01-14-14
BY JACK BULLOCK
PATOKA – Not many freshmen can take over a high school basketball game offensively but on Tuesday night at Patoka, Jered Cain helped the Patoka Warriors shake off the rust of a long streak of no games played.

The 6-foot-1 guard scored in nearly everyway possible in leading the hosts to a 60-51 win over visiting Dieterich in a contest between two teams that hadn’t played in several days.

Cain nailed a pair of 3-pointers, connected on seven shots on drives and mid-range shots and converted 7-of-9 free throws.

He topped all scorers with 28-points a he helped send Dieterich to a loss, dropping the Maroons to 9-5 on the season.

On the defensive end of the floor, Patoka watched in delight as Dieterich launched 3-pointer after 3-pointer, hitting just 5-of-30 (16.6 percent) from beyond the arc.

Coach Joe Eddy’s club packed in a zone defense and coaxed the Movin’ Maroons into a horrid shooting night from the outside while improving to 9-4 on the season.

The end result was a big non-conference win for Coach Eddy’s squad.

“That was the best collective effort we had all year,” said Coach Eddy. “At Wayne City (tournament) we didn’t play hard. We had leads in the fourth quarter in all of those games but we didn’t have the effort. So we have had three weeks of practice, which has been brutal because you hate not playing. We are always going to be a smaller team so we have to work harder. Tonight we did.”

Tyler Back and Johnny Clift added nine and eight points respectively for the Warriors.

Another of the key stats of the game was that Patoka did a better job taking care of the ball, committing just eight turnovers wile forcing Dieterich into many mistakes.

Coach Jeff Staser’s Maroons had 13-turnovers and were just 18-of-53 (33.9 percent) overall on the night.

“We didn’t want to fly by their shooters, we wanted to get a hand up and defend them. It was a group effort by our guards on their outside shooters,” said Coach Eddy. “To have just eight turnovers as quick as we try to play is pretty good. Eight is spectacular for us.”

Patoka finished at 17-of-47 from the floor as a whole, which wasn’t groundbreaking. But it was much better than the opposition on this night.

As for the contest, the Maroons failed to take full advantage of its size edge over the smaller Warriors.

Guards Tanner Traub (3) and Alex Bohnhoff (2) led Dieterich with 12 points each and they accounted for the five made 3-pointers.

But 6-foot-5 bookend forwards Devin Aherin and Travis Niemerg should have been a bigger factor.

At times the Maroons got the ball inside and these two were effective.

However Coach Stasser’s team fell madly in love with the long ball and it showed late in the contest as Dieterich misfired continually in the final eight minutes.

Aherin finished with 10-points while Niemerg tossed in nine.

Dieterich held a slight rebounding edge at 33-25 but couldn’t exploit the effort.

“They (Patoka) collapsed everything in on that zone and in the second half we got into a nice offense and we got every look that we wanted,” said Coach Stasser. “They just weren’t falling. And defensively, the Cain kid is very talented. They spread the floor and turned him loose.”

Those are the numbers and, despite all of their shortcomings, the Maroons were on the verge of making enough of a run to pick up the road win.

Opening the final quarter with 6-2 move, Dieterich evened the score at 47-all with 5:26 left.

All six of the points came from Aherin and all were in the paint.

Getting the ball inside looked like a formula for success but the Maroons abandoned that way of play for the 3-point shot the rest of the game.

After those three baskets by Aherin, Dieterich went 2-for-15 the rest of the way, missing all ten of its shots from beyond the arc.

In the meantime, Patoka broke that final tie with a 7-0 run with Cain nailing a 3-pointer from the right wing.

Teammate Tyler Back also scored, converting a fast break lay in while adding another score on a pass from Clift to push the lead to 56-49 with 1:32 to go.

A rebound basket by Dieterich’s sophomore Nick Feldhake was the final Maroon bucket.

Patoka closed the book on the win with Clift and senior guard Sheldon Felchlia making four-straight free throws in the final :38.6.

“We told the kids why go away from what is working?” said Coach Staser. “We get back in the game, we tie it up and everything is working and then for some reason we go away from it. It was frustrating. They are kids and they work hard and I love them to death. But sometimes we just don’t get it done. We’re a young club and we are going to make mistakes. These are growing pains for us. We will get back into the gym and figure it out.”

The Warriors opened the game strong and survived every Dieterich run.

Patoka led 7-2 in the opening minutes with Cain setting the tone.

Hitting a pair of jumpers, including a 3-pointer from the right win, the Warriors got their offense rolling.

A trey from Traub and two free throws by Niemerg gave the Maroons their first advantage at 11-10 with 2:34 left in the opening quarter.

The best run by Coach Staser’s team came in the second quarter.

Trailing 18-12, Dieterich went on a scoring spree.

Bohnhoff hit a 3-pointer to start the crusade and he closed the march with a fast break lay in and a pair of free throws, pushing Dieterich to a 26-20 lead.

Another inside shot by Niemerg and Dieterich went to the locker room up 28-24 with a 16-6 run.

Cain scored 11 of his points in the third quarter as Patoka took back the lead.

His conventional three-point play on a baseline drive while being fouled by Traub gave the Warriors a 37-34 advantage.

“That is the best game I have seen him (Cain) play. You don’t ask or expect a freshman to play that well but when he does that you just tip your hat and say good job young man,” added Coach Eddy.

After having three contests snowed out and not playing for three weeks, Patoka can look forward to the second half of the season after a quality home win.

Dieterich will play South Central on Friday and Flora next Tuesday before the National Trail Conference tournament begins January 27.

Patoka has three games to make up but the next scheduled game is
Friday against St. Elmo-Brownstown at home.

“What is frustrating is that they did to us (drive to the basket) that we do to most people,” added Coach Staser. “We haven’t played any teams this year that were willing to drive to the basket against us and tonight they did. They (Patoka) have some kids that play their roles really well. Cain drove the ball to the basket and when the shot wasn’t there he found teammates that knocked down the shots.”