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For the first half of the Dupo 8th Grade Basketball Tigers game against the Eagles of Brussels, Illinois it seemed that the Tigers were on their way to their third win of the season and a 3-1 record. But the Eagles had a different plan in mind and outscored the Tigers 29-7 in the second half to win the game 41-28. Dupo Tigers Coach Kraig Roth said, “Based on the way we performed in the first half, this is a game we could have won. Obviously we came out very flat in the second half and it cost us the game.”
The Tigers came into the game off of a solid win against the Chester Jr High Yellowjackets earlier in the week and were getting back one of their injured starters, Willie Kidd, who had missed most of their second game and all of their third game nursing an ankle injury. At the same time though the Tigers lost their starting point guard, Brett Aldridge, for the season due to a broken collarbone suffered while playing football. With Kidd back and Aldridge out 8th Grade Tigers Coach Kraig Roth had to shuffle his lineup like he has had to do for most of the early season. Coach Roth said, “Losing a kid like Brett is tough. Everything we do down low with our big players starts up top with our guards. But it’s still early and guys like Corey Biggs and Deandre Brown will have to step up and fill the gap.”
The first quarter was competitive as each team exchanged points but the Tigers began to pull away a bit coming up with some turnovers and defensive stops against the Eagles. The Tigers led the Eagles 12-6 at the end of the first quarter. The Eagles came back strong early in the second quarter coming to within two points of the Tigers twice, but the Tigers came through with a run late in the second quarter and a late three pointer by Deandre Brown gave the Tigers a 21-12 lead at the half.
With the momentum clearly in their favor what happened in the second half was disappointing for Tiger fans. The Tigers came out flat, lacking emotion or intensity as the Brussels Eagles best player took over in the third quarter. #32 Kevin Schulte took over for the Eagles scoring 21 of his game high 27 points in the second half. He scored all 16 of the Eagles’ points in the third quarter as they outscored the Tigers 16-2 in the third quarter to take the lead 28-23. Coach Roth said, “We had to resort to slowing the game down. He was hitting his free throws and that really helped them to pull away.”
The Tigers were only down five going into the fourth quarter and still had a chance. But as the Tigers’ defense keyed on Schulte, holding him to just five points in the fourth quarter, other Eagles players got in on the scoring. In addition the Tigers did not help themselves getting into foul trouble, committing mental errors, poor shooting and just overall lackluster play as the Brussels Eagles went on to win 41-28. Coach Roth said, “Our boys played hard but not with the usual intensity that I’m used to seeing. I don’t know if it was because it was a Saturday afternoon game or what. Their players seemed to want it a little more than we did. Especially in the second half and that’s when you win ballgames.”
The Tigers were led in scoring again by forward Tyler Barnes who had 15 points and was 3 of 5 at the free throw line. He was followed by guard Deandre Brown who had 9 points including one three pointer. The return of the Tigers’ forward Willie Kidd was disappointing as he scored just 4 points, all of them in the first quarter. No other Tiger players were in the scoring column and I asked Coach Roth his thoughts on that. He responded, “We need to find scoring in different avenues. When we had to sit Tyler today because he was in foul trouble we were struggling for awhile. We talked about it after the game and realized the only way to correct some of the errors we saw today is to go back to the drawing board at practice on Monday.”
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