01-16-15
BY JACK BULLOCK
METROPOLIS - As cliche as it is, for the entire 2014-15 season head coach Dan DeWerff and his West Frankfort Red Birds have looked to put together 32-minutes of basketball.

On Friday night on the road at Massac County, his club did just that.

The guests proved to be bothersome for the host Patriots, running their offense with precision as they committed just four turnovers in the contest, a 75-55 victory to put West Frankfort at 5-0 in the conference and 11-3 overall.

The Red Birds scorched the Pats on this night, connecting on 27-of-45 shots overall (60 percent) and pulled away with a big fourth quarter in the win.

Having struggled with injuries and illness since the finishing fourth at the Eldorado Holiday Tournament, West Frankfort is picking up momentum heading into the final stretch of the season.

“That is really the first time, from start to finish, we played 32-minutes this season,” said Coach DeWerff. “On both ends of the floor, we stuck with what we worked on in practice and on the offensive end in the second half we just kept feeding the ball inside. We were effective down low in the post. You have to be effective offensively to win here. It's a tough place to play.”

As for Massac County, the question marks are there on the defensive end as they failed to do much to keep West Frankfort from having their way on Friday night.

The Patriots fell to 8-7 overall and 1-3 in the SIRR Ohio Division race.

Coach Joe Hosman saw his team play hard as they usually do, but the results weren't there as they didn't stop West Frankfort for most of the evening.

“We just turn the ball over and we are not making shots when we need to make shots. We miss open shots and then we start trying to do things we aren't capable of doing,” said Coach Hosman. “Defensively we are really struggling guarding the ball. Our rotations are about a step behind.”

Giving up the lead in the second quarter the Patriots never rallied.

The numbers for the hosts weren't good on this night, hitting just 22-of-55 (40 percent) and they were just 4-of-12 from beyond the arc.

The Red Birds got contributions on the inside by 6-foot-4 Christian Dunning who ended up leading all scorers with 23-points.

He was 8-of-13 from the floor and hit 6-of-8 free throws for West Frankfort.

Six-foot-six forward Hunter Johnson added 21-point to the totals by hitting 8-of-10 from the floor and was 4-of-4 from the foul line.

Both of those standouts missed most of the Sparta game due to injury and sickness last Saturday, a 57-47 loss last Saturday on the road.

Toss in two more double-figure scorers for the Birds with Garrett Karoski and Braxton Koelhl adding 14 and 13 as everyone wearing Red and Gray on Friday night shot the ball well.

Massac County was led by Marky Marlatt, a 6-foot senior guard, with 16-points while 6-foot-1 senior Jalen Roundtree tossed in 13.

But perhaps the biggest difference in the contest was that Massac County had issues on both ends of the floor, committing turnovers (12) and allowing easy looks at the basket by West Frankfort.

At least it was that way in the second half as Massac hung close to the Red Birds until a big push in the second half gave West Frankfort the win and sole possession of the Ohio Division lead.

Massac, after falling behind early, came back to take an 18-17 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Using baskets by Marlatt and Roundtree, the Patriots overcame a 9-3 deficit with an 11-0 run.

The Patriots got its transition game going with Roundtree and junior forward Jay Benard scoring on drives to the basket.

Two free throws by JT Webber and a 3-point bomb by Marlatt gave the club a 14-9 lead with 2:34 left.

West Frankfort, behind Dunning and Karoski, reclaimed the lead.

However a back door cut to the basket by Benard on a pass from Marlatt closed the quarter with the Pats on top.

“We know they like to overplay so we got some back door cuts, we just carried out what we wanted to do, what we worked all week in practice on,” said Coach DeWerff. “Low and behold, they listened and it worked. Its a win and we will take it.”

In the second quarter, the good offensive play by the Patriots suddenly turned sour.

Massac County, during a two minute stretch, committed three turnovers and missed two shots.

In that run of bad luck, West Frankfort went on its first run of the night to take back the lead for the rest of the game.

Scoring nine-consecutive points, the Red Birds turned a one-point deficit into a surplus.

Karoski scored two of the baskets in the run, including a 3-pointer from the left wing.

He gave out an assist to Dunning on a fast break score off of one of the Massac miscues for a 28-20 lead with 4:47 to go.

Massac put together a brief rally but the Red Birds answered quickly with a rebound bucket by Johnson and another 3-pointer from Karoski for a 35-28 lead at intermission.

The Patriots were just 4-of-13 from the field in the quarter and trailed at the break.

West Frankfort played a solid third quarter, keeping the Patriots at a distance heading to the fourth.

Dunning did his best to keep the Pats at bay, scoring eight of his points in the third quarter.

He scored on back-to-back fast breaks and once on an inbounds play to give the Red Birds a 50-38 lead.

Massac held the fort for a few more minutes, getting a score from senior Dylan Stoner and a long 3-pointer from Marlatt as he was falling back from the left corner to beat the buzzer.

His bucket cut the West Frankfort lead to just 57-49 heading to the final quarter.

Nine straight points from the visitors removed most of the doubt in this game to open the fourth quarter by West Frankfort.

Johnson and Dunning had their way inside and Koehl scored on a baseline drive.

3-of-4 foul shots by Koehl and Johnson pushed the advantage to 64-49 with just 4:23 remaining.

The Red Birds closed the scorebook and removed the drama by hitting 5-of-7 free throws.

Johnson put an exclamation point on the win with a conventional three-point play late.

West Frankfort ran out the last minute of play for the victory.

“We get something going (this season) and we get someone hurt. Things are just hitting us and we need a win. We just didn't guard them tonight. We knew what they were going to do and we just let them do it. We will keep working as a coaching staff and hopefully we will get out of this stretch,” added Coach Hosman.

Both teams resume action next week as both host their own mid-winter tournaments.

“That is something (taking care of the ball) that we have been working on this season. If you want to win on the road, you have to take care of the ball, you have to rebound and you have to defend and I think we did those things tonight,” added Coach DeWerff.