Cardinals 10-0 after sinking Kingsland

Published 12:00 am Tuesday, January 14, 2003

Kingsland's falling from the ranks of the rated Class AA teams did little to discourage No. 3 LeRoy-Ostrander from wanting to win, and it showed on Monday night.

The Cardinals, nearing the top of the Class A polls, got a career-high 36 points from Chad Orum and their 10th consecutive win, 66-47, Monday in Spring Valley. Despite Orum's scoring total, L-O coach Russ Foster was raving about the team victory.

"That's as well as we've played this year," Foster said. "Kingsland's assistant event said to me that we're not a one-man show."

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Dustin Thorson scored in double-digits for the ninth time in 10 games with 10 points, and Ben Adams scored six of his eight in the first quarter for the Cardinals (10-0, 5-0).

"We need to come out and start games like we started last night," Foster said. "We cannot come back tonight and start sluggish."

Monday's trip to Spring Valley was the first of three straight road games for L-O. The Cardinals play five of their next six games away from home.

"We're working to stay at a level and not play up-and-down," Foster said. "We're trying to work on consistency more than anything."

The Cardinals have consistently kept teams below 50 points, which is one of Foster's keys to his team's success. That and Orum's scoring.

The 6-5 senior center did not miss in 10 field-goal attempts in the first half, scoring 24 of his career-high 36 before the halftime buzzer. Orum was 3-3 beyond the three-point arc at the halfway point and finished 14-19 from the field and 4-4 at the free-throw line.

"I could live with that every night," Foster said. "We knew we had to get it to Chad, he was in a zone. He just had one of those nights when he went off.

"When he touched it the shot was going up."

The Cardinals shot 56 percent from the field as a team while taking a 30-23 edge in rebounding. Orum had his eighth double-double of the season with 11 rebounds, while Thorson and Andrew Knight had six boards apiece.

"Kingsland's just so quick and athletic," Foster said. "We talked before the game about not letting them get to the offensive boards because they get there so well, but I thought for the most part we did a good job of taking that away."

Chris Erichsen led the host Knights with 11 points.

LeRoy-Ostrander plays another non-conference contest tonight at Medford. The Cardinals get back into Southeast Conference action Thursday night at Spring Grove.

"We've got some tough games coming up, the season's not even halfway over," Foster said. "We've got a long ways to go yet."

Boxscore:

LEROY-OSTRANDER (66) -- Shane Bunne 2, Brett Mensink 0, Andrew Knight 4, Kirk Olson 6, Nate Miller 0, Ben Adams 8, Jacob Rowe 0, Chris Newton 0, Dustin Thorson 10, Paul Hanks 0, Chad Orum 36.

KINGSLAND (47) -- Zach Sorenson 4, Scott Bicknese 2, Jamie McCain 0, Dan Rollie 8, Brad Bernard 8, Thomas Lentz 0, Chad Strike 8, Dallas Hannenburger 0, Chris Erichsen 11, Dustin Kimball 6, Kyle Anderson 0, Justin Hellickson 0, Josh Berhow 0.

L-O17191317--66

Kingsland11131211--47

Field goals -- L-O 28-50; K 20-45.

Three-pointers -- L-O 4-6 (Orum 4); K 1 (Bernard 1).

Free-throws -- L-O 6-9; K 6-14.