01-10-09
BY JACK BULLOCK
OLNEY - On Saturday night on the road the Red Hill Salukis didn’t shoot the ball well and didn’t get enough second chances to do much damage to Olney East Richland.

As a result Coach Brian Havill’s club limped home with a 52-32 loss in a contest in which they gathered just six offensive rebounds and missed all nine of their 3-point attempts (13-of-38 overall) the night after beating Lawrence County rival Lawrenceville.

Let down or not – Red Hill got blitzed by an Olney offensive burst in the third quarter that turned a close game into a laugher.

The Tigers torched RH with a 17-2 run to lead 42-22 with just over a minute left in the frame.

Olney – after winning a big conference game at Robinson on Friday night - coasted home for the triumph to improve to 10-4 overall.

“We just missed too many shots in the third quarter when they made their run. Several of them were in-and-out and I told the kids that against someone like Olney you don’t get many good shots and you better hit them when you get a chance,” said Coach Havill – whose team fell to 8-5 on the season. “We also had several times when we gave them easy lay ups because we didn’t get back on defense. That is just unacceptable.”

Six-foot-four junior guard Brandon Berry led Olney with 20 points while Charlie McDowell chipped home 16.

Two Red Hill players – Matt Wirth and Robert Young - scored 10 points each.

Red Hill also committed 16 turnovers.

The Tigers led just 25-18 at the half because Red Hill put together its only good offensive run of the night during the second quarter.

Young hit a pair of free throws and he and teammate Barkley White hit baskets in a 6-0 run that cut the Olney lead to 20-14.

Wirth and Trevor Albertson both scored late in the half and Joshua Hawkins scored on a 15-footer from the left wing just seconds into the third quarter to cut the Olney lead to just 25-20.

The Tigers then scored 11 unanswered points.

Mitchell Schonert helped Olney’s run with a pair of scores.

His second made shot with 3:41 remaining closed the run at 36-26.

Berry finished off the quarter by scoring Olney’s last nine points.

He connected on two long range bombs – one from the top of the arc after faking a Red Hill defender and stroking home a 20-footer and his second one on a set inbounds play with :07 remaining to close out the quarter at 45-24.

“We knew that we had to come out and have a good third quarter but we didn’t do that tonight,” said Havill. “I told the kids that maybe this (loss) is what we needed to wake us up. They (Olney) take you out of a lot of things that you want to do.”

Berry put the contest to rest with a conventional three-point play off a rebound of his own missed shot while being fouled by Wirth. His made free throw pushed the lead to 50-28.

“We’ll take the win tonight. We played a better second half and this was a tough game to play coming off of a big win last night,” said Olney head coach Rob Flanagan. “We work really hard on rebounding the ball. We aren’t really physical so we have to work hard at blocking people out. We just have to keep working at it.”

Olney was 21-of-48 from the floor overall and 4-of-11 from behind the arc.

Both teams get right back into action next week with Olney playing host to Newton in a key Apollo Conference game Tuesday night while Red Hill will travel to non-conference foe Fairfield on Tuesday.

Red Hill (32) – Albertson 1 0 0-0 2, Hawkins 1 0 0-0 2, Latch 0 0 0-0 0, Brian 0 0 0-0 0, Wirth 4 0 2-2 10, White 3 0 0-0 6, Young 3 0 4-4 10.
2FG-13, 3FG-0, FT-6-7, PF-10.
Olney East Richland (52) – VanGundy 0 0 0-0 0, McDowell 5 2 0-0 16, Kabbes 1 0 0-0 2, Schonert 2 0 2-4 6, Berry 5 2 4-5 20, Pampe 0 0 0-0 0, Groves 2 0 0-0 4, Pottorff 2 0 0-0 4.
2FG-17, 3FG-4, FT-6-9, PF-11.
Fouled Out – None.
Technical Fouls – None.