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The Dupo Tiger Varsity Boys Basketball team returned to the friendly confines of DCHS Gymnasium on Friday night to take on the Brussells Raiders. And boy was it good to be home. After opening the season with three straight losses at the Metro East Lutheran High Thanksgiving Tournament the Tigers came home to their den and beat Brussells 47-42 to win their home opener. The Tigers have now won two in a row and their record is 2-3.
The Tigers had three players in double figures to lead their balanced attack. Matt Ragsdale had 12 points for the game, Kaleb Anderson had 11 points for the game and Kevin Steinhauer had 10 points for the game. Caleb Tatum had 8 points for the game and was a significant force rebounding for the Tigers. The Tigers showed improved discipline on offense taking good care of the ball, attacking when the opportunities were there and exercising patience when they needed to. Dupo Tiger Head Coach Matt Carpenter said, “We talked about that all week. I told Kevin and I told Matt we need to handle the ball well and cut down on our turnovers. When we get into our half court offense we need to cut the fancy stuff out and play ball. We did that tonight, we got rid of the little pop passes and loop passes over the top and made some good strong passes, took care of the ball and scored when we needed to.”
The Tigers knew going in what their challenge would be against the Raiders. The Raiders are led by their standout center, the 6’8” Ethan Sievers. And Sievers proved to be all they could handle for three quarters. But the Tigers played good defense and it kept them in the contest. They were even with the Raiders for three quarters. 10-10 at the end of the first quarter, 22-22 at halftime and 32-32 after the third quarter. Coach Carpenter said, “We got down and fought back all night long but in the 4th quarter we figured out who was scoring all their points and decided to play the defense we talked about all night. We shut him down.” Sievers scored 15 of Brussells 22 points in the first half and 8 of their 10 points in the third quarter. But that ended in the fourth quarter.
The Tigers dialed up the defensive pressure in the fourth quarter and Sievers was the focus of their attention. The Tiger defense held Sievers to just 4 pts in the 4th qtr. The Tiger defense doubled up on Sievers no matter where he was on the floor, limiting his touches and forcing the remaining Brussells players to shoot. The strategy worked for the Tigers as the Raiders had great difficulty working the ball inside for good shots and couldn’t find the mark outside. Coach Carpenter said, “I told them all night long we weren’t worried about their outside shooters, they only hit one 3 pointer early in the game. When we got into the 4th quarter there was only one guy we were worried about and that was Sievers. If we shut him down we win the game.”
Sievers went to the free throw line just twice the entire game and that was in the first quarter. The Tigers put the game on the shoulders of Sievers’ teammates and they couldn’t get it done. Meanwhile the Tigers were doing a good job offensively and opened up enough of a lead late in the game to force the Raiders into fouling them. The Tigers converted all but one free throw down the stretch and went on to win 47-42.
The Tigers begin their conference schedule this week traveling to Marissa to take on the Meteors Tuesday, December 8th and returning home on Friday, December 11th to host the visiting Lebanon Greyhounds.
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