CATLIN – Salt Fork hosted Oakwood in boys’ basketball in a Vermilion Valley Conference game that saw the Storm come out on top of the visiting Comets by the score of 63-42.
It was a night that saw the hosts have multiple distractions according to head coach Andrew Johnson.
“It was senior night so all the seniors were [eager] to play,” he said. “And, yes, Garrett [Taylor] was getting to 1,000 points. With all that and some other stuff, I think our kids handled it well.”
Salt Fork (24-2, 10-0 VVC) took an early 4-0 lead in the first two minutes, but Oakwood came right back to tie things in the next two on a pair of baskets by Alex Harrison.
The Comets (19-9, 6-4 VVC) then hit a dry spell and fell behind 13-6 as Blake Norton scored six points in a row on a trey, a basket and an and-one free throw.
Jackson Dudley ended that run, but Salt Fork would lead 15-9 after one quarter.
The Comets were cold from the field throughout the game and part of that may be that junior point guard Brody Taflinger was out sick.
“We had to play a few players in other positions than usual,” Oakwood head coach Jeff Mandrell said, not using it as an excuse, but adding, “It made it tough, but I told our team they played hard all night.”
Blake Hettmansberger opened the second quarter with a pair of free throws for the Storm, but Dalton Hobick more than answered for the visitors with a jumper and a three-pointer.
The Comets had a few chances at the free throw line in the second period, but the charity stripe was not friendly and their hosts slowly began to pull away.
By the end of the half, Salt Fork led 32-22, but that margin would grow in the third period.
The lead by the Storm would stay at about those 10 points for the first five minutes after the halftime break, but then the visitors went cold again.
Their misses turned into rebounds for the Storm who went on a 10-0 run in the final three minutes to lead 48-29 going into the final quarter.
Johnson said his team rebounded well on the night, noting that “a missed shot for us is almost a best one” because of their offensive rebounding.
He also thought that the defensive boards helped the team pull away as they were able to take control by limiting the Comets often to only one shot.
That paid dividends in the fourth quarter as the visitors struggled to hit shots and Norton, Taylor and Hayden Chew would score on fast breaks or offensive putbacks.
The Storm pushed their lead up to 59-31 and then both squads put in bench players to close out the contest.
Bryson McDaniel of Oakwood had the last made shot of the game, a trey, to make the final score 63-42.
In the contest, Taylor did reach the 1,000-point mark for his career and, after the game, he spoke about it and his rebounding.
“I didn’t let it [the 1,000th point] bother me. I just played my usual game,” he said. “My rebounding is all about getting position and watching where the ball is going when [it hits the rim],” he explained.
After the game, Mandrell spoke first about Salt Fork, saying, “They are a good team who worked hard tonight.”
He then talked about his own team, “We didn’t shoot well. We got some decent shots, but we didn’t make them. Defensively we did good things, but we didn’t hit shots.”
Johnson said his team executed the game play the way it was drawn up, saying, “And that’s 100 percent on the kids doing the job.”
Greg Flint is a freelance writer/photographer for the Commercial-News. He can be reached at: gfphoto@gfphoto web.com