For the first four minutes of Tuesday night's varsity tilt, it seemed as if the early see-saw battle that was brewing between Springfield Catholic and Rogersville was an indication of entertaining things to come between two teams still finding their way this season.
Then, Rogersville made its move, and the Irish had no answers.
After holding a modest 9-7 lead halfway through the first period, the homestanding Wildcats yielded just seven more points over the remainder of the half – opening the door for a 22-7 run to keep head coach Tony Armstrong's squad at bay for good en route to a 60-43 victory.
“We got off to kind of trading baskets with them to start and then our defense kind of tightened down,” Rogersville head coach Rod Gorman said after the win. “We made them turn it over a few times, got them to miss a little bit and rebounded [the ball].”
Rebounding was the operative term for Gorman and the Wildcats for the first 16 minutes of play as Rogersville (5-12, 2-0 COC Small) managed to out-rebound the Irish (8-12, 0-4 COC Small) by a 14-4 margin going into the locker room.
The home team's ability to eliminate opportunities for second-chance points on one end of the floor and, in turn, create those opportunities at the other end was instrumental in fueling their impressive spurt.
“When you can control the boards and get them to miss some, you'll have better opportunities,” said Gorman.
Seeing his team held to a less-than-stellar shooting performance in the first two quarters, Armstrong decided to mix up his lineup on the floor for most of the second half – showcasing four freshmen and a sophomore to go against a Rogersville club that was simply rolling.
The freshman core, led by Jake Branham, Michael Manzardo, Charlie O'Reilly and Wallace Squibb, provided a welcomed improvement as Catholic matched the Wildcats' scoring output in the second half, 29-29.
“They're an athletic group,” Armstrong said of his young five on the court in the second half. “It was kind of a bad matchup (in the first half), so we had to play some different kids.”
The Rogersville offensive attack was led by 6-foot-1 senior guard Christian Brown, who knocked down three shots from behind the arc on the way to a game-high 20-point performance.
Not to be outdone was sophomore Andrew Scott's contribution of nine points, while sophomore Matt McHenry, senior Jake Crosby and freshman Luke Vandersnick each chipped in with eight points on the evening.
“What a great team effort,” added Gorman. “What caught my eye was that a lot of guys contributed. We had guys playing well on both sides of the ball and it was probably our best balanced effort of the year.”
Rogersville travels to tangle with Hollister on Friday, while Catholic hits the road to face Strafford in an out-of-conference matchup on Thursday.
Box Score
Catholic – 9 5 15 14 – 43
Rogersville – 18 13 13 16 – 60
Catholic – Ian Cochran 10, Jake Branham 8, Michael Manzardo 7, Jake Neff 6, Charlie O'Reilly 6, Wallace Squibb 4, Brent Maes 2
Rogersville – Christian Brown 20, Andrew Scott 9, Matt McHenry 8, Jake Crosby 8, Luke Vandersnick 8, Drew Ritter 3, Marcus Gorman 3, Evan Whetstone 1
