Saturday, January 22, 1999

Calvert dominates Seneca East to go 11-0

By John Montgomery
Sports Writer

Seneca East coach Doug Mason knew going into Friday's Midland Athletic League game with Calvert the Senecas would be a tough opposition.

Not only was Calvert unbeaten in the MAL, it was 10-0 overall, ranked third in Division IV and topped the league's offense chart with 79.4 points a game while giving up 62.6.

Add in a very cozy gym and a large, boisterous crowd and you could bet the game would be anything but easy for Seneca East.

And it wasn't.

Calvert jumped on top of Seneca East early, got more rebounds, forced more turnovers and simply dominated the Tigers all night long to run off to an 86-66 victory.

"They know where to get you," Mason said, referring to Calvert's small gym. "I thought Calvert did a good job of exploiting some of our weaknesses, and that's what good teams do.

"We didn't play very good help-side defense in our man or zone, and they exploited that with some alley-oops and some flashes to the ball," he said. "We didn't box out very well. They exploited some of our weaknesses."

And the Senecas used a lot of weapons to do it.

Joe Harvey, the MAL's leading scorer, tossed in 10 of his 17 points in the first quarter to help the Senecas jump out 26-12.

And Calvert was just getting started.

Dustyn Risner slammed home a pair of dunks in the third quarter on his way to a game-high 23 on the night.

Kevin Lucius finished with 18 points, Tim Brodman scored 12 and Nate Keller added nine.

Lucius also added eight rebounds and two blocks, Keller tallied six boards, eight assists and four steals, Brickner had six rebounds and two blocks, Brodman finished with five assists and Risner snared three steals.

The Senecas out-rebounded the Tigers 36-26 and forced 21 turnovers while committing only 14 of their own.

Meanwhile, three Seneca East players scored in double digits, with Rodney Martin ending with 15 points and Jason Burkholder and Mike Breyman each netting 12.

It all added up to a great team effort, according to Calvert coach Tony Mass.

"The balance was good," Mass said after watching his team move to 11-0 overall and 5-0 in the MAL. "We've been doing that all season. We've been getting contributions all up and down the roster and tonight was no different.

"I just thought we distributed the ball very, very well tonight. Guys picked up the open man, Dustyn worked himself free underneath a number of times," he said. "He does a great job down low, but our guys did a great job of getting him the basketball, too. Our reads were really good tonight."

The key to the game came in the third quarter.

Calvert led 48-33 at halftime, but Seneca East looked to be starting a rally just two minutes into the third quarter when Breyman tossed in a foul shot to complete a 3-point play and cut the Senecas' advantage to 51-38.

But Calvert had other plans, outscoring Seneca East 15-4 over the next 2:13 to grab a 24-point lead and again take control.

The closest the Tigers (4-5 overall, 3-2 MAL) could get after that was a 16-point deficit with five minutes to play.

But the Senecas soon had the lead back up around 20 points, where it stayed the rest of the way.

Mass said it was a critical win for the Senecas because a loss would have created a three-way tie for first in the league between Calvert, Seneca East and New Riegel.

But that doesn't mean the Senecas will take a break any time soon, he added.

"To win against Seneca East, who came in 3 and 1 in the MAL, is a big win," he said. "But there's still a ways to go. It's no time to sit back and rest and think about how well you're doing.

"We need to work and get better as we go down the stretch. There were some things we saw tonight that we need to work on," Mass said.