January 29, 2000

Confusion runs rampant at North Baltimore

By Dave Feltner
Sports Editor

NORTH BALTIMORE &emdash; Confusion ran rampant at North Baltimore High School Friday night.

Tigers' coach Tim Jackson openly admitted he had trouble at times dissecting the Calvert defense.

And Senecas' coach Tony Mass was wondering just what it was the North Baltimore offense was trying to accomplish.

As turned out Mass was just happy to walk away with a 66-46 victory, one that kept his No. 3 Senecas unbeaten overall (13-0) and in the Midland Athletic League (6-0).

"It seemed like (North Baltimore) didn't want to play," Mass said. "Maybe they were trying to put us asleep in the first half. I don't think we did; we just didn't shoot the ball well. They laid in the paint and said 'You must shoot it outside to beat us.' When we did get it inside they were real physical in there.

"We change defenses on the run, and I think (Tiger point guard Troy) Perez was confused," he said. "I'm not sure if they weren't sure what they wanted to do, but next time down we'd go to something different and I think that really gave them some trouble."

Jackson conceded the point.

"It has a lot to do with experience," the North Baltimore coach said. "Look at how many of those kids from Calvert played last year. And Troy, he started the year on the JVs. He's had some trouble reading the different kinds of presses teams throw at him. He doesn't recognize whether it's an odd or even front. If you tell him what it is, he'll go right through it, but he's still learning how to recognize for himself.

"Heck, Calvert runs so many different defenses at you, there were times I wasn't exactly sure what they were in."

The Tiger game plan was simple in design, yet difficult in execution. Jackson wanted to slow the game to a snail's pace, rendering Calvert's weapons useless.

What he found, however, was that hobbling the Senecas' offense can be akin to roping a wild bull.

"We knew there was no way we could run with them," Jackson said. "And we couldn't go man-to-man with them because we don't have the size. So our coaches drew up a game plan, and we used the game between Toledo Macomber and St. Francis 10 years ago when St. Francis held the ball and won 14-12. I told our kids that if we could come out of here with a 10-8 victory, we'd go down in the history books."

Calvert spoiled those plans in the second quarter with an 18-5 push that blew the game open.

North Baltimore got a bucket from Nate Rice (21 points, nine rebounds) to start the second, but the Tigers didn't score again until the 1:38 mark.

In between, Calvert rattled off 15 unanswered points, highlighted by a Bart Fisher 3-pointer and a pair of transition jumpers from Joe Harvey (22 points). When the run was complete Calvert had a 31-10 lead and took a 34-13 advantage into halftime.

The lead got as big as 23 (40-17), but never as close as 12 in the second half.

The Tigers' slow-down tactics managed to hold Calvert to 39 percent shooting (24 of 62) from the field, and the 66 points were 14 fewer than the Senecas' average.

North Baltimore was an efficient 54 percent (19 of 35) from the field, but committed 32 turnovers, including 22 in the first half.

"We ran some things better on offense in the second half, but the big thing was that we played defense," Mass said. "They weren't really in attack mode, but we didn't let them have the easy stuff. I really like the job we did on Rice. He had a three down he stretch, but he was not a factor in the game.

"Dustyn (Risner) did a nice job on him," he said. "We weren't going to double him. We wanted to play him in our regular defense. Dustyn got a little backside help, but he really did a nice job on him."

Rice came in averaging 15 points and 14 rebounds per game, but totaled just six points in the first half.

Risner matched Rice with nine boards, while scoring 13 points. Tim Brodman had 12 points for the Senecas.