounds but we need to focus on shooting the ball inside and getting some easy scores.”

Two 3-pointers from Camfield and Bullock in the second frame kept the Blue Devils in a hopeful mode for a bit.

But inside baskets from E. Heiden and Anderson pushed the halftime lead to 25-13.

“We weren’t shooting the ball well early so we had to play good defense because they (Windsor) can shoot it well,” added Hill. “If you don’t find their shooters they’re going to get hot, Bullock and Camfield especially. We didn’t want to let them get loose.”

The 13-1 run to start the third quarter took the wind out of Windsor as the quarter ended 39-17.

Coach Weidman’s team managed 12 points in the final quarter but a woeful 1-of-5 effort from the free throw line and just 11-of-36 overall shooting (6-of-19 from behind the arc) didn’t sit well.

Altamont conquered Windsor on the boards holding a 31-20 edge while allowing just five Blue Devil offensive rebounds.

“I don’t want to lose the rebounding margin anywhere this season and there are going to be some good teams that it is going to be tough to win the boards,” explained Hill. “But that is one of our goals is to win the boards every game. Our perimeter guys did a much better job of being active especially on the long rebounds.”

Altamont didn’t shoot the ball very well on the night, connecting on just 20-of-54 shots (36 percent) overall.

But with the way that they defended their turf, handled the ball (just five turnovers) and the big rebound edge, the Indians didn’t need to hit for as high of a percentage on this night.

“Defensively we are right where we need to be,” added Weidman. “We held a good team to 50 points tonight and we just keep getting better defensively. But we have to put some points on the board especially inside. Tonight we made too many bad decisions.”

The Indians have played without their top backcourt player, Ethan Wolff, who has missed the first three games of the season because of some ligament damage to his left wrist (non-shooting hand) suffered during soccer season.
According to Coach Hill, Wolff will see a doctor next week to determine when he will be able to play.

“Not having Wolff is the reason teams are going to try and pack it in on us because he is the one that we have that can shoot them out of that defense,” finalized Hill. “We have some good shooters but Ethan was all-NTC last season and he can pull defenses out of zones.”

	1	2	3	4	-	F
Windsor	07	06	04	12	-	29
Altamont	14	11	14	11	-	50

Windsor (29) - Peadro 0 0 0-0 0, Tucker 0 0 0-0 0, Strowmatt 0 1 0-0 3, Camfield 1 2 1-2 9, Mowry 2 0 0-1 4, Curry 0 0 0-2 0, Warner 0 0 0-0 0, Bryant 0 0 0-0 0, Bullock 0 2 0-0 6, Woodruff 1 0 0-0 0, Caudill 0 0 0-0 0, McIlwain 1 1 0-0 5.
2FG-5, 3FG-6, FT-1-5, PF-11.
Altamont (50) - Duckwitz 0 0 2-2 2, Durbin 0 0 0-0 0, C. Heiden 4 1 1-1 12, Beccue 0 0 0-0 0, K. McCarron 2 0 0-0 4, Braasch 0 0 0-0 0, Hammer 0 0 0-0 0, Delaney 1 0 0-0 2, J. Heiden 0 0 0-0 0, Nelson 2 0 0-0 4, O'Dell 0 0 1-2 1, Baird 0 0 0-0 0, J. McCarron 1 0 0-0 2, Anderson 4 0 3-6 11, E. Heiden 5 0 2-2 12.
2FG-19, 3FG-1, FT-9-13, PF-11.
Fouled Out - None.
Technical Fouls - None.