Packers win with defense
Published 11:44 pm Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Austin's Jay Ettinger goes up for a lay-up after a steal against Rochester John Marshall Tuesday night in Packer Gym. - Eric Johnson/photodesk@austindailyherald.com
The Austin boys basketball team didn’t bring its best game, but it still beat Rochester John Marshall (1-15 overall, 1-11 Big Nine) 58-43 in Packer Gym Tuesday.
Austin (9-8 overall, 8-4 Big Nine) had 21 turnovers and it struggled to hit shots throughout the night.
“That’s not us and I don’t know what the deal was tonight. I was not happy with it,” Austin head coach Kris Fadness said. “No matter who you play, you better be up and ready to play. You’ve got to play every possession and I felt like we were timid at times.”
Austin's Tom Aase helps to pressure Ryan Rushton during the first half Tuesday night in Packer Gym. - Eric Johnson/photodesk@austindailyherald.com
The Packers trailed 5-2 early, but they responded with a 15-2 run that was started when Matt Duren hit a three and freshman guard Zach Wessels scored six straight points. Austin scored the first nine points of the second half to go up 41-24.
“That’s how we wanted to play the whole game,” Austin guard Zach Fadness, who had five points and four steals said of the second half run. “We want to make plays and get a fast break on defense and when we’re able to do that, it helps.”
The Austin defense was aggressive as Jay Ettinger also had four steals and Tom Aase and Joe Aase each blocked four shots.
“We’ve been relying on our defense lately, since we haven’t been putting up the all the points we’re hoping to,” Zach Fadness said. “We came out flat on ‘O’ tonight and we were able to play good enough defense to sneak out with a win.”
Wessels carried Austin’s offense for most of the night as he finished with 14 points, four rebounds and three assists. He also provided some open room for Austin’s shooters.
“Anybody who can penetrate and kick will help shooters out,” Zach Fadness said. “Zach’s really good at finding the open guy when he needs to.”
Joe Aase had 14 points and six rebounds for the Packers.
JM 24 19 — 43
Austin 32 26 — 58
Austin scoring: Zach Wessels, 14; Joe Aase, 14; Matt Duren, 11; Tom Aase, 8; Zach Fadness, 5; Max Coffey, 3; Jay Ettinger, 2; Andrew Kaiser, 1; free throws: 58 percent; rebounds: 30 (Joe Aase, 6; Tom Aase, 6); turnovers: 21
JM scoring: John Mattison, 18; Mitchell Johnson, 13; Jared Bruggeman, 6; Ryan Rushton, 3; Travis Krukow, 2; Keaton Riley, 1; free throws: 33 percent (3-for-9); rebounds: 28 (Rushton, 6); turnovers: 28
