|
Saturday, February 20, 2010
The Dupo Tigers finished their regular season Friday night losing to the Affton Cougars 93-77. It was a disappointing loss for the Tigers who had been playing better as of late winning two of their last four games and hoping to garner another win as they head into the Regionals next week.
The story was a familiar one for the Tigers. Sloppy ball handling, weak defense and poor rebounding was the Tigers calling card as the Cougars took an early lead and built upon it. The Cougars started the game with a 16-0 run before the Tigers finally scored and went ahead 22-4 with 3:20 still left in the first quarter. The Tigers finally slowed down the Cougars scoring matching them with 7 points each for the remainder of the quarter as Affton held a commanding 29-11 lead after the first quarter. Dupo Tigers Coach Matt Carpenter said, “Affton came out ready to play, it was their senior night and I told the boys that they would be up and that we would have to match their intensity. We just weren’t there mentally to do it.”
The Tigers made a bit of a run in the second quarter. Caleb Tatum made his presence known in the second quarter, stepping up with another solid performance for the Tigers scoring inside and outside, often picking up double teams by the Cougars. The Tigers kept chipping away at the Cougars lead outscoring Affton 26-17 in the second quarter to cut the halftime deficit to nine points, 46-37.
The Tigers kept it close for the first few minutes of the third quarter taking a time out with 5:53 left in the third quarter down 53-43. But just when it seemed that Dupo was making their way back into the game, after the timeout the mistakes and turnovers returned. Coach Carpenter said, “We played our butts off in the second quarter, we played well. But in the third quarter we just came out flat. We went from being in a 9 point game to a 20 point deficit in a very short period of time.” Affton came out with a full court press and it produced results forcing Dupo turnovers and converting them into Affton points. Dupo Tigers Varsity basketball coach Matt Carpenter got so frustrated with his starters, with 3:50 left in the third quarter and the score 63-43 he pulled all of his starters off the floor and replaced them with 2 juniors and 3 freshmen. Affton continued with their starters and continued to use the full court press. The young Tigers gave an admirable effort as they finished the third quarter for Dupo. While they didn’t gain much ground against the Cougars, they didn’t lose much either. The Affton starters outscored the young Tigers 14-10 to finish the third quarter and lead 77-53. But the young Tigers reduced the turnovers and actually created some of their own with an impressive effort and great hustle. Coach Carpenter said, “Our JV guys played well, they go hard. We know they’re going to make mistakes but half of them are freshmen. Hopefully they’ve learned from their experience this year and will gain something from it next year.”
Coach Carpenter went back to his starters in the fourth quarter but it made little difference as Affton cruised to victory. While the Tigers outscored the Cougars in the fourth quarter 24-16, it came largely against Affton substitutes and was really too little, too late.
The Tigers were led once again by senior forward Caleb Tatum who has been the Tigers most consistent performer throughout the season. Tatum was 10 of 19 from the field and 3 of 5 from the free throw line for 26 points on the night. He was followed in scoring by senior Kaleb Anderson who scored 19 points on the night but 11 of those points came late in the fourth quarter.
|
