T-Wolves dominate Eagles

ST. JOHN – A Dec. 16 game between the Tekoa-Rosalia Timberwolves and the St. John-Endicott/LaCrosse Eagles saw the Timberwolves come out the winners of a game that saw 159 total points between the two squads.

Tekoa-Rosalia once again came out winners between the two teams, beating the St. John-Endicott/LaCrosse Eagles 83-36 on Jan. 27.

The first half of the opening quarter was a back-and-forth affair. After Matthew DeFord scored to give the Eagles a 13-11 lead with 4:23 left in the first quarter, Jadin Campbell made a free throw to complete a 3-point play to give the Timberwolves a 14-13 lead.

Tekoa-Rosalia never gave up the lead from that point forward, ending the first quarter with a 25-18 lead. The Eagles allowed a 22-3 run to the Timberwolves in the second quarter to go into halftime trailing 47-21.

Tekoa-Rosalia only continued to bolster its lead in the third and fourth quarters, outscoring St. John-Endicott/LaCrosse 21-11 in the third and 15-4 in the fourth enroute to the 47-point decision.

"Tonight was not our night," St. John-Endicott/LaCrosse head coach Mike Stubbs said. "As a coach, you hope you don't have any of these nights. But if you do this long enough, you're going to have one of these nights. You hope there's only one. Credit to the Timberwolves. They played really well."

Tekoa-Rosalia head coach Mike Bone said his team came into the game with defensive goals to try and prevent another high-scoring game from the Eagles.

"For us, defensively, we set some goals," Bone said. "And we just wanted to focus on not letting them have open looks and just really focus on the defensive end and it worked out."

The Timberwolves, in part, came out with the win on Dec. 16 due to the outside shooting of the team. On Jan. 27, attacking the interior defense of St. John-Endicott/LaCrosse to try and draw fouls and pull defensive attention to inside the perimeter.

"For me, for my team, if they shoot a couple and they go in, I want them to keep shooting," Bone said. "But if they struggle shooting, like we did early in this game, I get irritated if they keep shooting them. So I tell them to keep driving and usually the refs give you some calls if you drive in, get the other team in foul trouble. Especially since we have this small rotation. So yeah, that was something we wanted to do. We wanted to get out and run quite a bit and get into the rim."

Another contributing factor for the Timberwolves was the return to the lineup of Riley Gehring, who was recently released from the hospital and who Bone and Stubbs said provided a motivation for the Timberwolves for the game.

Jadin Campbell led Tekoa-Rosalia with 28 points, while Isaac Bone added 24. Gehring had seven points in his first game back.

For St. John, Matthew DeFord led the team with seven total points.

Tekoa-Rosalia played against Pomeroy on Jan. 28, winning 73-65 in overtime.

TEKOA-Rosalia (13-4, 7-3)

Morgun Martin 4 0-0 10, Westley Bryan 0 0-0 0, Brian Place 0 0-0 0, Joey Murray 0 0-0 0, Jadin Campbell 11 3-3 28, Braxton French 2 0-0 4, Isaac Bone 9 3-4 24, Gabe Morgan 4 2-2 10, Riley Gehring 3 0-0 7. Totals 33 8-9 83.

ST. JOHN-ENDICOTT/LACROSSE (6-8, 5-7)

Birch Brown 0 0-0 0, Bear Brewer 1 1-2 4, Brennen Gonzalez 2 1-2 6, Tanner Fleming 2 0-0 5, Pedro Molina 1 0-0 3, Rory Maloney 2 1-1 5, Matthew DeFord 3 1-2 7, Jacob Swannack 1 0-0 2, Landen Miller 2 0-0 4. Totals 14 4-7 36.

3-point goals – Bone 3, Campbell 3, Martin 2, Gehring, Brewer, Gonzalez, Fleming, Molina.